I want to start my own family traditions!

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My family didn’t really have any traditions, nor does my husband’s. Now that our little guy is 2 and he has a better understanding of things, I thought it would be great to start our own family traditions. The thought behind it is that family traditions is something that I feel I lacked of and I want our son and us to look forward to certain periods of time in the year.

Here are a few great ways to get together with the people you love, enjoy good food and share memories. I did some crowd sourcing to write this post and I thank all the mamas who helped me out on this one.

Birthday cake for breakfast please!

Like the tradition of having some cake from your wedding for your first anniversary, the idea is to have a piece of cake from your previous birthday and eat it on the next. In my son’s case, he will be able to eat a piece of his 2 year birthday cake for breakfast on his 3rd birthday. Totally stole this idea from a dear mama friend. I think it’s genius.

Celebrate your name day

In certain countries, people celebrate their name day: basically you celebrate – like you would a birthday – the day of the year that is associated with your given first name. If you google “name day calendar”, you can find another day of the year to celebrate yourself and your loved ones. Yes, please!

Pizza and movie night, ice cream night

This wasn’t really a tradition in my family, just something we did randomly, but we would go occasionally to get ice cream at a Baskin-n-Robbins drive thru. It was years ago, but I remember it vividly. The idea of having ice cream or froyo once a week lights my heart. Pizza and movie on a given night is also something that I would like to make happen, in a few years maybe (when Little Man can actually sit through a movie).

After Thanksgiving lunch or dinner

This is such a great idea! How much left overs do you have after Thanksgiving dinner and wonder what on Earth you’re going to do with it? I know, right? Here are a couple of ideas: on the day after, stay in your jammies, put some jolly music on and do your Christmas prep (tree decorating and so on). Or reuse the food from Thanksgiving in a totally different way. One of writers, Nicole, makes enchiladas with her leftovers. Yummy and super creative!

Ornament/decoration hunting

Each time we travel, we get a little something to decorate the house as well as a magnet for the fridge. Once we had Theo, we also got him a new ornament each year to put on the tree. 

The pickle tradition

Many of the mamas I’ve talked to said they have a pickle tradition for Christmas. I think it’s hilarious. I researched the history behind it but didn’t find anything that explained why a pickle for Christmas. If you don’t know what to do with the pickle ornament (like me), here is how it goes: someone hides it on Christmas Eve and the next morning, whoever finds it first, gets en extra gift.

Saint Nicolas 

This is more of a European tradition that I had as a kid when I was growing up in Belgium. Saint Nicolas is celebrated on December 6 (name day, right?). On the Eve of that celebration, kids put their shoes out with food for the Saint’s donkey and they receive a gift in return on the morning of. 

What are some traditions that you have in your family that you would like to share? I would love to read them!

 

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