Any special things you grew up with or do with your children. I’m open to holidays and just because. As an example a friend of mine has three kids which are all in school and they each get one day off of school every three months (1 kid a month)to do whatever they want with just mom all day. Thank you in advance for sharing what makes traditions special in your home that I may share and bring into mine.
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Good for you!
My wife (and mother-in-law) say “A special day isn’t special, unless you make it special”.
Here are some of ours:
– Last year, we started cooking steaks over our fire (in the fireplace), on Christmas eve. (use cast iron).
– My family always drove around looking at lights on Christmas eve
– we (me, wife, in-laws), to apple picking in the fall (then bake apple treats all winter)
– My side of the family has dinner & a small ‘celebration’ at each person’s birthday (including parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin & family from out-of-town).
OK, so I can’t think of many right now. I’ve only been married 2 1/2 years, and our first child is due in August – not much material to work with, yet.
We have some cool traditions around some holidays… for Easter, in addition to coloring eggs, we have an egg-cracking contest, where each family member chooses an egg and then cups it in their fist, then we smash them into each other… usually only one egg cracks, so you keep going until there’s only one uncracked end left… the winner!
At Thanksgiving, we order our turkey from a nearby turkey farm and I bring my son with me to pick it up. The first year the turkey was bigger than he was (!), the second year he doesn’t remember, the year he was two he tasted some of the farm’s sample sausage, the third year he helped carry the bag with the turkey in it, this year he was THRILLED to discover that he could carry it by himself for a few seconds, and he’s already talking about being able to carry it for even longer next year.
The lullabye idea is a great one… we have a TON of songs that we sing at bedtime, and now that he’s four he can ask for specific ones. We don’t sing Christmas songs until Dec. 1, and that’s an exciting turning point.
We have a car trip tradition, too, which has been a total life-saver. Before a long trip, I secretly record myself reading three or four of his current favorite books. When we all get tired of singing songs and telling stories, I pop in the tape and hand the books back to our little guy. Works like a charm.
Some of our traditions have to do with the kind of person we hope our son will be. We bring him with us every time we vote and talk with him about that. We want him to think of himself as a future voter as early as possible!
After the first real snowstorm of the year, we have a snowball fight… before breakfast!
Just keep your eyes open… you’ll do cool stuff and then suddenly realize that you could make it a tradition, and that will be that!
In the meantime, get some sleep! 🙂 That “sleep when the baby sleeps” advice is some of the best I’ve ever gotten.
Find one or two “classic” songs to sing to him as lullabyes — especially if you can interact with him during the song.
For example, suppose you picked the song that goes … “Yes sir, that’s my baby. No sir, I don’t mean maybe …” and you got you encouraged your son to sing the “yes sir” and “no sir” part while you sang the rest.
This song will be around for forever. When your son is 60 and he hears the song, he’ll still remember when you guys sang it together when he was 2 (and 3 and 4 and 5 ….). Best to pick a classic song that has withstood the test of time so that he’ll hear it for life. Don’t pick any new songs.
One more thing — when he’s a little older, wake him up past his bedtime to go to a clearing and watch a meteor shower with him. Then let him take off the next day of school to sleep in. Keep track of any astronomical events that can be experienced in the “forbidden” night time hours. It’s educational — so the missing school is totally justified.
Enjoy your baby!
My dad and I bougtht ornaments each Christmas. Each year when we bought a new one, we would hang it up. That is my tradition.
Source(s): me