Traditions In Your Family

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Many of you have traditions that were passed on to you from your families, or that you may have started, that have had a positive impact on your family (either by helping it grow in virtues, learning about the Church etc or just by helping unite the family).

I think it would be great if you could share some of these, so we can learn and possibly even apply them to our families. I know I would love to hear and learn from others here on the forums.

For example, when I was little during Advent my mom would take out a small cradle she had (that came with a Baby Jesus figure) kinda like this: http://www.marianland.com/automchurchsupply/ES624.JPG
All through Advent we had to work on making that cradle soft, preparing it for when Baby Jesus would arrive and lay in it (Dec. 25). For every sacrifice or good deed we did we were allowed to put a straw (or a few straws, depending on what we did) of hay in the cradle. I think that was a really neat way to help us learn about preparing our soul for Christmas.

BTW, my example was “religious” but yours doesn’t have to be.
 
We break aplatke (uh-plot-key, and I am not certain it is spelled right) at Christmas. It is an unleavened bread, much like a communion wafer, about hte size of a large index card. It gets passed around the table, and we each have to say something nice about the next person, then break a piece off, dip it in honey (or syrup) and eat it.

We usually end up a little misty eyed. It is a great time to share all the feelings you might otherwise wish you had shared before it was too late. Not many people can approach their parents, grandparents, siblings, or other relatives with, “I love you for being you, and you are great,” without sounding fake or like they’re trying to get something.
 
We have our Advent Candle Wreath, of course and our Advent Calendar. We also pray before the Nativity Scene every night as a family before we go to bed!
 
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lifeisbeautiful:
Many of you have traditions that were passed on to you from your families, or that you may have started, that have had a positive impact on your family (either by helping it grow in virtues, learning about the Church etc or just by helping unite the family).

I think it would be great if you could share some of these, so we can learn and possibly even apply them to our families. I know I would love to hear and learn from others here on the forums.

For example, when I was little during Advent my mom would take out a small cradle she had (that came with a Baby Jesus figure) kinda like this: http://www.marianland.com/automchurchsupply/ES624.JPG
All through Advent we had to work on making that cradle soft, preparing it for when Baby Jesus would arrive and lay in it (Dec. 25). For every sacrifice or good deed we did we were allowed to put a straw (or a few straws, depending on what we did) of hay in the cradle. I think that was a really neat way to help us learn about preparing our soul for Christmas.

BTW, my example was “religious” but yours doesn’t have to be.
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We did that too, but we were assigned a person in our family to direct our good deeds toward, and for every special thing we did, we placed a piece of straw in the manger. 🙂 My mom called it Advent Angels.
 
When my kids were little, at Thanksgiving time we would make just the body of a turkey from construction paper and glue this onto a large poster board. Then we’d cut out different colored feathers so each child had enough for every day in Nov. until Thanksgiving day. Each evening the kids would come up with something they were thankful for, write it on the feather and then glue it onto the poster board.

Each night at prayer we’d then thank God for the item they were thankful for that day, and by Thanksgiving we’d have a beautiful and colorful turkey, full of everything they were thankful for that our guests loved looking at!
 
Thanks, so far these are really neat ideas 🙂 I appreciate you sharing them with us.
 
We have “fast-food Fridays” - pay-day Friday’s when instead of eating a home-cooked meal, we got out to our local fast-food place.

Kinda silly, but it generates great excitment in our home… 😛
 
A tradition that started back in 1980’s when my daughter was little, she wanted to buy a “birthday present” for Baby Jesus. We thought it was so cute.:love: She got up that morning and sang “Happy Birthday Dear Jesus” (talk about tears welling up in your eyes) Since then every year the youngest picks out a little gift and place it by under the tree. My children have since grown but we continue now with the Grandchildren. It’s hard sometimes with all the hoppla with Santa and the like, to stress the real Meaning of Christmas to very young children. Now they have grown up and give a present or two to the “Giving Tree” every year to the poor children of the Parish., along with last years gift to Jesus. (its been everything from Barbies to hot wheels to ninja turtle or whatever they think Baby Jesus would like)
 
We too have started the Advent Wreath and Advent Calendar tradition since DS was born.
Also we always have at least one, if not more mangers in the house.
 
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