How to establish lasting Family Traditions for the New Year

What better New Years resolution than one to help strengthen your family ties? Family traditions or rituals help link the past, present, and future while solidifying your family unit. You can pick a tradition to do every New Years day or one to do more often depending on your children’s age and willingness to participate. Following the simple guidelines below will help ensure your New Years resolution to establish a family tradition will be successful!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Keep it Simple
   The less complicated and expensive a tradition is, the more likely it will be continued. If you and your family have little free time select a new tradition that just occurs once a month or once a year. Do not overwhelm yourself with a weekly tradition if you don’t have time for one.
2. Make it Meaningful
   If the tradition has a powerful meaning behind it you will be less likely to allow yourself, or your family, to forget or skip it. Examples: Visits to a near-by retirement home, planting a tree every New Years day, picking up trash along highway, volunteering in a soup kitchen, walking dogs at a local animal shelter.
3. Get Everyone’s Opinion
   Your family will be more motivated to participate in an ongoing tradition if they all have input in selecting what it is and how often it will be implemented. This doesn’t mean everyone has to agree, but hear them out and go with the majority.
4. Schedule It
   If your family tradition is something that will occur more than once a year, make a point of writing it on the family calendar. Nothing says “we really are doing this” like seeing it writing in ink! You will be reinforcing the importance of your tradition and making it next to impossible to forget to carry it out.
5. Document Them
   Take photos of your families participation in the tradition, they will be cherished for years to come and will last longer than the memories alone.