Tis the season for... Family Traditions!
pinkpigeon
member
So Halloween has passed and now we're nearing Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza, and the New Year. This time of year (and especially now that I have my own little family) has got me thinking about family traditions. I have always loved my family time and the few traditions we've practiced throughout the years, so now I can't wait to start making memories with my DD. She may not remember this first year of traditions but I've taken enough pictures/videos to keep the memories alive.
So, what are your family traditions? What traditions have you heard about and that you want to implement?
Here are mine:
-pumpkin carving at halloween, of course
-baking cookies on Christmas eve for Santa
-making tamales sometime in Nov. with the hispanic side of my family
-decorating the tree
-birthday morning balloon surprise (fill the room with balloons at night so when LO wakes up they are surprised with a room full of balloons)
-birthday dinner, favorite dish
-new years fondue
-thanksgiving rolls (everyone to write what they are thankful for on a small peice of paper, and roll it up in a dinner roll. during dinner you open your roll and try to guess who wrote which thanks)
okay so the list is pretty long. 
as our family grows i hope we get more and more into these events, and we don't lose ourself in the hussle and bustle of every day life. i may be daydreaming here but its so important to my DH and i to develop a strong family circle and i guess as we near the holidays i am becoming more and more excited about the future of our family.
thanks for letting me get all dreamy on yall!
Re: Tis the season for... Family Traditions!
My family dynamic has changed a lot this year so its time to start new.
I want to get a picture of Alex with Santa every year.
Christmas morning, Alex's dad, Alex, and myself will get together for christmas gifts. While he may not be my husband for much longer, we are still a family like it or not.
Trick or treating each year.
Decorating the tree every year
There are a couple from each of our families that I want to incorporate --
From my side:
-Pick a Christmas ornament to make each year (each person makes their variation of the same one) until we have a tree full of homemade ornaments. This one has been really special because they usually turn out hilariously different!
-Go to Mass on Christmas Eve and then scramble to change into pajamas before opening gifts.
From DH's side:
-Go to Grandparents' house on Christmas Day to see extended family
-Make sugar cookies on Christmas Eve to set out for Santa
The ones we have are:
Halloween:
We each get a pumpkin and carve it and sit it on the front porch
Always take picture with the pumpkins
Thanksgiving:
We get up and watch the Macy's day parade on TV
Spend as much time with family as poosible
My mom and I go to black Friday every year
Christmas:
Put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving
Decorate the tree together while listening to Christmas music
One I want to start this year since DD#1 is older is make Christmas cookies
For the kiddos first Christmas we will make a plate for Santa with their hand print on it and a little letter written on the plate.
Birthdays :
They will get to eat their favorite meal
Get to pick out the cake that they want and it will me homemade. No store bought ones.
I know there are more but this is all I can think of off the top of my head
I'm sorry to hear about your marriage but I'm happy to hear that you and your LO's father are dedicated to trying to maintain some happy moments together with your babe. I wish you the best of luck!
Making a Christmas ornament sounds fun! It would be so neat to look back at those later in life. Very creative!
Black Friday shopping has been a mother-daughter ritual for us too. I've started my Christmas shopping early and due to a tight budget I may not be able to do it for a few years.
Maybe when DD is older we're resurect that one for us again.
And I second the homemade cake one!
Yes DH's family always does store bought and I told DH no offense but I want to have homemade cakes!
I'm with you on the homemade cakes! DH's family does that too - except not for me... for some reason no one has ever gotten me a cake, which is weird b/c we live 10 miles from them and 700 miles from my family. Anywhoooo maybe I'm a little bitter about that, but that's neither here nor there.
And naturally, now I want some cake.
oh and i forgot one:
movie and ______ night. for my family it was movie and pizza night but for DH it was movie and Subway sandwich night. i'd like to continue the tradition with either food option. healthy subway sandwiches or creative homemade pizzas.
and of course always on a friday night.
naturally...
and so do i...
I love the balloon idea! We do many of these already but it's always awesome to hear new ideas from other people.
I am doing my best to make an ornament for each of my children every year that reflects some new milestone they reached...or their current love. e.g. Last year my oldest went to his first baseball game and LOVED it...so his ornament was a baseball. My second born fell in love with hot air balloons after his first balloon glow, so we found a cool air balloon for him. Sometimes I get to make them...and sometimes I don't, but it's fun to look back on their little lives as we decorate our tree!
These are all awesome ideas. I'm a single mom and I don't have a family with very strong traditions, so I feel it's even more important to me to create and start some for my "mini" family!
Halloween:
pumpkin carving and we bake the pumpkin seeds.. soo yummy
taking a pic each yr with the carved pumpkins is a great idea!
Thanksgiving:
This isn't really baby oriented, but I heard some had a tradition of everyone writing down something they're thankful for that year and everyone folds them and puts in the middle of the table. Everyone picks out a paper and guesses who's thankful paper they got... kind of a neat way to share!
Christmas:
a new set of pjs to open on xmas eve and wear that night (I already got Peyton's for this xmas!)
cookies set out for Santa on xmas eve
I LOVE the making a plate for Santa this first Christmas, but how would I go about doing that with hand prints or what?
tree decorating and xmas music (we ALWAYS get a real tree!)
We will see her dad's side of the family on xmas eve (they are hispanic and celebrate then) even though dad is not around!
Maybe next yr, my daughter will be 1 1/2yrs old and I want to implement the true spirit of giving. She will have to choose 2 toys to give away to other children as her xmas gifts to children less fortunate.
We also participate in the "giving tree" at our church where you choose a child from the giving tree and get them a gift off their wish list.
Birthdays:
I loved someone's idea to write a letter to LO each year about milestones and things that have happened to give to her when she's older.
I also have a detailed baby book I'm keeping and has her dad's info (family tree and stuff) and will eventually be a bday gift when she's old enough to understand) **Her dad is not around, never seen her, nor does he care to... but I want her to know where she came from and will never lie to her.. and his family is loving, supportive, and involved**
I'm sooo excited for all the holiday festivities to start!
For Thanksgiving we will be going to my MIL house. We did that last year as well. We will be there with MIL, her husband, and his kids.
Christmas will be much different for us this year. My family has had Christmas at our house for as long as I can remember. My parents wanted to do it that way so they could see both sides on Christmas day. My dad is in the process of selling that house right now, though. So he will not be hosting Christmas. Because of this, I am not sure if MIL will be coming on Christmas Day. I am sure she will be invited, but not sure if she will want to come (she came to my parents' house but has never been overly comfortable with my large extended family). If she doesn't come, we might have to see her on Christmas Eve. This will be different because we have been going to my grandmother's house, then church, then dinner, with some of my mom's siblings for years. I am not sure how this will all go over in the end.
I love all of the ideas on here.
Growing up my parents never had us carve pumpkins and we didn't really have a lot of our own family traditions. We almost went to my aunts house for Thanksgiving and Christmas and we participated in their traditions. Starting all new traditions with DH and LO is very important to me, I would have loved to have all of these traditions with my own family.
Halloween:
Pick pumpkins at a pumpkin patch and carve them and set them on our porch.
Take LO trick or treating. This year we had her dress up in her costume a the pumpkin patch and I had her dress up to give out candy with me on Halloween.
This year we didn't get to do this, but I want to bake cookies and cupcakes for Halloween to hand out at LO's daycare (future day care).
Thanksgiving:
We want to start a tradition of having Thanksgiving dinner at our place.
I want LO to learn how to bake early on so we can make pumpkin pies and all sorts of deserts for Thanksgiving.
I definitely love the ideas of writing a little note for what we are thankful for and guessing who's it is.
Christmas:
Going out and picking our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.
Decorating the tree while listen to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate and egg nog
I also want to get a new ornament each year representing something LO has achieved or something representing something that has happened in her life that year.
Have LO write Santa a Christmas list.
Bake and leave out cookies for Santa.
Since I am Mexican and we usually open up gifts at midnight on Christmas day instead of the next morning, DH and I settled on opening one gift at midnight (DH is white).
Also I want to make sure LO has a full stocking every year.
I also want to start making tamales, like my mom use to, sometime right before Christmas as well as learn how to make champurado mmmmmmm so good.
Other things I think would be really fun, but might be stretching trying to fit everything in is, going ice skating, going up to the mountains and making a snowman.