Building Family Traditions

Posted by Barbara | 0 comments

Sometime near or on December first, our family gets the house ready for Christmas.  It has become known as “Tree Day” and it is one of the highlights of our year.

It isn’t anything fancy, really. We go out and buy a fresh tree. Sometimes, we don’t even all go and pick it out together. Most times, my husband goes out, by himself, and with very little pomp and circumstance, brings home a tree.  Nothing remarkable about that.

Then we pull out our ornaments and put them on the tree. Now, some families have an ornament for every year that each child has lived, and special ones from special relatives, and memory ornaments of people who have passed on, and some have the crafty ones the kids made when they were little.

We don’t have those.

We have fairly normal, basic, gold and cream ornaments and some ribbon that we wind around the branches. Nothing remarkable about that.

While we are doing the tree, we are listening to Christmas music and eating ‘Christmas foods’. The foods are typically snacky appetizer types that we graze on while we decorate.  Chips. Salsa. Cheese. Crackers. Nothing particularly remarkable about that either.

But you know what? This year, my 9 year old said, “I think I like this day almost better than Christmas morning.”

Now that’s remarkable. Why do you think that is?

I’ll tell you what I think. Sometimes we get so worked up about the big gift and the big meal and the grand gesture that Christmas is “supposed” to be, that we forget to just enjoy time with our family.

We are so grateful that our children prefer just hanging out and laughing by the tree than ripping paper off of packages. We are so grateful that we started some really simple events to be our traditions so that we don’t need to one-up ourselves each year.

I’m not a genius. I didn’t come up with this idea myself. My husband and I have read a few books that have been helpful along the way to help us to plan little habits that become family traditions that mean so much to our family, with so little baggage and cost associated with it.

One such book was Family Times by Jerry and Patti MacGregor This book had so many fun ideas of things to do, and ways to celebrate to get the family some traditions.  It covers good movies to watch, books to read, stories to act out together, and mini-trips to take.  One of our favourite ideas in the book is to tuck your kids into bed, then wait 10 minutes. Then haul them out, in their pajamas still, and take them in the car to get ice cream. How much fun would that be on a summer night?

Another book, which I’m sure many of you have read is The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer Now, while this book doesn’t specifically talk about family traditions and routines, it does inspire a mom to craft her home in such a way that even the simplest meal of home-made macaroni and cheese can feel like a feast day.

And finally, for those who may have never even considered starting family traditions or are overwhelmed at even knowing what they want their family life to look like,there is The Heritage by J.Otis Ledbetter and Kurt Bruner . The authors of this book ask questions about the home in which you grew up and ask you to evaluate what you want to keep or lose from those memories for your own family. Then they ask you to consider what words describe what the mood of your home is, and what you wish it was. It is very helpful in directing you to the practical matter of deciding what you want your home to be known as, and then encouraging you to make it happen as much as you are able.

Family traditions don’t need to be big. They don’t need to be expensive. Sometimes it is a small as serving a particular meal on a particular holiday every year, or eating cheese and crackers while decorating the Christmas tree.

What traditions do you have with your family (at Christmas, or any other time of year)? And which traditions would you like to start this year?

Barbara Postma and her husband, as they homeschool their 7 children, are finding out that no two children are alike! Between lessons and lunches, Barbara blogs at Fuel by Barbara.