What Traditions Are You Passing or Creating for Your Children?

we have sunday night movie night (only if the kids cleaned up their toys). we make a big batch of popcorn and the kids go crazy dancing around "popping". the night before birthdays i decorate the outside of their doors while they are sleeping, banner, balloons, streamers etc. then we keep it up for a week. my daughter still has her poster on her door. my MIL let her kids have birthday cake the morning after. i think i will start that when my kids are a little older. they both talk about it and remember how fun it was that mom brought cake in for breakfast! we do the pumpkin carving at halloween, dye eggs for easter and then hide them. we make gingerbread houses for xmas, do the advent calendar for xmas, make santa cookies and leave them out, write a letter to santa and mail it. i like this post, i'd like to learn some other ideas.

When my daughter and I go out and about to run errands we always run by McDonald's to get ice cream and " that is our secret". = )

We always celebrate every birthday party for all four of my children at their grandparents house.

We go out and eat every friday night.
Sunday Morning Church.
Everytime my kids and I get in our van and go out together we ALWAYS love to listen to Country Music and we like to turn it up a little when a great song comes on.
I know that when my children are adults they will always remember mommy singing to country music and they will never forget me. = )

Have a wonderful time with your family.

Like one of the other posts, we also allow the kids to open 2 gifts each on Christmas eve. One is always a new pair of pajamas (so everyone looks nice in Christmas morning photos) and the other is a small toy or craft to keep them occupied for Christmas eve.

On birthdays, besides gifts, we also write a special privilage they're old enough for inside the cards. We've had privilages like "you're old enough to cross the street alone" or "you can now ride your bike in the street" and as they got older, "you can walk to Amy's house alone", "you're old enough to sit in the front seat" or "you can stay home alone for up to 1 hour". Some years, they have asked for specific privilages. Its something you would have given them anyway but this makes it more special.

When they were smaller, we'd do Movie Night. It was a once a month event where a child paired with a parent to pick a family movie (from Blockbuster or Netflix) and plan the dinner and dessert. We'd eat sitting on the floor at the coffee table or spread out a picnic blanket on the carpet and watch the movie while eating.

The last one that comes to mind is Family Sleepover. Everyone sleeps in sleeping bags in the living room. More fun for the kids than the adults. Occasionally we'd even pitch the tent in the backyard.

I wouldn't call this a tradition, but it's something we do EVERY Friday now, so maybe it is. After the kids have put in a full week at school, we stop at 7-11 and get Slurpees. They love it and know it's our Friday thing. Doesn't matter if there's snow on the ground or rain falling from the sky...they know it's slushie day and they look forward to it and expect it.

Just something fun for us :)

At the end of preschool each year for the past 2 years, I've let my 5 yo pick out a box of any cold cereal he wants. I never buy it so its a very very special treat for him. Let's see how long it lasts.

I know a family who has taken their kids to the local drive in theater w/a bunch of their kids' friends on the last day of school. The kids get to stay up late and pig out on junk food and then my friends drive all the kids home.

I take pictures at every event for my kids and scrapbook it. They hated the camera at first, but after seeing the book and looking at the pictures, they've gotten over that!
We put the Christmas tree up on the day after Thanksgiving every year. We do it in the afternoon -- after I've gone shopping early in the morning. We won't allow Christmas tunes until that time even though the radio plays them 2 weeks before Thanskgiving!!
We always spend New Year's at a friend's house - same friend every year. They enjoy the time with their friends as well.
I always take pictures on the first day of school. This fall will be the first since my oldest was in pre-school that they aren't together on the first day... But, it's okay. He's off to college...
We color Easter eggs on Easter eve. We hunt eggs on Easter morning before church.
We make gingerbread houses every year - sometimes with friends, sometimes just us, but it's always fun.
We try to have a family meal together every day -- sometimes it's in the car on the way to something, sometimes we meet at the local burger joint, sometimes we chow pizza in front of the TV, but we try to have a meal together every day. Some days it just doesn't work -- especially if they are at school until 7:30pm for practice and we feed them as they run in the door, but we always connect with the kids every day.
That's all I can think of at the moment...
YMMV
LBC

Traditions are wonderful and will give your children so much to look back on with happy memories and family togetherness...they bond a family together...and enrich your home as they grow.

Some of ours
Santa leaves a pair of pajamas for everyone in our family in one big box on our porch in the backyard each Christmas Eve.

Monday night is always family night...games...spiritual message...treat
On this night at dinnertime, my hubby and I chose a child that showed extra good deeds and a great attitude that day and they get the "happy plate and cup" which is a cheap fun set of dishes from wal mart. That child gets to choose who says the dinner prayer and gets dished up first.Then during dinner everyone takes a turn saying what they love most about the "happy plate" person. This was started when I was at my wits end with the sibling rivalry/squabbling. It has helped tremendously!

We grow a family veggie garden each year...everyone is involved.

We light candles at dinner time during the winter months...sets a nice mood.

We pray every morning and night together....and usually a little spiritual thought before leaving for school.

We do service opportunities for people...simple yard work or take notes or goodies

We love movie nights with popcorn.

My hubby and I take turns taking our kids on dates individually...this has proved to be such a blessing to our family...strengthens individual relationships

Have fun with your family starting your own traditions!

We decorate the house with crepe paper, balloons, ribbons and signs for each person's birthday. Then I bake a cake, but the birthday child gets to decorate it any way he/she wants. I provide frosting, food coloring, candies, and tacky plastic items like dinosaurs and trees. Then we take a picture of the cake and its creator.

For Christmas and birthdays, I give my kids special "coupons" as one of their gifts. These are 3x5 index cards that tell them to "go out for ice cream with mom" , "play computer all day", "choose a sugary breakfast cereal", or "chore pass".

We eat ice cream every Sunday after church.

We interrupt our schedule to watch American Idol together and root for our favorites.

I am in the process of compiling all of my favorite recipes from my mother to make a huge cook book to pass on to my daughter.
It's mostly party punches/drinks, appetizers, baked goods/desserts, novelty things. I remember during Christmas she would pull out her index cards for eggnog, frosting for the gingerbread houses, and christmas fudge (we would hand it out in tins during Christmas). Some were just fun things for boring summer weekends...like edible playdough, Black Cows, and Jello Jigglers.
Not everything I am putting in there is from my mom. Some are my favorite recipes that I stumbled across. So it definately doesn't have to be a passed down type of thing.
Have Fun! =)

Sat morn. we always have a nice family breakfast. At christmas time we look at the lights 1 week before christmas--in the evening. We go to the pumpkin patch every year and pick pumpkins ourselves. We pray daily with our family. I think you should just pick a few things that are really important to you and your hubby and start implementing them. Thats the way traditions are born....gl~!

M

It would be fun to celebrate the start of the seasons. (as well as prepare for them) There is a lake/ park nearby my home, they have these lantern festivals, you make a japanese style lantern, take the kids & tour the lake in the evening, theres all sorts of events & little shows, music etc. Its at the start of summer.

We make special batik eggs on Easter. It's something my mother didonce or twice and I have decided to do it every year as a tradition. We also do an egg hunt at our own house or yard in the morning (with the hard boiled batik eggs).

On birthdays, the birthday person gets to choose dinner, no matter how outlandish... even ice creams sundaes.

We open one present on Christmas eve, and I usually select a game the whole family can play. We also take turns opening gifts on Christmas so that everyone can see what everyone else gets. Until I got married, I didn't know everyone didn't do this! His family has a gift opening free-for-all. ;-)

Friday night game nights. Sunday night pizza.

Think of things that your family has enjoyed doing, and turn them into tradition :)

We do typical holiday traditions like special Xmas morning breakfast that I don't make any other day of the year, pjs from Santa on Xmas eve, a special salad on Thanksgiving I don't usually make the rest of the year. Other twists on holidays include the same Easter basket year after year - my oldest has my Easter basket from when I was a child. We also like to celebrate less traditional holidays - pranks (that get more complex as they get older) on April Fools, on St Patricks day the leprechauns make a mess and ties shoes in knots and leave five $1 gold coins for each child. We've even had king cake on Fat Tuesday (and we aren't religious - just something fun to do).