Traditions
While some traditions are contrary to health (binge drinking on fishing trips or girls weekends and overeating at Christmas, for example), others can greatly add to it (such as family bike rides on Sundays). If your family doesn’t have many traditions I encourage you to think about incorporating them into your annual calendar.
Here are some of my favourites
Annual/quarterly charity run/walk
Sitting at the table for dinner
Reading at night (either to yourself or to your kids or both)
Healthy holidays - skiing if you’re in the mountains, paddle boarding if you’re by the ocean, hiking or horse riding if you’re inland
Fruit picking - fresh air, organic produce and family time rolled into one activity
Backyard camping
Spring cleaning - not only visually pleasing but cleaning the house (I mean REALLY cleaning the house) is a great workout. Windows, porches, and outdoor furniture all get a scrub down
Family game night
Special weekend breakfast - in our house when the kids were younger it was Sunday morning pancakes
Birthday Daddy/Mummy date - a friend of mine who works full time and has three young boys takes the day off on each of their birthdays and pulls them out of school to take them on a date of their choosing
The best part of the day - since my kids could talk I’ve been asking them each night as I tuck them into bed what the best part of their day was. It not only encourages gratitude for the kids but gives me an insight into what they’re thinking and how their tastes change as they get older
First day of school photos
Bad happy birthday singing - okay, so this one is likely to only be my family but when my younger cousins were little and just learning to sing Happy Birthday one of them sang completely out of tune. We all laughed and it has stuck
Yearly height measurements against a door/wall
Summer/winter solstice
Easter egg hunt
Staying in a hotel on New Year’s Eve
Fairy lights at Christmas
My favourite traditions from around the globe including
The Swedes swear by saunas
The Maltese have an Easter biscuit called figoli (pictured above)
The American traditions around Halloween include pumpkin carving, house decorating and dressing up in costume
The Mexican day of the dead ceremony
The Japanese have ceremonies involving bowing and ritualistic tea cup placement when they serve matcha in a traditional tea ceremony
Also in Japan is the cherry blossom festival
In Spain, they have a tomato harvest festival which is essentially an energetic food fight
