A YEAR OF HOLIDAY TRADITIONS
In last month’s Mojo for Moms column, I shared our family’s favorite winter holiday traditions. Consider this an encore, focused on the coming year. Whatever your family rituals and however you create them, January is the perfect time of year to deliberately think through the traditions that define your family and mark the seasons to come. If you’re looking for some meaningful and fun ones, here are a few tried-and-true favorites, from our home to yours.
New Year’s Donuts on Strings: This tradition began as I was watching the ball drop on a new year on TV. A pithy poem of new year wishes scrolled across the ticker at the bottom of the screen: “In the year _____, let this be our goal: to focus on the donut, instead of on the hole.” Ever since, our family has recited this poem and tied donuts on strings. One family member dangles the donut, and another stands beneath and tries to catch it in her mouth.
Valentine’s Heart Attack: We pick up heart doilies or cut hearts from construction paper, then spend time writing things we love about each member of our family. We tape the completed valentines to the walls to warm our home with love.
Easter: On the eve of Easter, the kids plant jellybeans in the yard, which magically sprout into colorful lollipops Easter morning. We also tie colored yarn to their Easter baskets. The kids follow the string on a hunt for their Easter baskets, usually discovered in our backyard.
Mother’s & Father’s Days: Mother’s Day is celebrated with bike rides to a restaurant for lunch, where we play card games like Garbage, Presidents and Boo Your Neighbor. On Father’s Day, we meet up with friends at IHOP in the middle of the night, all wearing fake mustaches and pajamas.
Back to School: The Backpack Fairy comes to visit our kids the night before school begins. She leaves backpacks by the door and tucks an encouraging note and small goodies into the backpacks: school supplies, clothes and new socks.
Halloween: We enjoy a flashlight walk through the woods at dusk with a book of ghost stories to read at the park.
Thanksgiving: Instead of a “thankful tree,” we create a paper “gobbles of gratitude” turkey for the wall, adding colorful cardstock feathers listing blessings for which we’re grateful.
Christmas: We love so many traditions, but among our favorites are kids caroling on the stairs Christmas morning to wake us, ringing bells. We also celebrate Christmas Eve with a Middle Eastern themed Bethlehem supper.
What are your family’s favorite traditions? Consider writing them down in your calendar this month in joyful anticipation of the year ahead. Happy New Year!
Wendy Connelly, M.Div., is a podcaster (MoJo For Moms podcast), life coach and mother of two from Overland Park. You can find Wendy’s latest podcasts, retreats and more at MoJoForMoms.com.