Traditions Don’t Have To Be Traditional

Birthday Eve Tradition: Filling bedroom floor with balloons while the person is sleeping!

What are your family traditions?(Remember – our definition of family is NOT traditional around here!)  One of the best ways I’ve found to stay close and have fun with the people I consider family is through traditions.

It came to me one December, as I was putting together our Advent Calendar….why do we only do this in December?  Why not all year?

Now, I’m not suggesting that you plan something super exciting every day for every month, but maybe a few days every month.  And maybe something less exciting every day…

They don’t need to be elaborate.  Some examples of our traditions:

• Every day (reading to kids before bed, checking in about everyone’s day, setting everyone up for the next day)

• Every week (home-made pizza Fridays, menu planning roulette, writing/calling grandma/aunt/distant friends)

• Once a month (kids-in-charge weekend, a night at the movies, game night with a group)

• Once in a while (Templeton Day, Project Night, Bake-o-Rama)

As you can see, traditions don’t need to be expensive.  It’s about doing something fun together.  Some of them can even help with the household management! (And yes, I’ll write about all the traditions I mentioned)

I’ve created some simple worksheets for you to get started.  Use them to write down birthdays, holidays, and “national” days (Talk Like a Pirate Day?) – they are a great excuse to do something fun.

Then go from there!  Think of small things for daily traditions, things that take a few hours for weekly/monthly traditions, and bigger things for once in a while traditions.

There are no “right” or “wrong” traditions – just YOUR traditions!  Have fun!

Hint – and we’ll probably be using this later as part of my “Getting Control of Your Time” series!