Let's talk about traditions.

HookEmNelson

What are some traditions that you want to experience with your kids? Whether they be some that you might pass on from your childhood or others that you might start up with your own family.

HookEmNelson

When I think about traditions, I try to remember the memories I really enjoyed as a kid.

As of right now, we have two amazing weekly traditions. Saturday mornings we wake up and all pitch in on a deep clean of the house - we turn the music up, light some smell good things, and we get down. On Sunday mornings we wake up and all cook a huge family breakfast. Weekends are my favorite, y'all.

Holidays, and other seasonal happenings, I give plenty attention to. I'm hoping to start some more in the coming years.

vampbride99

On Christmas morning...my dad would make pancakes....I LOVED that as a kid. I loved it so much so that I still go to my parents house on Christmas morning so he can make them lol. I would love to continue that tradition with my kids.  That would mean the world to me.

DH and I are soccer fans, and love to go to games. We love to see Mexico's national team and Club America (team where DH's family is from) play.  I'd love to get the whole family in Mexico or America's team gear and go to games and cheer and have fun!

Thinking of those things makes me so excited for a baby. I can't wait to make these traditions into reality.

gabpepsi

@HookEmNelson we also had a cleaning tradition when I was growing up! Can't say we do it every Saturday, but every 2-3 Saturdays! This is such a fun thought starter.

My favorite family traditions...

Well my dad used to wake us up on our birthdays by singing (very funny singing, not meant to be pleasing to the ears) and playing guitar. We also ate donuts, which I loved.

My extended family gets together for Christmas Eve which has always been special.

And we watch Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston on Easter every year. My husband and I have continued this tradition. I can't explain why or how it became a tradition, but it did and I've always loved it.

My husband's family also has some weird traditions (driving to other states for pizza for example ...) and while I'm excited to share these with my kids, I'm most excited to create new traditions with them!

mommytimesfour

Love the Saturday morning cleaning tradition @HookEmNelson plus I feel that's such a great thing to instill in your children starting at a young age! I may have to start that around here.

Growing up, on the morning of my birthday every year, my parents would decorate and have a cupcake or a donut plus a wrapped gift on the kitchen table for me to wake up to. It was always super exciting and so far I've done it for my 4 year old the last couple of years. I love to see the excitement on his face. Also, Christmas is a huge deal for me. I LOVE the holidays and I love being able to start my own holiday traditions with my own kids, especially as they get older and more into it. On Christmas Eve they get new pj's before bed to unwrap, and we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Last year my kids slept together in the same room, and I'd like to continue that every year so they can wake up together. We also bake Christmas cookies and listen to lots of corny Christmas music. I can't wait!!!

blackgirlmagic

I don't have kids yet but my husband told me that he wants us and our child to be off on their birthdays. He said that he wants us to spent one on one time with that child and make them feel special on their birthday. For Christmas Eve I want to give them a gift that has a new pj set for them along with a movie to watch and other little things. I saw it on pic and loved that idea.

Lysta85

The tradition my parents have was that every sunday morning we got dutch rusk with chocolat sprinkles. That was the only day in the week we where allowed to eat that. I still do that.

Celebrating carnival. I don't know if you have that tradition, but it's 3 days when everybody is wearing costumes and being who ever they like. There are big parades. In those there are a lot of groups making fun of daily stuff and politics so everybody (even kids) have a good laugh. There are also a kids parades, which are also fun to see what they came up with and made. And drinking, eating and having fun.

Also I want to teach my kids my dialect (which is from the area I live in). My bf is from a different area and doesn't speak it, but he does understand it. They are gonna have to learn dutch too (which we all have too), but being able to speak dialect is very important to me and is still the most common language in this area.

Here in the Netherlands there are only a few people who celebrate christmas with santa claus. The majority celebrates Sinterklaas (which is celebrated in more countries in Europe, all  in different variations) and is originally the source of santa claus. Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) is an old man who has a book that tells everything about you, and if you have been nice you get presents. If you haven't you get salt or coal (which nobody ever gets). To get them you have to put your shoes in the living room and sing a song. He has helpers called zwarte Piet (black pete) who go through chimneys every night from half november till december 5th to give little presents in (or under) your shoes. At december the 5th they hide a lot of presents usely somewhere in your house and throw candies everywhere. Every kids loves zwarte Piet, often more than Sinterklaas, because they are the ones who bring the presents and have candies. And the reason they are black is because they climb in and down the chimney all the time and after doing that for a couple of years they can't wash it off. A lot of children want to be zwarte Piet when they grow. Unfortunately there is a lot of discussion about it since a few years since people who weren't familiar with this tradition (and not even from the Netherlands/Belgium) think it's racist. Last year there where red Piet, white Piet, blue Piet etc. but that just looks weird. So it's a big question how long this children tradition will survive.

jenfarm3

I honestly can't even think of any traditions my family did off the top of my head. THAT right there is something that I want to change. I never used to be a sentimental person, but the older I'm getting and the more blessings I have in my life, I'm becoming a totally sentimental sap. With photos and little memory items (I buy magnets from every place I travel to and I try to buy at least one new Xmas tree ornament every year commemorating something special that happened that year such as our engagement, wedding, big vacation... soon child births, school years, etc. I'd love to have my kids get into these little traditions.)

I'd like to start Xmas eve and morning traditions, first day of school traditions, and other little things. This is one of the things I'm so excited about with having children. 

Blonde1817

Great question!  It's not exactly a tradition, but one thing from my childhood that I definitely want to carry over with my own kids is having a family dinner every night.  I think that is so important and looking back I really appreciate that my parents gave that to us.  

Overall, I am excited to start a lot of new traditions when we have children.  I always wished I had more growing up, and my husband an I love traditions... we always do the same thing on Valentine's Day every year (cook a nice dinner at home and watch the Princess Bride), and I look forward to it so much!  One tradition I really want to start is the whole family getting new PJs on Christmas Eve and wearing them to open presents.

Ahhh, you have me all excited now thinking about all of the possibilities : )  The wait just got even harder ...

HookEmNelson

@gabpepsi I feel like that is a legit reason to learn the guitar now. I love that!!

@JLmama118 I'm hoping the fun cleaning days are something he will remember. I don't know how long it will last, but it's nice to have him help. Also, I hope he remembers yard work, hah! I try to get the kid to help with that, but he is more happy finding a stick and jumping off the boulders in the backyard (can't blame the boy). So as long as he sees and remembers one day, hey I have a responsibility to take care of my house, I'm totally okay with that.

@raesmith9 I think the tradition you want to start is a great one. That would be an extremely special thing to remember for any kid.

@Lysta85 That is really interesting. I wish I could hear your dialect. I know there is some distance between the countries, but my assistant is from Finland and I always ask her to talk for me. I also ask questions about her grown college age kids regarding how much Finnish they know. Both understand well and the oldest can speak it with an accent.

MrsRo731

PP already mentioned this but when I was a kid my dad would read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas' to me every Christmas Eve. It was a really important tradition to me that I am also doing with DD. Every time I read that book I think of my dad!

Christmas Eve is DD's birthday so I'm all about making it a special day for her, aside from being Christmas. My sister started the birthday tradition with her DD of having ice cream for breakfast. I think that's a super cute way to make the day extra fun! 

gabpepsi

Great posts.

@Lysta85 I love learning about your traditions and experiences in the Netherlands vs. US. That is so fun and interesting. I want to be zwarte Piet now when I grow up if it means I get to put nice little presents in little shoes!

Hulabalu

Lysta85 said:

Unfortunately there is a lot of discussion about it since a few years since people who weren't familiar with this tradition (and not even from the Netherlands/Belgium) think it's racist. Last year there where red Piet, white Piet, blue Piet etc. but that just looks weird. So it's a big question how long this children tradition will survive.

That is such a shame, @Lysta85 ! I feel like almost everything can be viewed as racist if you just really want to... A kind of similar example where I'm from: In Norway it is common in a lot of kindergartens and preschools to have a Christmas party where they sing Christmas carols, walk around the Christmas tree and Santa comes with a (tiny) gift for everyone. They typically dress up like this, and the kids love it:

Recent years more and more Kindergartens have stopped doing this, because a lot of the kids don't celebrate Christmas. Their parents doesn't want them to participate in things that are a part of another religion then their own. I mean, come on! This type of celebration has nothing what so ever to do with Christianity! In my opinion it is just a fun tradition for the kids. 

*I realize this is really off topic, but I kinda got myself all worked up reading about zwarte Piet... 

KSMcClary

Around Christmas time, my grandpa would bake sugar cookies with me.  He would roll out all the dough and we would use about 100 different cookie cutters to make shapes and then decorate them.  He died 18 years ago so most of my cousins didn't get to experience this, at least not with him.  I have started collecting cookie cutters and can't wait to continue the tradition with my kids.  I still do them every year and most of the time I have a few of my cousins over to help.  

My in-laws watch "Christmas Vacation" every year after Thanksgiving dinner.  I saw it for the first time with them.  This is something that will happen with his family for years and years to come I am sure.  

There are a few more traditions I would like to start and I can't wait!

cookies754

@blonde1817 I definitely agree about the family dinners every night! That is so important to me.

A lot of our traditions center around Christmas. All of December we bake and bake! My favorite kind are called Schnecken. They are made from a really thin dough with cinnamon.

Ornaments also have a big significance with us. We all have a collection from growing up that my mom put on the tree every year. In fact, DH proposed this way and we have an engagement ornament. I think it would be fun to start new traditions too with kids. I really like having a new book to open each night to read in jammies.

For birthdays, my mom always made a big deal about it and we would wake up to the kitchen decorated with balloons, streamers, etc. This is something DH and I have carried on with each other too

I'm sure I can think of more but this post is turning into a novel. I do love traditions though and I can't wait to make so many more with our children.

Lysta85

Hulabalu said:

Recent years more and more Kindergartens have stopped doing this, because a lot of the kids don't celebrate Christmas. Their parents doesn't want them to participate in things that are a part of another religion then their own. I mean, come on! This type of celebration has nothing what so ever to do with Christianity! In my opinion it is just a fun tradition for the kids. 

*I realize this is really off topic, but I kinda got myself all worked up reading about zwarte Piet... 

I don't think it's off topic, it also shows us that you can't keep on to every tradition you would like. I also don't think that Christmas is 100% Christianity. The origin of the Christmas trees and lights are older then the Christens religion. They adapted this (and many other heathen traditions like Easter) and made this their own.

@HookEmNelson Here you can here some of our songs in our dialect and see some photos from a parade

Knottie1426703219

Traditions I want to carry over into my family re, watching "It's a wonderful life" and the Patrick Stewart version of "A Christmas Carol" Every Christmas Eve.  I want to start a tradition where I get the kids pajama's and they wear those for Christmas morning opening presents, but we'll see how that goes when kids are here.  I'm sure SO has some traditions he wants to bring over from raising his other 3 kids and his family when he was growing up.

CrunchyMidwife

When I was younger we would make a huge family breakfast on Sumday mornings and my step mom put food colouring in the pancake batter. Whoever woke up first picked the color.


At my moms Tuesday nights were always family board game night.

I want to do both of these and I want us to have a lot more because I think it would be so fun to have my LO's friend(s) come over and we're doing something super fun and they'll think its kinda odd but to my kids it will be great memories for them as adults.

Hulabalu

When I was growing up we often did long weekend breakfasts that lasted for at least an hour. Not anything fancy really, but we ate and chatted and had like 5 cups of tea each. I would love for that to be a tradition as soon as the kids are old enough to sit still for a while. :-)

I would really like to pass on the "tradition" of everyone in the family eating dinner together at the dining table, and not in front of the TV. Me and DH eats in front of the TV most of the time...

emmaaa

We did Saturday cleaning as well! We got up in the morning, cleaned the house and then had a really good supper. We always had to clean before we made any other plans. I loved the fact that our house was nice and clean for the upcoming week. 

My favorite thing we did as a family was Sunday lunch. We would always have a huge lunch after church with everyone, aunts, uncles, cousins, and that is something I definitely want to keep going when we have kids.