When I started thinking about how our family celebrates birthdays I realized that we have some very strong traditions, infused from our upbringing and some new ones of our own. Becky Bailey, a child devleopment/behavior guru says that traditions are rituals... a ritual's goal is to help people make connections with one another. Rituals are sacred spaces designated for togetherness and unity. Rituals help us to feel calm, focused, and help to build trust. They make our family be our family.
Here are some of our birthday traditions.
~The night before we hang each child's personalized "Happy Birthday" sign so they are greeted by it when they wake up.
~We always give homemade cards.
~The kids always get to open one present in the morning.
~Josh takes the day off from work on their birthdays (as do I if I don't already have it off).
~The bday person gets to pick what they want as their special bday breakfast and we sing happy birthday at breakfast and the bday person gets to blow out a candle that is placed in their breakfast of choice.
~Once you are about 4 or 5 you get - three birthday celebrations -one on the actual day, one with friends and one with family. (When younger - friends and family party is combined.)
~We now have a special bday bowl that the bday person gets to use for their piece of cake.
~Of course the birthday person gets to choose the activities for the day and where we eat.
~We try to watch each child's "birth video" or at least tell the story of the day they were born. Each of those days is a sacred memory that I remember very clearly, up to what Josh and I were wearing. I mean isn't it fun to hear stories about yourself over and over again?!
~We are starting a new tradition that each birthday earns you a new privelage and a new responsibilty. ie. you get to stay up later but now you are repsponsible for taking out the trash :)
Happy birthday to my three babies! Nine, Six and One! Where does the time go?!
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