It’s here! Ahh, the holiday season is already here. That came really fast. I swear the pool just closed up. This week I want to talk traditions. Holiday traditions. We all have them. Be it certain recipes, outings, sports games, and gatherings. What do you do with your family?
One tradition I thought I would share is something I’ve been doing since I learned to hold a crayon. Thanksgiving dinner place cards. Every year my entire family would gather at my aunt’s house for Thanksgiving. Surrounded by my aunts, uncles, and cousins we would have a big family Thanksgiving dinner. Of course there was the “grown-up” table and the “kids” table, but every year I would make place cards for each table. It sort of became expected after a while. Now, it’s still expected but I have given the job to my boys. My mother has already asked if they boys were making the place cards for this year’s feast. But of course mom!
This weekend we worked on our place cards. I’m particularly excited for this years dinner because my cousin and his daughters are going to be their as well. A big Thanksgiving just like we used to have. We gathered our construction paper and glue this weekend and started making turkeys. I’m having a hard time handing over the torch…I still give them the idea and tell them what to do. Maybe next year Logan will be old enough to decide for us all and take over the tradition himself. Although if I let that happen I think our place cards would resemble T-Rex rather than turkeys or pilgrims.
I really do enjoy doing this and continuing this tradition. What are some of your favorite traditions? Please share.
What a cute tradition!! Love it!
Super cute! And what a great way to occupy the kiddos while the grown-ups are doing their parts to get the feast underway. I will definitely be giving this a try this year!
Hello WTKGTB, I’m going to call you that because I don’t actually know your name, I hope that’s ok. Traditions interest me a lot. In my own family we have two cultures to draw upon for tradition – I am English and my wife is Ecuadorian. We have three children aged 15, 12 and 4 years with an interesting and varied mixture of features and colouring. The older two children seem to have chosen to identify more strongly with one culture over the other, with my daughter considering herself more English and our older son strongly identifying with his Latin roots.
One of the more obvious ways that this cultural leaning has manifested itself is through the food that we eat. My daughter seems to prefer more traditional English dishes and my son, unsurprisingly enjoys the many different dishes that my wife will prepare from her native Ecuador. It is interesting to see how closely many of our traditions are tied to the sharing of food and the company of loved ones.
In my house we have now adopted the tradition of enjoying our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve at night. The obvious advantage of this is that we get to enjoy another tradition on Christmas Day – Christmas Dinner at my mum’s. I am not too sure about Thanksgiving, as it is not a tradition that we have in the UK, but Christmas dinner for us is a huge roast dinner with seasonal vegetables and (usually) a Turkey.
On our trips to Ecuador to visit the ‘In-Laws’ we have exported the concept of the ‘Sunday Roast’ and a new tradition has been born which is a fusion of British and Latin cooking at the Sunday dinner table. This is now a large family event rotated around four different houses that take turns to host the extended family which now encompasses four generations.
It would be wonderful to think that this may survive and prosper, and that the children who now enjoy this weekly meal might take up the baton and serve the same or something similar to their children at their own Sunday Lunch. They probably won’t remember why they do so, but it will be a tradition.
That’s great that you share both cutures with you children. Amazing how they each lean a different way; one toward English, the other leaning more toward the Latin roots. Thanks for sharing.
When I think of Thanksgiving I always remember you making the place cards. It was so sweet. I wonder if your Mom saved any. Can’t wait till Thursday! Love you, Auntie Pam
so cute, what a great idea!!!
So adorable! Maybe I’ll do this with the kids to keep them busy while the turkey cooks! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
i can’t wait for B to be a little older to make place cards for our Thanksgiving table! I used to do it when i was little for my Mom’s table! 🙂
This is adorable! Thanks. My kids are doing them this year too! Happy Turkey Day!
I love your tradition. How adorable is that!
That is so sweet. What a great tradition. When I was a kid we used to all write what we were thankful for on the white tablecloth, with a fabric pen. We celebrate Thanksgiving in NY with my in-laws now but I think I need to come up with some kind of tradition for my kids anyway. 🙂
I love that idea!! We always go around the table and say what we’re thankful for, but I love the writing.
THis is adorable! This is the first year we’re hosting Thanksgiving and I did the same thing with my girls- made cute turkey placecards! I love how yours came out! (and you’re right about having a hard time not controlling how it comes out.. LOL.)
That is a really sweet turkey! Unfortunately, we don’t really have any traditions besides the regular meal but I’d love to change that!
We have continued to the third generation the scavenging for pretty woodsy things to add to our Thanksgiving centerpiece……we make also make crafts and discuss why it is important to actually be thankful.