Family time is precious, and many parents lack the time or financial freedom to devote more of their time to their family and make lasting memories. That’s why it’s essential to put away all smartphones during this critical time. Everyone can check their Facebooks later.
Traditions can be a powerful motivator. They allow you to spend some structured, meaningful time with your family and make lasting memories. It is never good to enforce traditions on anyone, but having fun ones can encourage everyone to take the time and participate.
Accordingly, we’ve come up with a few simple family traditions to start immediately.
Family Traditions to Start
These family traditions are simple, inexpensive, and can help your family come together, bond, and make lifelong memories.
· Annual Family Portrait
An annual family portrait is nothing new. People have been doing it since before photography existed. However, you don’t have to do it the traditional way. We recommend picking the same spot every year and sticking to the same pose and placement.
It can be a special place in your home, a public place, or on holiday when everyone is together. Over time, you will have a collection of annual family portraits that you can turn into a montage of your kids growing up.
Your kids can take it to college, share it with your grandkids, or you can carry on the tradition and grow your portrait to the next generation. This is a fun tradition that doesn’t require much effort or time but will create lasting memories.
· Time Capsule – Family Edition
Many have tried these at school, but time capsules can be a wonderful family tradition. You can do this annually or once every few years. You can even pick milestones to create these treasure troves, like when a kid graduates, earns their first paycheck, gets married, or has a child of their own.
The whole family can leave small messages or deep, meaningful letters to be opened later or the next milestone. This is a beautiful family tradition that every family should incorporate. The thoughts and things that seem dull or ordinary right now can be very meaningful or funny when you dig them up a few years later.
· Family Movie / Game Night or Sports Day
This is another old one, but it’s great for family bonding. You can have a monthly movie or game night, where the entire family gets together to watch a movie everyone can enjoy or play some board games. Afterward, everyone can review and rate the movie or keep a family scoreboard for games.
If you have a large and adventurous family, you can opt for a sports day instead, where the whole family plays team sports like football, basketball, baseball, or soccer. Have your extended family join in, and you can make entire teams compete in a tournament. Smaller families can play ping pong, tennis, racquetball, or mini-golf tournaments.
Conclusion
Children grow up so fast and soon leave the nest to make their own families. The mentioned family traditions to start will help you capture the best moments in life and create beautiful memories through family tradition.
Try them out, especially if you lack time freedom or financial freedom in your life. These traditions are an affordable and timely way to encourage the whole family to continue getting together for years to come.
