Family Traditions
Apr 24th, 2007 by Bethany
In a couple of weeks I'll be teaching a combined Young Women lesson on family traditions, so I thought it would be useful to list some of my favorite family traditions (some of my parents' and some of the traditions Colin and I have, too).
- Having a Passover Seder every year
- Easter baskets
- Christmas: cinnamon rolls for breakfast, opening gifts one at a time directed by Dad, reading the Christmas story together, advent calendars, putting baby Jesus in the nativity scene on Christmas morning (Colin's parents do that one), reading A Christmas Carol every year, singing Christmas carols, taking plates of goodies to neighbors
- Reading the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July
- Watching all the sessions of General Conference every time
- Family prayer, twice a day
- Daily family scripture study
- Weekly Family Home Evening
- Family Council
- Family Outings
- On birthdays, the birthday-person gets to choose what to have for dinner and doesn't have to do any chores. We go around the table at dinner and everyone says something nice about the birthday-person. Mom and Dad tell the story of when the person was born.
- Interviews–my dad regularly had a one-on-one meeting with each of us kids to talk about what was going on in our lives and what we needed help with and how we were doing spiritually. I loved interviews.
- Date night–weekly date with spouse
- Daddy-daughter dates-Dad used to take us on one-on-one "dates" occasionally and we got to do fun things with him like go to museums and restaurants
- Going to church every Sunday
- Staying up till midnight (or trying to) on New Year's Eve
- Singing around the piano
- Agendas for everything, including vacations and family reunions
- On Valentine's Day, Dad would buy each of us a carnation
- Getting a Priesthood blessing before starting a new school year or going to a new school
- Trick or treating in costume on Halloween, even though my mom hates Halloween
- Thanksgiving–saying things you're thankful for at Thanksgiving dinner. Talking about the Pilgrims. Making tons of pies together from scratch and eating them!
- Dad making us hug each other and say nice things to each other when we fought
- Summer goals–Mom would talk to each of us and help us make a list of goals to accomplish each summer. She would give us lessons (sewing, cooking, cleaning, etc.) and Dad gave us our "reading assignments."