https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:16:23 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032964 Wed, 21 Aug 2013 07:24:21 +0000 Ra 1032964@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am going to steal some of these!</p> <p>-we always cut down our Christmas tree. As kids, we took turns choosing and I always chose a pathetic little Charlie Brown tree. I still love Charlie Brown trees and hope to pass that quirk on to B.</p> <p>-we drove around looking at Christmas lights.</p> <p>-we have a big family party on Christmas Eve.</p> <p>-bake cookies and leave them for Santa. A carrot for Rudolph, too!</p> <p>-on Easter, my parents always hid our baskets. They got progressively harder to find the older we got. </p> <p>-we went fishing and had a picnic every year for Mother's Day. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032823 Wed, 21 Aug 2013 05:34:23 +0000 honeybear 1032823@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@78h2o: My dad took me fishing in the early AM, too! We went to the local bakery right when it opened (I think maybe the lady let us in early...she knew the drill on Saturday mornings!) for doughnuts/pastries and were at the lake's boat rental shop soon after. Never caught anything more exciting than bluegills, but I loved it! </p> <p>Our holidays were low-key, but I always made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving with my mom while watching the Macy's parade. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032771 Wed, 21 Aug 2013 02:07:56 +0000 SweetMamaM 1032771@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Bacon sandwiches for breakfast on Christmas morning! Simple and easy! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032553 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 21:02:48 +0000 Mrs. Jump Rope 1032553@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Huge on traditions over here!</p> <p>We decorate for Xmas on Black Friday<br /> We get our Xmas tree the first Saturday in December<br /> We always cut the bottom off the tree &amp; DH etches the year into it &amp; turns it into an ornament :)<br /> Stocking are always opened first</p> <p>Growing up, my dad would wake up first on Xmas morning &amp; blast Xmas music until we all woke up. we weren't allowed to open presents until everyone was awake &amp; together. This held true until we had Chloe -- they actually waited for DH &amp; I to drive home out first three married Christmases haha. This past year, they waited for us to open gifts at home with Chloe, then we drove to my parents to do gifts &amp; breakfast</p> <p>My mom always makes a HUGE Xmas bfast. </p> <p>The Easter bunny leaves tracks through the house ;)</p> <p>We plant jelly beans that turn into magic lollipops on Easter</p> <p>We buy a new ornament from the Christmas shop every time we are in manteo. I started Chloe a collection of nut crackers.</p> <p>Christmas dinner always includes risotto, polenta, stuffed chicken, and broccoli with stuffing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032544 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:59:51 +0000 78h2o 1032544@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@deerylou: oh yeah, I have a Dept 56 village that I plan on setting up when LO is old enough... when I started it, my mom and grandmother gave me pieces every year to add to my collection. LOVE the pjs idea! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032523 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:49:41 +0000 deerylou 1032523@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@78h2o: Love it! Holiday traditions is what I'm looking forward to, most of all. We have many! Let's see....DH and I have been cutting down our own tree since we started living together, so we'll definitely be doing that with LO. We also shop for one new ornament that represents the past year. We've been working on a Christmas village to keep under the tree, as well. We always open pajamas on Christmas Eve, and wear them to bed.</p> <p>Ugh. I'm a holiday nutcase. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032515 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:44:33 +0000 tinyperson 1032515@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsScallop: @Mrs. Pen: we have a December baby too, so we might need to implement half birthdays! Love it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032503 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:39:00 +0000 78h2o 1032503@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Pen: love the half-birthday idea... I am SO doing that! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032500 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:37:38 +0000 78h2o 1032500@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@deerylou: Aww... I LOVE family traditions...I'm looking forward to reading this thread! For some reason the traditions you shared totally made me tear up... very sweet. I love the dance party idea and the mugs of hot cocoa + cookies + lights!</p> <p>I love the holidays and can't wait to start special/magical traditions with my LO! Right now she is too young, but I know we'll carry on some of my family's tranditions as she gets older...</p> <p>Some things my family did that I want to do as well.... cutting down a Christmas tree at a Christmas tree farm, every night in December, choosing a Christmas book and reading it while laying under the lights of the Christmas tree (magical!), going to see the Nutcracker w/ my mom every year, and (no idea why) stockings with a tangerine and piece of almond roca at the toe. Oh! We also would buy gifts for an Angel Tree family and go to a candlelight service on Christmas eve.</p> <p>For Easter, my family followed a tradition that I believe is maybe German... the night before Easter, we'd take our clothes from the day, roll them up, and use them to make a circle or a "nest" on the floor next to our bed... the Easter bunny would come at night and put a few candies and eggs in the nest... sort of similar to a Christmas stocking!</p> <p>ETA: for St. Patrick's Day, my mom would serve green food all day long.</p> <p>For birthdays, my parents would always decorate downstairs after I went to bed or sneak helium balloons into my room while I slept, so I'd be suprised in the morning. I'd get to have an unhealthy sugary cereal for breakfast and pick my favorite meal for dinner. :)</p> <p>My dad read me every single book in the Hardy boys collection... my mom read me all the Boxcar children, Happy Hollister, and Little House on the Praire books. I enjoyed having my parents read to me every night throughout elementary school. My dad and I also had a tradition of getting up at 4am to go fishing, just the two of us, while my mom and baby sister slept. I rarely got to hang out with just my mom or dad alone and I LOVED having all their attention when it did happen. </p> <p>We'd have family Monopoly battles that would go on for HOURS...</p> <p>My grandmother had a ton of traditions that I loved... we'd have tea parties with real tea, honey, milk, and all my dolls and stuffed animals... we'd take naps laying "back-to-back" on her big bed... we'd read Ann of Green Gables and then watch all the Ann of Avonlea shows... we'd go to Barnes &amp; Noble and look at books for hours...we'd get hot chocolate or some sweet treat and she'd buy me a book and write in it.</p> <p> Hmm... that's all I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure there are more. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032472 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:28:51 +0000 MrsScallop 1032472@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Pen: I love the half-birthday idea! I have a December baby and have thought about how I might make her birthday separate from the whole holiday season. </p> <p>@deerylou: Those are really sweet traditions :)</p> <p>We never had many traditions as a family growing up. The most I can think of is that we would always always go to Chik-Fil-A for Chicken n' Biscuit sandwiches after any doctor/dentist appointment that took us out of school. I loved that :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032431 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:16:25 +0000 deerylou 1032431@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@FutureMrsMcK: That's a really sweet memory about your dad; I love that he did that.</p> <p>@Mrs. Pen: The half birthday idea is really unique! I would have really dug that, as a kid. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032422 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:14:15 +0000 Mrs. Pen 1032422@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love the holiday lights tradition - I def want to do that too! </p> <p>For Christmas my family writes letters to everyone in the family and we go around the room taking turns reading them out loud. It's very special. Although now that three of us are married (out of six children) and two of us have kids - it's getting to the point where it takes a really long time ha! But I do want to do this.</p> <p>For birthdays, my mom celebrated "half-birthdays" and it was so special! she would give us "half gifts" - half used items (from ebay/consignment), half a dollar, half of a candy bar, half of a birthday cake - it was so special! I remember being SO surprised when I found out my friends didn't have half-birthday parties lol. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032419 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:13:31 +0000 lovehoneybee 1032419@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Haha a dance party sounds awesome!</p> <p>We didn't really have any set traditions. My dad used to work the late shift at a newspaper before my parents got divorced and we didn't see him much because of it, so every Friday night he'd come and wake up me and my brothers when he got home (around 2-3AM), we'd camp out in the living room and watch a movie and eat popcorn and popsicles. I specifically remember a Three Stooges movie one night. DH works late (last night he didn't get home until nearly 2AM) so I can see this being something we do in the future.</p> <p>ETA: Oh, we did the Christmas Lights drive too! We'd go to my uncle's house (they lived like 5 minutes away), have hot chocolate and watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (the cartoon one) and then we'd all load up with thermoses and drive around and look at the lights. Later we all went to a midnight candle light service at the church. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/unique-amp-fun-family-traditions#post-1032413 Tue, 20 Aug 2013 20:07:44 +0000 deerylou 1032413@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love hearing about the different ways families incorporate memorable traditions into their holidays, special occasions, weekends, and weeknights. </p> <p>What kind of traditions do you have in your household?</p> <p>Did you have any interesting traditions in your home, growing up? Do you share them, and keep them alive with your own children?</p> <p>When I was young, we would have dance parties in our living room about once a month - my mom kept a big chest of ornate hats, and we would choose a different one each time, before spending the next few hours dancing to my parents' favorite tunes - Rolling Stones, Louis Prima, Paul Simon, etc.</p> <p>On Christmas Eve, we would bake holiday cookies, pack them along with thermoses of hot chocolate, and drive around, looking at holiday lights. Before going to bed, we would sprinkle a mixture of oats and glitter onto the grass, from a red, velvet pouch. The scent of oats were supposed to attract the reindeer, and the glitter would direct Santa to our home.</p> <p>I hope to introduce both of these traditions to my kiddos. I also want to have at least one "tech-free" night, per week. All phones, computers, television, and devices will be turned off in favor of board games, crafts, cooking, and outdoor activities. </p> <p>Share some of your own! </p>