What are some fun and easy holiday traditions
(New Years, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's/Father's Day,4th of July,
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas)?
My dad always put green paper footprints leading out of our rooms on St. Patrick's Day morning that ended at a pot of gold candy (Rolos, usually). My kids love this tradition and spend hours recreating leprechaun trails for each other.
For Halloween dinner we usually do mummy pizzas (English muffin topped with cheese laid out like a mummy wrapped up with olive eyes) before going out trick-or-treating.
One year for Thanksgiving (or maybe Christmas?) we did a Thankful Tree and put leaves (or ornaments) on the paper tree that hung on a door each day that had something written on it saying what we were thankful for.
New Years: Put streamers and balloons on Christmas tree with treats and questions about the year inside. Record answers. Oh and we always do a new puzzle.
Valentines: A's family did something called the Valentine turtle (don't ask me why it's called that) they would make a trip to a dollar store or grocery store and each of them would pick a bag of treats or something and then they would hide a little baggie of those treats for each person in their family on a different day (I think they were assigned different days). Completely anonymous and they hid it where the person would find it.
St Patrick's: Rainbow pancakes! Some sort of special dinner.
Easter: is a work in progress. We dye eggs on Saturday, the goal this year is to have a special egg hunt on Sunday including a dozen "Resurrection Eggs" with little objects in them to help tell the Easter story (see http://preparednotscared.blogspot.com/2010/04/happy-easter-everyone.html). This all depends on me actually putting those together in the next couple of days.
Halloween: Jack o lanterns and pumpkin doughnuts (so yummy)
Thanksgiving: Thanks tree and a Giving tree to fill out. We weren't very good at the giving tree.
Christmas: also a work in progress. Our goal for gifts is to keep it simple. I think Lar told us this little rhyme and we liked it: Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read
I read somewhere this idea to have a family holiday day and we really liked that idea. This is our first year attempting it, but we decided to have our own Wise day that would be a day just for our family where kids would be excused from school and Ammón would take off work and we would have a day full of fun and adventure. We'll see how it goes.
I love holidays and traditions but I am definitely working on finding a balance with easy to do but meaningful traditions that I can sustain through the years.
Love that rhyme!! We definitely used to go overboard with gifts at Christmas, but then I had an "oh-my-gosh-we-have-way-too-much-stuff" moment a couple years ago and it's amazing how the kids are just as content with a couple gifts.
For Halloween we always have pumpkin shaped pizza's before we got trick or treating. Thanksgiving we do a thankful tree, and put things we are thankful for on the leaves. Easter we dye eggs, and we visit Rachel's grave and talk about the ressurection. Christmas we have "Santa" write a letter to the kids that talks about the year and the things they've accomplished and talks about the Savior and the true reason for the season.
I really love holidays with kids, and we are still developing our family traditions. A few of my favorites: -Party hats, streamers, poppers, sparklers, banging pots and pans on New Year's Eve -I hosted a fancy, candlelight dinner for Autumn's friends for Valentine's Day. I taught them how to fold napkins and we talked about manners, and they LOVED it! It would be really fun to do with just your family, too. -A leprechaun comes and leaves gold treats at the end of his tracks on St. Patrick's Day (though Autumn asked why there was tape under the footprints... it's harder to keep the fantasy stuff alive as they get older!). I love to do lots of green and rainbow food. -Easter- try to focus on the Resurrection on Easter Sunday and have the candy and eggs and things on Saturday. -Because Nelson really doesn't enjoy parades like I do, we've started a tradition of going on a hike early on the 4th of July. I always feel good doing something active on days where we might otherwise just eat lots of food at the barbeque and stay inside because of the heat. -I love Halloween! We do mummy dogs (pig-in-a-blanket wrapped like mummies) for dinner before trick or treating around our neighborhood. -We do a Thankful tree at Thanksgiving time, and also try to run a race or exercise that morning. -Christmas is full of lots of family parties with their own traditions. With my mom's family party, we each get a real candle (a birthday cake candle stuck in a big gumdrop with a lifesaver as the holder) or a battery-powered tea candle and sit in a circle. We say, "I love you, ____" to the person we are sitting by and light their candle. Then we sing "As I Have Loved You." We have a huge extended family, so it's neat to call my cousins by their names and tell them I love them. I also love singing Christmas hymns or caroling as a family and watching some of the wonderful church movies about the Savior's birth. And going to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert when we get tickets-- that is always amazing.
My dad always put green paper footprints leading out of our rooms on St. Patrick's Day morning that ended at a pot of gold candy (Rolos, usually). My kids love this tradition and spend hours recreating leprechaun trails for each other.
ReplyDeleteFor Halloween dinner we usually do mummy pizzas (English muffin topped with cheese laid out like a mummy wrapped up with olive eyes) before going out trick-or-treating.
One year for Thanksgiving (or maybe Christmas?) we did a Thankful Tree and put leaves (or ornaments) on the paper tree that hung on a door each day that had something written on it saying what we were thankful for.
I love me some traditions so here goes:
ReplyDeleteNew Years: Put streamers and balloons on Christmas tree with treats and questions about the year inside. Record answers. Oh and we always do a new puzzle.
Valentines: A's family did something called the Valentine turtle (don't ask me why it's called that) they would make a trip to a dollar store or grocery store and each of them would pick a bag of treats or something and then they would hide a little baggie of those treats for each person in their family on a different day (I think they were assigned different days). Completely anonymous and they hid it where the person would find it.
St Patrick's: Rainbow pancakes! Some sort of special dinner.
Easter: is a work in progress. We dye eggs on Saturday, the goal this year is to have a special egg hunt on Sunday including a dozen "Resurrection Eggs" with little objects in them to help tell the Easter story (see http://preparednotscared.blogspot.com/2010/04/happy-easter-everyone.html). This all depends on me actually putting those together in the next couple of days.
Halloween: Jack o lanterns and pumpkin doughnuts (so yummy)
Thanksgiving: Thanks tree and a Giving tree to fill out. We weren't very good at the giving tree.
Christmas: also a work in progress. Our goal for gifts is to keep it simple. I think Lar told us this little rhyme and we liked it: Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read
I read somewhere this idea to have a family holiday day and we really liked that idea. This is our first year attempting it, but we decided to have our own Wise day that would be a day just for our family where kids would be excused from school and Ammón would take off work and we would have a day full of fun and adventure. We'll see how it goes.
I love holidays and traditions but I am definitely working on finding a balance with easy to do but meaningful traditions that I can sustain through the years.
Love that rhyme!! We definitely used to go overboard with gifts at Christmas, but then I had an "oh-my-gosh-we-have-way-too-much-stuff" moment a couple years ago and it's amazing how the kids are just as content with a couple gifts.
DeleteFor Halloween we always have pumpkin shaped pizza's before we got trick or treating.
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving we do a thankful tree, and put things we are thankful for on the leaves.
Easter we dye eggs, and we visit Rachel's grave and talk about the ressurection.
Christmas we have "Santa" write a letter to the kids that talks about the year and the things they've accomplished and talks about the Savior and the true reason for the season.
I love that idea to visit Rachel's grave! What a perfect time of year to talk about seeing her again.
DeleteI really love holidays with kids, and we are still developing our family traditions. A few of my favorites:
ReplyDelete-Party hats, streamers, poppers, sparklers, banging pots and pans on New Year's Eve
-I hosted a fancy, candlelight dinner for Autumn's friends for Valentine's Day. I taught them how to fold napkins and we talked about manners, and they LOVED it! It would be really fun to do with just your family, too.
-A leprechaun comes and leaves gold treats at the end of his tracks on St. Patrick's Day (though Autumn asked why there was tape under the footprints... it's harder to keep the fantasy stuff alive as they get older!). I love to do lots of green and rainbow food.
-Easter- try to focus on the Resurrection on Easter Sunday and have the candy and eggs and things on Saturday.
-Because Nelson really doesn't enjoy parades like I do, we've started a tradition of going on a hike early on the 4th of July. I always feel good doing something active on days where we might otherwise just eat lots of food at the barbeque and stay inside because of the heat.
-I love Halloween! We do mummy dogs (pig-in-a-blanket wrapped like mummies) for dinner before trick or treating around our neighborhood.
-We do a Thankful tree at Thanksgiving time, and also try to run a race or exercise that morning.
-Christmas is full of lots of family parties with their own traditions. With my mom's family party, we each get a real candle (a birthday cake candle stuck in a big gumdrop with a lifesaver as the holder) or a battery-powered tea candle and sit in a circle. We say, "I love you, ____" to the person we are sitting by and light their candle. Then we sing "As I Have Loved You." We have a huge extended family, so it's neat to call my cousins by their names and tell them I love them. I also love singing Christmas hymns or caroling as a family and watching some of the wonderful church movies about the Savior's birth. And going to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert when we get tickets-- that is always amazing.
I want to be Autumn's friend and come to her party next time! How fancy!
Delete