Family Traditions - Oconomowoc,WI

Hi, L.!
Some of the best traditions happen by accident....when my kids were little, I always gave them underwear for Christmas. It was something they needed and another "gift" to open. They soon learned to expect it. One year I didn't give them any....and they let me know it (they were already in their teens by then!) Anyway, they are now all grown and on their own; however, each year they still get underwear. You should have seen the look on my daughter-in-law's face the first time she got some!!:)....now she's used to it! The rule is...they have to be married before the inlaw gets a pair. I have 2 girls, 2 boys, and 2 daughters-in-law now plus a granddaughter. Some years they all get the same (the girls!:) and other years they get individual ones, but they are usually unique and fun. (It takes me more time to pick out their underwear than any of the other gifts!:) Anyway, the tradition continues....my granddaughter was born in Dec. of 2005 and I bought a care-bear pkg of three. This year she will receive her third care-bear undy....maybe she'll actually start wearing them in a year or so!! Anyway, it's been fun and kind of corny but some of the best things are. Enjoy those little girls...they grow up WAY to fast!

one memory that stands out for me is christmas cut out cookies- my parents always had alot of people over thru christmas so cookies had to be perfect. so to make it fun for my younger sister and i was at the end of rolling out the dough we got to cut out our hands(each year our cookie got bigger) and we got to decorate it any way we wanted too. sometimes they would come out of the oven black because of al the sugar but they were our cookie to eat!!!! and something we do with my son is all summer long he saves his money at gets to pick out a special thing at the john deere tent at the county fair. it's his money so it's his choice and he looks forward to this all summer long!!!

Hi there! :)

I, too, have been looking for traditions to carry on with my children. Here are a few I remember most from growing up:

New Years Eve - Mom and Dad would buy us all the pop we could drink (a rare frivolity in our house!) so we could see who could stay up the latest. We'd sit down at 8:00pm and play Risk (cause Lord knows that game takes forever!) We'd see if we could win the game by Midnight.

Valentine's Day - Mom always got us cards. I always thought it was kinda dumb (especially in my teen years) but as I've grown older, I look for that pink envelope every February. No matter how old you get, it's still nice to know your Mom still thinks of you as her little girl. :)

Easter/Springtime - We'd make a special Easter egg for everyone in the family and put it in their basket, then the next day share why we decorated it the way we did. Also, Mom loves to garden, so every year we'd go to the greenhouse and pick out lilies and irises (her favorites) and plant them around the yard. We'd also buy a bunch of seeds and compete with the bunnies under the shed to see who'd get more of the harvest this year. :P

Summertime - Every year, Grandma and Grandpa would go up to a lake resort in Hayward, WI. They took Dad the first year he met Mom, and after that, Mom and Dad took us. The resort we always went to closed when I was about 15 or so, but we were able to find others on the same lake. I'd get up at 4:30am just to go out on the lake with my Dad. After that, he'd take me into town to the candy shop. There are SO many memories of that place. It's hard not to tear up when I think about it. :P

Fall - Back to School Shopping! My mom acted like she dreaded it (cause lets face it, I had to have EVERYTHING) :P but in reality, it was a great bonding time for us. :) My son's in school now, so I get to do this with him. :) Sure, it's just a shopping trip, but to me, it means a lot more. Also, Mom and I would go shopping for tulip bulbs and plant them. It was always such a nice surprise in the springtime, because I usually forgot about them. :P It was nice to see something grow that Mom and I had done together.

Thanksgiving/Christmas - My Mom makes the best coleslaw known to man. She knows anytime we get together for the holidays to have it, otherwise I'll run to the store and buy the ingredients for her. :P When I was younger (and we had more time) we'd make gingerbread houses for all of our friends in the shape of their house (Dad's quite creative like that). Dad has an old train set from when he was little, and every Christmas we'd set it up around the Christmas tree. I'd put the first piece right under my favorite ornament, which was just a little bronze bell tied on a piece of present-ribbon. I guess it was a gift to my mom from a friend at some point in her life, but it was (and still is) my favorite thing to see on the tree. My sister and I still fight about how to set up the Nativity, now it just depends on who makes it to Mom and Dad's first. :P

Sorry, I guess my list is longer than I thought. :P I hope out of all that you can find something that you'd like to make your own. :) I guess my best advice is just to do your normal day-to-day and see what ends up sticking. It seems that the smallest things take up the biggest space in our hearts.

Happy memory-making,
J.

P.S. Cynthia, I LOVE the underwear story! Lol! :)

Hello L.! I have a few traditions that my mother did with us while growing up that meant so mcuh to me so I am doing them with my children as well. On our birthday, she would sneak into our bedroom the night before our bday and stream toilet paper all over the room so that when we woke up first thing we would be surrounded by it....that's my favorite one! She also left little notes in our lunchboxes, next to our toothbrush, in our pockets of our jeans, etc. for us to find whenever and know that she was thinking of and loved us. Let me know if any of these work out for you!
V.

We also have a Pajama tradititon like listed below. It is the same, except it is just our little family that gets together, not extended. We always got one package from mom and dad it was always PJs. Now my husband and I do it for our daughter.

Another tradition we have is putting up our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Christmas stockings were a big deal at our house too. Santa would fill them Christmas Eve and leave them just inside our bedroom door. Then Christmas morning we would all come downstairs (or to the living room) and open our stockings together.

One more I can think of is, 12 days after Christmas, we got a large present for the family to share. My mom called it "Little Christmas".

In the fall we all go to a farm and pick pumpkins, go on hayrides, corn mazes, etc. My daughter is only 3 but is already asking when she can go get her pumpkin and "dig out the guts". I let her help dig out the pumpkin insides and pick a pattern. I also got a pumpkin decorating kit that has pegs and a color changing light (like a Light Bright) so she can help "carve" her pumpkin, since she is too little to use the knife.

Have fun!

My tradition is at Christmas and I know it will sound corny, but we all have a fun time with it and I think others might too. I give a gag gift to everyone and write "hee hee hee!" on the package. The items are never traditional gift ideas (some examples have been toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper, package of unpopped popcorn, etc.). I never pay more than $3 for the item (dollar stores have good selections), and usually they're things that will be used in daily life and then be "gone". I also keep the costs down by using the "buy one, get one" system... any freebies go into the "gag gift box".

Any new members to the family (due to marriage or adoption, generally) receive toilet paper. It's fun because they don't know what's coming, but the rest of the family does, and we all have a good laugh with them being "initiated" into the family.

I like the tradition because it allows people to have fun at Christmas without getting too expensive for me and it stops them to make them think of just how materialistic the holidays get (and keeps things in perspective... I hope).

I used to make handmade ornaments as a tradition, but I felt pressured about coming up with a new, creative idea every year and decided that I had enough stress at the holidays without adding that. No one seemed to mind that I stopped. ;o)

I didn't start this tradition until my sisters were about 10 - 12 years old, but I think it could be started anytime! ;o) Have fun making new memories!

L.,
I too was looking for some great traditions to do with my kids that were more than just christmas. I was introduced to a company called Once upon a Family. The founder created a wonderful book with wonderful everyday ideas. I do not sell these products but I love the ideas. Please take a moment to check out the once upona family website, they have workshops called love by the month and lessons for little ones. One of the coolest items are a family tree and these really great work books that you can have grandparents fill out. My children are 4 and 2 and I have done some of the things with them on a smaller scale, but I can not wait to do more. I agree that it is all the little things in child hood that we remember and make the diffrence. My famliy always ate dinner together no matter what, I know it is corny but I do it with my kids and they love it, it is our time even if my husband is still at work. I hope this helps, and thank you for a great post I have enjoyed the responses so far.

Dear L.,

I'm not sure how you celebrate the Christmas season but even when I was a child growing up every Christmas Eve after church my mom would drive us around the city to see all the amazing lights, then we'd stop off at a local restrurant for hot chocolates and a special dessert and every year myself and my siblings would look foward and now we are all grown up with children of our own amd even though we don't get together as a family with all our spouces and the kids we do it within our own families,then on Christmas we call and talk about what we saw and the kids ( if they are big enough) talk to each other as well. So this is something we still do and when I met my hubby he thought it was cool and my mom loves hearing how we carried on what started with her grandmother many years ago. I hope this is something that will help you. We live here in WI and the snow and Christmas it's just something magicial.

So a little about me, I am married to my soul mate and together we have 2 children, Rachel is 6 yrs and then Matthew is our forever angel who was born before his time. We both work full time out side the home but our family is everything and more to us.
Bye 4 now,
T. from WI

I have a couple of traditions that I can think of, not sure if they will work for your family but here they are:

One was planting a garden in the spring with my mom. My mom would buy seed packets and then my brother, sister, and I each got to pick "our own" vegetable for the summer that we would tend to. Mom helped us plant them and tend to them throughout the year.

My dad's tradition every year was at Christmas. No matter what was under the tree we knew EVERY year we would be getting one large box of assorted chocolates from SANTA. After a few years as kids we would start looking for that box right away so we could eat the chocolates (and fight over the carmels!) while we opened the rest of our presents. As we got older we realized it really was from dad, but still every year dad put that faithful box of chocolates under the tree with the "from Santa" label!

My husband's family has had the tradition for years and years that the entire extended family gets together on Christmas Eve, and that night all the kids get to open one present which is a new pair of pajamas. THen as it gets late, the kids all put their pajamas on so if they fall asleep on their way home they are ready for bed. I think they are on the third generation of this now.

My ideas might not work for you, but maybe they will spark some other idea for you! Isn't motherhood great?!?!! Have fun!

One thing I always thought was neat was the idea of the "family plate." They're pretty easy to get, custom-made with the family name on it. Then use the plate for an "honored" member of the family, like on birthdays, or if they aced the test, made the team, behaved well at Grandma's, etc. It's a great way to make your kids feel special.

My family had a ton of traditions growing up that I just loved! I am trying to incorporate my favorite with our new family. One tradition that we love to do for almost every holiday is make cutout cookies. It's nice because everyone of every age can get involved. My mom made the dough ahead of time and then she rolled it out. SOmetimes we got to help with that. Then we all took turns picking cookie cutters and cutting some cookies out. Mom usually put them on the tray for us until we got older. After all the cookies were baked and cooled and the frosting was made (we usually got to help put a few drops of food coloring in), we all got to help decorate. My mom and aunt were the official "frosters" and all of us kids got to decorate like crazy. We have a big family so we usually made about 100 cookies so plenty of cookies for each of us to frost and decorate! We still love doing this to this day, although now I am an official "froster"!!

A couple other quick ideas: In the late summer we would go apple picking! In the fall we would go to the same farm and everyone got to pick out their own pumpkin (everyone likes a different shape!). And every Christmas Eve, after church and other festivities, all of us children would get in our pj's and sit on the couch with my dad and he would read us "The Night Before Christmas". Even after I went to college, I still loved coming home and curling up on the couch to listen to that classic story.

Have fun making memories!!