creating a tradition

[MikiSophia]

hi-

i am a new mom and am interested in creating a holiday tradition for my family that does not involve buying tons of gifts, eating unhealthy food, and stressing out. my partner is an athiest and i lean more towards pagan ideas. i've been thinking of meaningful things we can do, fun things, things that create that same sense of warmth and love that the christmas traditions i grew up with were meant to create.

already for birthdays, with friends, when we get together, we make everyone go around and share how they met the person and/or something they love about them, or a song, poem, or image for the person. it is a great gift, i find, and accommodates everyone's budget!

i am wondering if you have any traditions you practice that are meaningful and don't cost a lot or ideas for them...

[philomom]

See our winter solstice thread.

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1338080/if-you-celebrate-winter-solstice-what-do-you-do#post_16781421

[Just1More]

I haven't read the winter solstice thread, but here are a few things our kids expect every year:

make snowflakes (just a folded white sheet of square paper, and scissors)

make reindeer shirts (traced footprint for head, and hands for antlers) (at thanksgiving, we do turkey shirts with handprints, and I am sewing them onto a tablecloth to pull out every year.  i'm guessing you dont' want to do reindeer, but maybe a handprint/i'm growing thing might work)

make birdseed pinecones, some years i've strung cranberries or popcorn, too.  as the kids get older, and can do more, we'll offer more for our outdoor friends to eat in the winter.

this year we made snow globes (glue a plastic figure on the inside of the lid of a mason jar, squirt in a little bit of glycerin or baby soap, fill with distilled water and a sprinkle of glitter, put on the lid, and tada!  even better if you paint the lid festively.  we live in the woods, so tmrw I hope to go outside and find some fun natural things to put in the jars instead.)

[Erin77]

We have a family film festival, where my parents, aunt and uncle, my brother, my husband and I, and soon, my son, each choose a movie. We watch them together when we're all visiting and separately when we're not, and then vote on the best one. We have a theme, like, "Place Names in Title" or "Must include Beach or Wave in the title." It's really fun and non-commercial. Also, we make time to do a donation and spend a few hours volunteering every holiday season.

[AllisonR]

We do a daily calendar - HOWEVER it is not the typical junk gifts. I kept a bunch of their baby socks and then decorated the boring ones with lace, ribbons, buttons, fabric.... We have 25, and then we hang them on a really wild tree branch that was painted red. Instead of candy or junk in the socks, there is a number and a message. The message is generally things to do together - and some of them would have happened anyway - like go pick out a Christmas Tree, or drive around and see all the Christmas lights. Some others were like buy a gift for your brother / sister, make homemade candy cane cookies, paint a picture for grandma and grandpa.... And if a day was really crazy already, then I did make it something simple like have some chocolate.

[MikiSophia]

such great ideas. thank you!