Holiday Celebrations & Traditions

Holiday Traditions Ideas
This is just a list of traditions we thought sounded interesting and don't want to forget! Some come from our growing-up years, some from friends, others from other blogs!


New Year's Eve/Day:
Make and write down specific predictions for the coming year (births, cars, jobs, growing milestones, etc.)
Read through last year's predictions and see how close you were!
Homemade Pizza Night - see how many unique and creative pizzas you can come up with
Play "Minute to Win It" as a family or with a group of people
Play a family sport on New Year's Day


Valentine's Day:
Family Love Notes- have a valentine for each person and pass them around the circle so each member can write what they love about that person in their valentine. At the end, each family member will have a card full of reasons why they are loved by their family.
Have kids paint a small/medium terra cotta pot and use it yearly to fill with valentine's candy and put in their spot at the breakfast table
Heart pancakes for breakfast (you can dye them red, too)
Have family members write a valentine to each other family member
Have the "Love Blanket" and pass it from family member to family member daily, but it requires an act of service or doing something nice for another family member before passing it on to them.


St. Patrick's Day:
Dye the milk green. You just have to.
Serve green eggs and ham
Leprechaun Gold- each child gets some chocolate coins and have to tell the family a blessing they have for each coin. Talk about luck vs. blessings!


Easter:
Read daily from an Easter Book the week before Easter. Go through each day of Jesus' last week.
(Ideas of what to include in the book: scriptures for kids or adult study, ways to retell stories for kids, art depicting that week, actual pictures of the places in Jerusalem currently, songs you can sing, etc.)
Dye Easter eggs
One tradition is to dye one dark red and hide it among the rest of the eggs (it represents the blood of Christ, and Eastern European tradition, or so I'm told)
Have an Easter egg hunt of real eggs on Sunday morning. Include 1-7 plastic eggs for each child to find (marked with an initial or choose a color for each kid to find.) Fill the plastic eggs with representations of the Savior's life or of His last week in Jerusalem and after the egg hunt have the kids explain the symbols that were in a couple of the eggs they found
Examples for filling: a cracker (Last Supper), a band-aid (healing the sick), a leaf (palm Sunday), coins (cleansing the temple or parable of talents/widow's mite), chalk (Jesus as a teacher), etc.
The Monday after, for FHE, have a lesson about 3 Nephi 11 in the Book of Mormon (When Jesus visits the people), and build a Nephite tower out of rice crispies
Make "Eggs a-la Goldenrod" for breakfast on easter morning using the dyed eggs

April Fool's Day:

Make cold-stone style ice cream creations (get a few base flavors, and a bunch of fun add-ins, make sure to mash it all around in a mixing bowl, etc)

May Day:
Have kids make flowers (construction paper, popsicle sticks, etc.) and deliver to someone who is alone or needs a lift


Cinco de Mayo:
Spanish food for dinner!


Memorial Day:
Have kids go to a cemetery and make a crayon print of a headstone. See if they can find anything about the person's life online or elsewhere.
Tell stories from family history


July 4th:
Carve a watermelon
Watch fireworks from the roof
Read the Preamble of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of Independence (or read these on President's Day or Memorial Day)


Halloween:
Harry Potter watch party (chocolate frogs, pumpkin juice, butterbeer, Dobby cake, Pretzel rod chocolate wands, etc)

Donuts on a string
Witches brew (with dry ice)
Carving pumpkins
Put plastic spiders inside your clear soap dispensers for the month
Chili and cornbread

Veteran's Day:
Find a local nursing home or rest home that has Veterans. Have family members write thank you's and deliver them to the Veterans, thanking them in person!


Thanksgiving:
Place a couple corn kernels under each plate. When the meal is over, each person lists something they are grateful for for each kernel under his or her plate.
Layered Jello in every color...see "Sides" recipes!

Thanksgiving Egg rolls the next day, dipped in gravy

Turkey noodle soup  
Make candy corn - Oreo turkeys (just Google it)
Make a bunch of paper leaves and either:
Write something you're thankful for on a leaf each day and tape it to the paper tree
On each leaf, write a way to show your gratitude for something specific. Tape these all to the tree and pull one off each day to do with your family
Examples:
Grateful for teachers - write a letter of appreciation to take to school
Grateful for the beauty of nature - go on a family walk
Grateful for your ears - listen to fun music together
Grateful for your sister - do something nice for her today


Christmas:
Advent candles on Sundays (making related treat after), advent calendar candle nightly

Pick a Christmas tradition from a different culture, learn about it, and try it out if you want to
Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast
Get a pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve for the family picture on the stairs in the morning
Have the Christmas Elf visit your home...just look for "Elf on a shelf" on Google or Pinterest. The idea is that every day family member wake up to the elf in a surprise location doing something mischievous.
Do the 12 days of Christmas for someone else (decide on deliveries and work on it as a family!)
On Christmas Eve, do a Nativity reenactment, have hot chocolate, and sing carols/hymns
Kindness paper chain or wrapped box - place paper with a kind thing done, open box on Christmas

Secret Pals - draw names of someone in the family every weekend, spend the week doing nice things for them

Birthdays:
Use a special plate for the birthday person
Breakfast served in bed with the rest of the family eating in the room
Choose any breakfast cereal to eat on their own
Have your dream meal for dinner
Birthday girl/boy not allowed to do the dishes!