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It was Christmas Eve 2011. As I crouched down on all fours, holding my pregnant belly, barely able to breathe because of the pain, I had one request for my husband: “Take our son and go get the Christmas Pizza!! And quick!” Reluctantly, he loaded the boy and himself into the car and drove off.
He had to, after all. It was family tradition. Damned if I was in labor! If this baby was really going to be born in the following hours we needed that Christmas Pizza this year more than we ever had before.
What Do Family Traditions Mean to You?
Traditions are important family rituals that carry purpose and meaning. They give a family a sense of identity and emotional connectedness. Family traditions symbolize values we share and keep us connected during transition and conflict.
Kids who live in homes where family traditions are practiced are confident and resilient. In the face of whatever goes wrong in their life, they have family traditions to hold on to. Family traditions are comforting. They give us something to look forward to and to fall back on.
Family traditions can be big or small. In our family we have small daily traditions that we practice like eating dinner together, reading together at night, and saying prayers. We have weekly traditions like family game night, going to church together, and eating pancakes made by Dad on Saturday morning. We also have bigger, seasonal family traditions that center around holidays, birthdays, and vacations. We go camping every summer, we eat pizza on Christmas, and when a new baby is born we sing “Happy Zero-eth Birthday” to him or her and eat cake without any candles on it.
These family traditions are what make us unique as a family. They give our kids something to look forward to and something to count on. They give our kids a sense of identity, that belonging to our family means we walk to church on Sundays and go to Voodoo doughnuts after we visit the doctor’s office.
Reading: A Favorite Family Tradition
Many of our favorite family traditions are focused around reading books together. We always start our homeschool day by snuggling on the couch to read together. At night we read classics to the kids (The Indian in the Cupboard is one of their favorites) as they lie in their beds and relax.
Giving and receiving books as birthday and Christmas presents is the norm around our house. We even have special holiday books that we pack away with our holiday decorations. The kids are always thrilled to see their favorite Christmas and Easter books appear each season! In 2011 I bought the kids the Little Children’s Christmas Music Book. Every December we pull it out and the house rings with sentimental melodies as the kids take turns pushing the buttons.
This year my goal is to deepen our family library with more holiday books. It will be a family tradition to read these books together during the holidays and to add more books each year. I am going to start with Monsters Aren’t Real for Halloween and Christmas Stories for Little Children for Christmas. I’ll add more books as other holidays come. Will you join me? What books are on your list to add this year? What books will your family anticipate reading for years to come?
The Christmas Pizza
There is no doubt that traditions are vitally important in our families. Maintaining tradition was important enough to me to send my husband out for the Christmas Pizza while in the throes of labor! And you know what? Not only were we happy to have something to eat while we snuggled our new little baby, we were also happy to have held on to our family tradition that year. The story of the Christmas Pizza serves as a humorous addition to our daughter’s beautiful birth story as we traditionally tell her the story each Christmas Eve.
What a sweet story! I have a similar one…our daughter was born on Dec 23rd. We headed for home on Christmas Eve, but I insisted that my hubby stop for the Christmas donuts on our way home so we could still have our tradition. Traditions are so important!
That is so sweet! I think holding onto tradition is particularly important in times of change and transition. What bigger change than adding a child to your family! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Love this! We are BIG into traditions in our family, and I know they work because my girls are 12 and 16, and they tell me again and again how much our rituals mean to them. Honestly, I don’t want to see the bad day Family Pizza Night, for example, can’t make at least a little better. Keep up the good work…stopping by from the Thoughtful Spot! 🙂
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your experience!
Our kids are still little, but I recently checked out a book at the library called the Book of new Family Traditions by Meg Cox and I love it. I love to think about my kids growing up remembering the things I try to be intentional about today. It’s encouraging to hear that it worked out that way in your family!
That sounds like a great book! I’ll have to check it out 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I have great memories of family traditions and I love keeping them going with my daughter. It sounds like you kick off your homeschool day in the best way – cuddling together with a good book! Thanks for sharing at the Thoughtful Spot!
I love the story of your Christmas Pizza. My husband and I started a lot of traditions after our children were born. One of my favorites is that Santa leaves them an ornament every year so they will have a tree full when they get older. Thanks for sharing at the #Made4Kids Link Party!
I love this post! Thank you so much for sharing it with us at Hip Homeschool Moms on the Hop last week! I love family traditions too. As my children get older (They are 20, 18, and 12.), it gets harder to maintain some of the daily and weekly traditions because of work schedules, ballet lessons, and other obligations, but we still strive to maintain holiday traditions and some other more frequent traditions even during our busy lives! Thank you for this sweet post and great reminder that traditions are worth keeping. 🙂
I have worked so hard to have family traditions and recently when my daughter was writing a paper anout family traditions, she said we didnt have any and if we did she was excited about them…..my heart basically fell thriugh the floor…..not what i was expectong….