Creating Family Traditions

When I was a little girl, for our Easter dessert, my family would bake a pistachio cake covered with whipped cream frosting. Then we would have our annual Easter egg hunt in the basement. We always celebrated with my father's side of the family and it was a day my brother, cousins and I truly enjoyed. I have many fond memories of those Easter traditions.

Family traditions are what help bring families together and create special family bonds. Many times we focus on the big holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter, but we forget to create special celebrations for each month of the year. By having special occasions each month, you create opportunities for your family to be together, draw closer to each other and share the same memories. These special days do not need to be elaborate or costly, but it does take a commitment to carry through with the plan. For this reason, I created a Family Planner to help me keep track of the special traditions and events that I want to celebrate with my family this year. You can easily create a planner of your own with just a few supplies.

Supplies:

• 3-ring binder
• 12 page dividers
• Page protectors (optional)
• 3-hole punch
• Patterned paper and embellishments (optional)
• Family Traditions planning sheet

I found a 3-ring binder and decorated the cover. Next, I went through the calendar and decided which special days my family would celebrate. I included traditional holidays and birthdays, and mixed in some silly holidays. Then I printed out a Family Traditions planning sheet for each event and put it in a page protector. Finally, I included any additional items such as special recipes or craft project instructions in page protectors for that month so that everything would be in one place.

Creating Family Traditions:

All families have their own traditions. Some are obvious and others are subtle. Some traditions are yearly such as how you celebrate Christmas and birthdays, and some are daily such as how your family goes about its day (dinner time and bedtime routines are some examples). Traditions are something that your family looks forward to year after year or day after day. And yes, sometimes traditions can be retired and new traditions started! Don't be bound to what you have always done if it isn't working anymore for your family. Some traditions that I do with my children now while they are young would be silly if I did them when they got to be teenagers.

Here are some fun holidays you can celebrate with your family:

January:

• 19 Popcorn Day

February

• 8 International Pancake Day

March

• 14 Children's Craft Day
• 17 Absolutely Incredible Kid Day
• 26 Make Up Your Own Holiday

April

• 10 National Siblings Day

May

• 1 Mother Goose day
• 22 Neighbor Day

June

• 15 Fly a Kite Day
• 25 LEON Day - LEON is NOEL spelled backwards. It is now six months until Christmas

July

• 17 National Ice Cream Day

August

• 2 National Night Out

September

• 17 Eat an Apple Day

October

• 1 Pumpkin Day
• 31 National Knock-Knock Jokes Day

November

• 3 Sandwich Day
• 7 Gingerbread House Day

December

• 25 Christmas

If you're really feeling fun, when the date and the month numbers are the same, have a special celebration (January 1, Feb. 2, March 3, April 4, etc.). You might make that date a special game night, movie night, craft night, pizza night or whatever you can dream up!

So get out your calendar, pen and Family Traditions planner and start saving the dates for some special family celebrations this year.

Holiday links

2006 Holidays

Special Days to Celebrate

Holidays and Observances

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