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Are you looking for a New Year family tradition to start this year with your family?
I love traditions! I cherish the things my family did growing up and feel it is so important to carry them forward. Sometimes I do so in my own way.
This year I’m starting something new with my family. We have yet to establish anything really special for New Year’s Day. So, after putting a great deal of thought into it, I decided to invite the family to a planning session.
Here’s how!
INTENTION
Looking forward together is a good way to pull each family member into the celebrations for the New Year.
But in an effort to bring the fun to the party and skip the family meeting feeling for our family, we are going to make this a game. We will plan the fun we want to have in 2024 on purpose.
THE INSPIRATION
A few years ago, for Christmas, my husband and I gave our children minimal physical gifts and instead wrapped twelve experience gifts.
The goal was to do one experience a month. We did that, but the process didn’t feel like a perfect fit for our family.
We’ve since found that we enjoy giving them gifts. We do still try to keep the quantity of gifts slightly minimal.
But the experiences are such a fun idea!
OUR NEW TRADITION
This year, I plan to use the experience plans as part of our New Year tradition. To do this we will pull out a list and work as a family to construct a bucket list for our upcoming year.
I have been making these on a small scale for my family for each month for quite some time.
But this year, we will have our family decide on one fun experience per month together while making sure each member has plenty of opportunity to do the choosing.
SETTING UP THE TRADITION
We will draw a number out of a bowl to see the order we get to choose things. I have a list of fun ideas to get those creative ideas flowing. They are welcome to throw out any ideas they want though. Obviously, my husband and I will have to make sure each idea is realistic for our budget. If we approve it, we will find the most reasonable month to add it.
SAY CHEESE!
I want to do two things with these experiences. The first is to use an instax camera and let the kids take a couple photos to hang on a board in our home. They LOVE getting to be in charge of the camera and it’s really fun to see the board fill up throughout the year with simple, everyday snapshots.
These are fun to pull down and display during all the festivities on New Year’s Eve too. It’s a special way to look back on the year with gratitude before planning the next year with intention.
A FUN WAY TO PRESERVE THE MEMORIES
The second thing I like to do each year is print a yearbook for our family. These books contain collages for each month of the big and small moment memories we make. So, I will take more photos of these experiences myself and add them in with other moments from our year in the book. I love these books because the photos that make it in aren’t necessarily “frame worthy,” but are special because they show us living in the moment.
Looking back on both of these things helps to keep us grounded in our blessings instead of always worrying about or planning for the next thing. They are small ways to remind us to breathe in the glory the Lord is working out in our day to day lives. It’s a really special way to acknowledge and celebrate the small moments and remember that life is not just made up by the big moments.
NEED HELP MAKING YOUR OWN NEW YEAR FAMILY TRADITION?
Click the link below to snag your own free printable planning sheets. This includes a page to write out your list and another full of tons of great ideas that could go on there. When you submit your email to get your own planning sheets, you will also get lined up for my monthly newsletter. I plan to include other smaller bucket list activities for each month. You know the kinds. They aren’t massive but require a tiny bit of forethought to pull off. For example, if you want to drink hot chocolate and go look at Christmas lights in the month of December, then it would serve you well to know that and make sure you have hot chocolate on hand or pencil it into the budget if you would like to get it out.
I can’t wait to start planning these things with you and see what you and your family come up with!
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