by Angela V 
By Contributor Kristen LaValley
The Holiday season has got to be the busiest season of the year. So many parties and events, sometimes it feels like I blink and it’s New Years already. My son will be three in January and this is the FIRST year since he was born that we won’t be traveling for the holidays. We’re staying home! That means it’s the first year we’ve had the chance to start our own family traditions. It’s easy to get caught up in the chaos of Christmas and forget to take the time to just turn everything down and be together.
Having family traditions forces you to slow down. If you stay committed to what you’ve decided to do with your family every year, it makes saying “No” easier and guarantees your family is top priority.
They also provide a sense of identity to your family. Your traditions are the fabric to your family story. It’s important to establish them early so that they become as well worn and familiar as that recliner in the corner of your living room.
Ask any grown up about their favorite memories and it’s almost guaranteed to include a family tradition that brings warmth and comfort to them, even in their adult years. Creating traditions with your child isn’t just about the moment. You are giving them a gift that will last well into their adult years, where they will give that same gift to their own children.
Your traditions don’t have to complicated or extravagant. In fact, the best ones are usually those that are simple, meaningful, and bring your family together in way that creates lasting memories.
Kristen is a stay at home mom to one deliciously chunky baby boy and one hilariously clever two year old living in East Tennessee. She chronicles her adventures in cloth diapering, parenting, faith, and insane toddler antics at www.whenathome.com
21 Comments on “Why Family Traditions Are Important”
Lovely post. I agree, family traditions are very important!
Traditions are wonderful :). Keep it up and thanks for sharing!
Traditions are great! Have to keep them alive for sure.
I agree 100%! Traditions are important and part of what makes this time a year so special. I have old traditions, that I’ve done with my family since I was a kid, that I now do with my own family… and we have our own that we’ve started.
I think that traditions are a necessity for Christmas. I know that our traditions have been taken over by my children with my grandchildren and they’ve added others for their partner’s family. Whether they’ll add more later on I don’t know – seems a lot already 🙂
I couldn’t agree with you more… it’s so important to give them some stability around the holidays and I think that traditions give them something to look forward too!
so nice to have traditions , my little girl is 4 and already looks forward to our holiday traditions , its nice that she has something to look forward to and enjoys the time together
I love this post, it is amazing how much our kids love our silly traditions! I hope they will always treasure the time we spend together and the love we all share.
Love this! Family traditions are most important! 🙂
i love this post!! family traditions are definitely very important!! as an adult, i still have mine with my parents 🙂
I agree it is nice to have that extra time to spend with your family. Traditions make occasions ‘special’. It is even nicer when they are passed down from one generation to the other.
Love this. We have some family traditions but I really need to work on a few more.
This is really sweet.
Coming from a small family with few traditions, its been an interesting experience creating them with my own new family.
I agree that simple traditions can also be very meaningful!
I agree that family traditions are very important. My husband and I started most of our own with our own family and we still do most of them-especially the gathering of all the ‘clan’ at our home on Christmas Eve. I love traditions.
Family traditions are very important,I love carrying mine over from a child each year
I honestly can not believe in another 6 weeks or so it will be Christmas again
Family traditions are very important in our home,they came from my parents and I have passed to my kids who are now passing to theirs
I love traditions.its a part of who I am
As you get older, you really think about family traditions, especially at Christmas and birthdays. I still miss making doughnuts at Christmas. That was one of my Mother’s traditions. I did it for a while but haven’t done it for years-maybe this year and Christmas will bring back the past.