Family Traditions
I come from a small family. We didn’t have many family traditions growing up – especially around the holidays. Well, that’s not entirely true. We had two traditions.
The first tradition, was on Christmas Eve my brother and I would lie in our room and basically tell each other what we were getting for Christmas. “I know what you’re getting” I’d whisper in the dark. “I know what you’re getting” he’d whisper back. “I’ll tell you one thing, if you tell me one thing” I’d say. And on it would go.
The second tradition was we were not allowed to leave our room on Christmas Day until there was daylight coming into the window and my mother had her first cup of coffee.
That’s about it. We were not a tradition laden family. Not to say we were not close. We were a close family growing up and my relationship with my brother was as close as one could be considering he was five years younger than myself.
But now I have a family of my own and Andrea and I are trying to decide what traditions we would like to implement into our own household. Here’s what we have come up with so far…
1) Christmas Ornaments. Since we’ve been together, Andrea and I have given each other a special Christmas ornament that represents the previous year. In 2000, we gave each other ornaments that commemorated our wedding. In 2004 we gave each other ornaments that represented our moving into our new home. This year, no doubt, we’ll find ornaments that somehow represent the birth of TheMonk and Swee’Pea. Our goal is that someday, every ornament on the tree will be filled with memories that we gave to each other. This year we will start by giving TheMonk and Swee’Pea an ornament. I’ll choose TheMonk’s this year and Andrea will choose Bri’s. Next year, we’ll switch. When they are adults, they’ll have 18+ years of special ornaments to take with them to their new families.
2) Family Night. As the babies grow up and we start to have sports practices, scout meetings, and other busy lives, we want to have one night a week where it’s about our family. I envision playing board games, baking cookies, going to a sporting event – anything that involves our family as a unit. I think it’s important for us to be together as a family.
I’m sure more will evolve through time and will become part of our family history. Hopefully we can choose traditions that can be passed along to our own children.
But one thing I’ve started to notice while reading many of the family blogs out there, is that so many others are doing wonderful things with their own families. So I began to wonder. What if I asked others out there to share their own family traditions? Wouldn’t it be great if we could learn about how families of different faiths and backgrounds have incorporated family traditions into their daily lives? So, I have asked some of my favorite bloggers to share with me their traditions that they embrace with their own families. These traditions don’t necessarily have to be about the holidays but I thought this would be a good time as we approach the holidays to learn what others are doing.
Now, in the coming weeks we’ll hear from people like Not-for-profit-dad, MetroDad, BIYF, Rude Cactus, Busy Mom, Morphing Into Mama, Mary P. and Baby Lauren’s Mom to name a few. I hope you’ll enjoy these as much as I do. As you read them, please use the comment section to chime in on your own traditions as well.
Happy Holiday season!
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I, too, come from a very small family, lacking in good traditions. But your note about staying in bed made me think of a funny holiday story that I will do my best to replicate at Casa T’pon.
For years, my parents did a fantastic job of concealing the actual DAY of christmas. I knew it was coming, but never knew the exact date… so, my parents were able to sleep in on the particular morning and wake me up at a reasonable hour and SURPRISE Santa had come!
Until someone bought me an advent calendar… that year, I was awake and opening gifts at 4:30 AM.
Now, I realize how much fun it would be to keep that kind of morning excitement… it is coming, you just don’t know when…
Comment by tpon — November 7, 2005 @ 8:42 am
You are such an overachiever. I love this idea, and hope I can come up with something good enough to grace the cover of your blog. I think I’m having a little performance anxiety.
Must breathe…s
P.S. We do the ornament thing too, and as a kid I already knew what I got for Christmas. I was a skilled open and close Christmas present peeker. My inablilty to hold out for Christmas presents is the same reason I cannot keep a secret to this day.
Comment by ieatcrayonz — November 7, 2005 @ 11:19 am
Looking forward to it!
Comment by Chris — November 7, 2005 @ 5:52 pm
here are a few “traditions” that i was raised with and now share with my children…
-saturdays are sacred in our home…this is our “family time”. it is dad, mom, son, and daughter.(exceptions…birthday parties, weddings…)
-first sunday of the month is “extended family” dinner. we always get together at my house same time, same menu!
-we have even made cleaning a “tradition”…all week long i do on-the-surface cleaning but come friday, EVERYONE pitches in to do the major cleaning.(we are usually done by 5:00, 5:30 and the rest of the weekend is OURS!)
holiday traditions:
-we get together the friday after thanksgiving and buy the “family trees” (one for the little ones and the main tree)then on the 1st saturday in december, we all get together to feast and trim the trees. the little ones love this because their tree is the one that gets displayed at the front window.
-christmas eve eve: bake all the sugary goodies to be eaten on christmas eve(our family celebrates christmas eve)
christmas eve: lots of family, friends, neighbors, food, fun and games
- 11:59pm christmas eve: “santa” begins to pass out the christmas gifts.
-new years day: everyone comes together to take down christmas trees (we make menudo, buneulos, and tamales for this occasion)
Comment by roxanne — November 7, 2005 @ 8:23 pm
My parents solved the Xmas present problem by only putting them under the tree on Christmas eve & hiding them at my grandparents house before then – I think it started the year I had just turned four & my big sister gleefully showed me where mummy hid the Santa presents – I was devestated:-)
I love the idea of a family day, but not sure if I could make it work in practise as the kids all get older. As a child we always had Sunday lunch together, but it was usually preceeded & followed by someone rushing off to something. We try to sit down to a family meal most nights, but it doesn’t always work.
However, we have a family hobby – something we all do together. In our case it’s re-enactment, but it could be anything (i always wanted it to be cycling).
Comment by Mrs Aginoth — November 8, 2005 @ 7:53 am
I think you’re well on your way to having fantastic family holidays for many years to come. It always amazes me that things that we’ve done, usually out of convenience, year after year, are now referred to as “traditions” by our kids. And if we try to alter them, they make a huge fuss. I kind of like that!
Comment by Karen — November 14, 2005 @ 12:34 pm
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