10 Family Traditions You Can Start Right Now

Family traditions to start now

Build your family’s bond and make new memories with these fun family traditions.

Coming together to celebrate family traditions is a wonderful way to nurture your family bond, create memories, and simply have fun with another. We’ve gathered 10 family traditions for you to try out and make your own, including weekly, monthly, and holiday activities.

1. Plan a monthly takeout night where each family member gets to choose their favorite takeout meal.

Put a fun twist on takeout by planning one night a month where each family member gets to choose their favorite takeout meal. There is a bit more planning involved if you’re driving to multiple restaurants, so turning this into a monthly tradition is a great idea.

Another fun twist is to simply allow each family member to take turns picking one restaurant to get takeout from.

2. Turn Christmas stockings and Easter baskets into a scavenger hunt.

Holiday mornings tend to be a whirlwind of energy, leaving parents little time to get ready for the day or have a cup of coffee. For major holidays like Christmas or Easter, consider hiding your kids’ stockings or Easter baskets and leaving sticky notes around your home with clues as to where you’ve hidden their prize.

This scavenger hunt will keep kids busy for a while and give you some extra time in the morning.

3. Surprise your kids with an annual ditch day from school to relax, have fun, and blow off some steam.

Skipping school certainly shouldn’t be a habit, but an annual ditch day is a fun way to surprise kids with a day off of school in a memorable fashion. The annual ditch day is also a bit of fun for parents who could also use a day off of work to reminiscence a bit about their own childhood.

You can do a family ditch day or do one individually for each child. The latter may work better if your kids have big gaps in age, as a second grader would likely have different ideas of fun compared to a high schooler.

4. Create a family happiness jar to fill with daily notes to read on New Years’ Eve.

A happiness jar only takes a few minutes to set up and only a moment every day to tend to, but it’s a heartwarming way to reminisce on the good times at the end of the year. Encourage each family member to write something they liked about their day on a scrap of paper and drop it into the jar. During your New Years’ Eve celebration, gather your family around and read off the notes.

5. In addition to the normal birthday fun, present each child with a new responsibility and new privilege cards.

A new birthday tradition to try for your kids is to give them an envelope with two cards, one with a new responsibility and the other with a new privilege. The new responsibility should be an age-appropriate task that will help teach them independence, perhaps taking out the garbage before trash day. The new privilege should be something fun and important to them, perhaps a younger sibling gets to stay up 30 minutes longer like their old siblings.

6. Host a seasonal baking championship for each major holiday your family celebrates.

To celebrate the start of a new season pick a day to host a family seasonal baking championship. Each family member can pick out a tasty seasonal recipe to make, and everyone can try out the baked goods. You can include a prize for the winner or simply make this more of a family baking session than a competition.

You could also invite other family members or friends to join in on the baking extravaganza.

7. Mark the day the Christmas tree goes up with a Christmas campout in the living room.

Putting up the Christmas tree is a momentous holiday occasion. In addition to decorating it, you could include another family tradition of a living room Christmas campout. Gather your sleeping bags or air mattresses and a bunch of your coziest linens. Sip on hot cocoa, eat your favorite Christmas cookies, and watch a holiday movie.

This idea can easily apply to any holiday!

8. Hold a weekly crazy pizza night complete with a movie or board game tournament.

Weekly pizza night can be made even more fun by having each family member make their own personal pizza complete with a mix of traditional and creative toppings. Purchase personal size cheese pizzas and set up a toppings bar on the kitchen counter with your family’s favorite toppings in addition to some whacky ones. Once the pizza creations are done, enjoy them with a family movie or a board game night.

9. Take turns having one-on-one Sunday morning breakfast dates with each of your kids.

When you have multiple kids, it can be tricky to find one-on-one time to spend with them. A great idea to add to your family traditions is to start is a Sunday morning breakfast date where each parent and each child takes turns spending time together. This gives each child and parent a chance to speak privately, enjoy each other’s company, and connect without other siblings around.

If breakfast isn’t your family’s thing, you can also do this with lunch or dinner, a movie date, or simply planning one afternoon a week dedicated to each child.

10. Celebrate bright, healthy smiles by scheduling your family’s dental checkups and cleanings on the same day.

Kids look to parents as role models, and a great way to show them the importance of oral health is through same-day dental appointments. Call your family and pediatric dentist and book your family’s preventive care appointments for the same day if possible.

After your family’s checkups and cleanings, you might celebrate with a trip to the store to pick out new oral care products.

Book your family’s dental appointment at The Tooth Doc today.

If you haven’t yet booked your family’s next dental appointments, it will only take a moment to get that taken care of today. During our normal business hours, you can call our Omaha office to schedule a date. For non-business hours, you can also fill out this handy online form, and we’ll contact you when we’re open.