Sometimes you have family traditions that you never realized were family traditions. “They aren’t traditions,” you think, “They’re just something our family does.” It turns out you can turn just about any family activity into a tradition. Different traditions are usually based around different occasions like holidays. Here are some successful ideas for ones you could start in your families.

Summer

  • Plan a Fourth of July BBQ! Invite your family that lives nearby. If you don’t have family, invite close friends or neighbors. Saying it’s B.Y.O.M. (Bring your own meat) that will save you a lot on meat. Try making pasta salad, watermelon and corn for the side dishes.

Fall

  • For Thanksgiving, try your best to meet with as much family as you can for lunch or dinner. Invite them to stay all day to relax, play board games, and catch up. Rather than have a big meal twice, feel free to leave the food out all day or in the fridge and let people help themselves to the leftovers. Ask everyone to bring one pie or side to cut down on your cost.

Winter

  • Create Christmas Ornaments! Go to the nearest craft store to look for clear ornaments with removable tops as well as cute holiday 1/4” ribbon or string. Buy a few small colors of paint, preferably festive colors. Carefully take the lid off of one of the ornaments, put a splash of a few paint colors inside, replace the lid, and shake the ornament fast. Be careful not to let go! When you are done, your family will have quite a few simple but cute ornaments for your tree.
  • Putting the Topper on the tree. My family usually uses angels that my grandmother crocheted for each grandchild to look like us. We store them in separate boxes; on the side of the box it says which years which child placed the angel on the tree. That’s a great way to keep track, and be able to literally lift your child up.
  • A Gift for NOW and the FUTURE. Every year, my parents bought each child in our family a Christmas ornament. We each have our own little tub full of our ornaments so when we grew up and got married our little Christmas trees would never be bare. Make sure you write the date on the bottom so they’ll always remember when it’s from.
  • Act out the Nativity from the scriptures with robes and a baby doll. After that, drive around as a family to look at Christmas Lights and the yards of people who really decorate. Look online or in the newspaper for the most decorated place near you.
  • Let your child Open a Present early on Christmas Eve before they go to bed. Usually this present is pajamas so they’ll be in new ones when they come down the stairs on Christmas morning. Don’t forget to decorate sugar cookies and leave them out for Santa!

Spring

  • Take yearly family photos together; choose different colors and scenery each year.
  • Spend Spring Break with the family as often as possible. When it’s your child’s last spring break at home, come up with options of where you could go as a family and let that child decide from your list where they would like to go. If you look far enough in advance you can save a lot of money on cruises or plane tickets. You could also plan a staycation or camping trip.

Birthdays

Spend that time together as often as possible. Invite your close family over the Sunday closest to your birthday to have a nice dinner at home. Presents don’t have to be expensive; they could be a hand drawn card, a hug or a favorite candy bar.

Overall you’ll need to decide for your family which traditions to take on or do away with. Good luck!

I’m a wife, a daughter, a sister, a pug-lover and a huge believer of the family.

This article was originally published in KTAR News.

New family tradition ideas