It feels good to have and make family traditions, even more so in a Single Parent family. It gives my daughter (Miss 13) a greater sense of family and connection, the traditions are a bit ‘special’, she can rely on them & we do also have loads of fun with them 🙂
These are some of our unique ones:
1. Milk Shakes at Midnight – On your Birthday ‘eve’
On the ‘eve’ of Miss 13’s Birthday every year, I wake her up, wish her Happy Birthday and ask her if she wants to get up for a Midnight Milkshake.
It’s a special way to start the Birthday. While drinking the Milkshake, I also give her one little present to open, and then she crawls back into bed and into Milky sleepy birthday dreaminess!
2. See your Birthday IN and OUT
Every year I always see IN my Birthday, stay up ’til Midnight (and wish myself a Happy Birthday if I’m by myself) and then I love to see it OUT the other end past midnight also.
Now that Miss 13 is older…she gets to see Midnight IN and OUT this year too.
3. Compromise your Christmas tree
We have so much fun decorating our tree, once finished, we stand back and admire our handiwork…
Then it’s ready-set-go & the two of us race around the house looking for the oddest looking things we can find anywhere to compromise our tree…
It’s a great unique talking point when friends come over to see if they can spot all the funny things on it.
We’ve had Bendable plastic Frogs, Pegs, Snorkeling Masks, Photo’s, Rubber Ducks, a Roll of Toilet paper…even Christmassy looking undies.
4. Christmas tree stays up well into the New Year
We love seeing the sparkly lights go on with a timer every night and we turn off the house lights leaving just the warm glow of the tree.
One year we kept ours up until around June (seriously)…yes people June…yes it’s nuts…some were jealous…others scoffed and laughed…don’t care – we like it.
5. Always…always write Thank you cards/notes
Miss 13 has made Thank You cards for friends & family who have given her presents ever since she was little and we have continued it on.
Usually it’s simply made on the computer with a general fun note about the event with photos on the front. We print off as many as she needs and then she writes by hand their names and a personal note in each one.
Sometimes our cards are really-really late, but figure with a Thank You card, it’s still better late than never.
6. Christmas Stocking – Always has an Orange in the bottom
The olden day tradition of ‘putting an Orange in the bottom’ seemed like a fun idea and I have done so in Mis 13’s stocking now for years.
Every year, funny enough she temporarily forgets, so she’s getting to the bottom of her stocking and gets all excited about the big heavy thing in the bottom, pulls it out & goes “oooahhhh, it’s an orange”….and then says “oh yeah, that’s right ‘THE Orange 🙂
7. Christmas is what you make it
We are not tied down to Christmas dinner & all the trimmings (even though we do love to be part of that too)…
We do Christmas wherever we are & whoever we are with & we can do whatever we want. Remembering ‘why’ we celebrate it, rather than how ‘perfect’ it can be.
One year was Chocolate fondue instead of traditional Christmas food & a lazy afternoon at Plimmerton beach. Another year a big bunch of us stayed deep in the isolated heart of North Otago at a High Country Sheep farm awesomeness.
This year, who knows?
8. ‘Beeping through Tunnels’ is the car rules
Yup, always – always – always beep through every tunnel no matter who you are with (Queen of England = Beep).
By the way, you just can’t beep once! You beep ALOT & vary it up, all whilst concentrating on your driving of course and Wellingtons Mt Vic tunnel can either be a feast or a famine of getting return beeps.
We arrived at the airport once to pick up my Mom looking just a tad sheepish. We found great hilarity in telling her we had ‘broken’ the horn, as we beeped so much through the tunnel that it was no longer working!
It ‘kind of’ started working again a couple of hours later, but at like 20%, and would just let out this soft ‘phhrrrrrp’ like it was in pain ;-).
9. Toilet roll Notes, Jokes and Artwork rock
One night I randomly wrote a note on the Toilet Paper roll to Miss 13, telling her she was awesome, I loved her very much and I drew a wee picture…for her to find either during the night or in the morning.
A new fun tradition started of us writing notes, jokes or drawing pictures on the toilet roll to surprise each other often, sometimes the notes got really-really long and you had to unroll it heaps.
Yes, there was the odd time that a-night-time-sleepy-eyes-closed-wee resulted in the person not seeing the new note or picture before they used the TP!
10. Green Iced Animal biscuits – Hide n Seek
One day Miss 13 threw at me (in fun) a rouge worse for wear Green Iced Animal Biscuit…
That night I hid it in her Shoe.
…The next night I found it in my Bed!
…The next night I put it in her dressing gown pocket.
… I found it 2 weeks later in my Ugg Boot (much to her delight).
…Now to find a new place to hide it tonight?…
What about you, what unique family traditions have you started? Are they something you did as a kid, or have they just ‘developed’ over time?
