TRADITIONS

Today is my birthday, and lately I have been reminiscing a lot about my childhood, birthdays and holidays that we celebrated as a family. The older I get, the more I start going back to my childhood memories, and life in general. I'm going to do a little trip down memory lane, about holidays and traditions I had as a child, and how I have continued contributing them in to my present life.

Christmas:
Our Christmas was full of beautiful decorations, a
huge Christmas tree, flowers, delicious foods, baked goods, Christmas music and of course Santa Claus and presents!

Halloween:
My oh my... perhaps my all time favourite holiday after Christmas as a child! People would start preparing their houses weeks before. Yards were decorated with everything you could imagine. Monsters, spiders, webs, witches, lights and sound affects. On Halloween, we would gather with our neighbour friends, and go trick or treating. It was so fun to get home afterwards, to count and eat all the candies we got!



Easter:
Was always a cheerful celebration. We always spent our Sundays at church, but Easter Sunday was a special day at Sunday school. We did lots of fun activities, crafting and then we got to hunt for Easter eggs.

Thanksgiving:
Was a day to be thankful and grateful for all we had. We would dress up and have a huge turkey dinner and just spend time as a family.

4th of July:
One of the happiest days of the year! A day that was usually a perfect summer day, full of laughter, play, barbecue food and lots of fireworks! I remember being outside all day, running in the sun!

My mother kept certain traditions as long as she could, before my sister and I were old enough to start celebrating certain holidays in our own way. Between my late teens and early twenties, holidays didn't really feel important anymore. But SURPRISE!! After I became a mother, my need to set traditions grew stronger. 

I try to make a fun and interesting Halloween every year, although I know it's tough beating the experiences I had as a child in America. I usually turn our home in to a haunted house, the kids dress up and I create a candy hunt within the house, since most countries do not have the tradition of trick or treating.

Christmas is a very emotional time of the year for me. I love cooking, baking, decorating the house and Christmas tree. I play Christmas songs from morning till evening. We have Christmas dinner and sauna on the 24th. Before bedtime, the kids leave cookies and milk for Santa Claus, who comes during the night to drop off presents. On the 25th the kids wake up to presents under the tree, and the day is filled with play, ultimate relaxing and eating leftovers and goodies ALL DAY! Although I do spend a lot of time preparing, I definitely do remember to live in the moment. 

Something I would like to introduce to our children is church. I know we wouldn't be going every Sunday like I did as a child, but I would love to bring them to church at least once in a while. A new tradition could be church on Easter Sunday or during the Christmas holidays for example. I wouldn't say I am religious, but I do believe in a higher power and I am a very spiritual person, and my spiritualism does feel stronger when I visit church. I would like for our children to get to know what church is and to connect with their spiritual side too. 

I am forever grateful to my parents for setting traditions for our family when I was a child. Because of those traditions, I carry the most warmest memories of my childhood holidays and celebrations. Those warm memories allow me to pass on old and new traditions to our children, which hopefully they will carry on, and keep in their memories, and pass on to their future family and children.

How do you feel about traditions?

Did traditions play a big role in your childhood and have you carried them on to your adulthood? 

I would love to hear about that! Leave a comment below!

Xoxo