Holiday traditions are things we all remember for a lifetime. Now that we are moms, we often rely on our childhood memories of fun family events to create special occasions for our own families. The memories of the holidays long ago still warm our hearts especially times with grandparents and family members who gone to a better place.
We usually kick off our big Holiday traditions with Thanksgiving. The Texas grandparents come for the big feast. We start cooking on Wednesday so we have time for special traditions on Thanksgiving morning. Almost every year we take our children to help set up the holiday meal at a local food pantry. After the set up, we go by the local zoo for a wonderful three-hour-tour. We get home just in time to pop in the turkey (or in Texas– deep fry the turkey) for an early afternoon seating. Setting the table has become really fun since we now make favor bags for each of the children that they can’t open until dinner time. We incorporated this tradition from a friend who developed it as a way to teach her children patience and to keep the table talk merry.
The following day we take down our thanksgiving crafts (we decorate for every holiday with the children’s school crafts) and put up the Christmas decorations. We sing Christmas carols and drink hot cocoa while decorating with the grandparents. We also set up one of our most extraordinary traditions: the Christmas countdown. The children write-up a list of their 25 favorite ways to celebrate Christmas and then cut them up into fun little slips which are placed into a Christmas hot cocoa mug. Every morning the children take turns picking out a slip for a fun event that we do as a family to help us count down the days until the big event. Some of the festive ideas are: making Christmas smoothies, preparing christmas for a needy family, baking christmas cookies and Canadian butter tarts, telling holiday jokes by a fire and family dance night to Christmas tunes.
Now putting on our marketing hats, these holiday tradition are a great opportunity for Brands to brainstorm on new traditions and innovations. We recently saw a wonderful promotion where Reynolds Wrap built a contest around holiday baking. However, Brands have to walk a fine line by not starting the events too early or making it over the top because many moms believe Christmas has become way too commercial. This is why we love our simple, easy but extraordinary holiday traditions.
What are some of your favorites? We would love to hear.
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- A great blog with fun things to do in NYC this season: 3rd Annual Holiday Blog
- TODAY anchors share their favorite holiday memories (allday.today.com)
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