My husband and I are of the sappy and sentimental sort. When we got married, we were intentionally determined to begin establishing our own family traditions because, ey, we were a family now! It was our way of making our family our own – even if it was just the two of us at the time. For Valentine’s Day we began writing vision letters for each other. For Christmas morning we eat our weight in unhealthy cinnamon rolls.
But then when kids came around, oh man. We wanted to give them a sense of family pride and belonging so we upped the tradition-ante even more with a family day tradition, doing an advent for Christmas, going to the Friendswood July 4th parade, picking out a toy for our church’s Christmas outreach, watching the Airshow, and way more small things we love to do as a family throughout the year. And as they get older, we’re excited for their input on how they would like to create family traditions.
They’re almost two and I feel like they are beginning to appreciate activities more and more. And it will just keep getting more interactive the older they get, which is super-exciting to me! With Thanksgiving coming up, I’ve been thinking about what types of Thanksgiving tradition ideas we can begin creating together as a family, and here’s a list I’ve created with some suggestions.
1} Do a family 5k on Thanksgiving morning.
Put on your running shoes and get moving as a family on Thanksgiving morning!
2} Volunteer to serve lunch to the homeless.
What a wonderful way to step outside of your own world on Thanksgiving day by serving those who may not have otherwise received a hot meal for the holidays.
3} Bake a dessert together as a family.
You could teach your kids to bake a pie and share it with your family on Thanksgiving day. Or you could bake cookies together and make packages to hand out to your neighbors.
4} Do a craft together.
It could be crafts to decorate your Thanksgiving dinner table with. Or crafts to hand out as gifts to let someone know you are thankful for them.
This year, we’re taking the pumpkins the kids decorated for Halloween and turning them into these cute turkey crafts for Thanksgiving decorations. Cheap AND resourceful – my dearest friends.
5} Start decorating for Christmas.
I may get some heat for this, but I’ll take my chances. Some years, after we eat Thanksgiving lunch, we would pull out the Christmas decorations and start decorating. I love making our home cozy with Christmas decor on what I consider the coziest day of the year.
6} Go around the table during Thanksgiving dinner and talk about what you’ve been thankful for.
I want to live a life of gratitude. Not just one day of the year, but every day. But what a way to start by intentionally making a list of things you are thankful for and sharing it during your Thanksgiving meal.
7} Participate in a food drive, clothing drive, or any kind of drive to help those who are less fortunate.
Andrea wrote a wonderful post here on HMB not too long ago about ways to give back to the community to help those in need.
8} Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
This is one of my favorite traditions ever! There’s nothing like getting snuggled up on the couch in your jammies with your coffee while something sweet or savory is being cooked in the oven for Thanksgiving dinner, and watching the Broadway musical numbers during the Macy’s parade.
9} Throw the football around.
This is my husband’s favorite tradition! He loves having all the guys out in the street throwing around a football.
10} Make a Thanksgiving cocktail.
As Brittney said in her recent {and hilarious!} cocktail recipe round-up… Bottoms up!