Childhood traditions/rituals that make you happy to remember - what were yours?

[AdmiralOrangeroo]

I don't just mean Christmas, but things that you did with your family or friends as a child that, when you think of them, take you back to a feeling of safety and nostalgia?

My childhood was spent with my grandparents and after Church every Sunday I would watch Little House on the Prairie with a sultana and butter biscuit that my grandmother got out of an enormous old tin she kept in her larder. I remember the feeling, taste, of that ritual so vividly it's almost like I can re-experience it. When I'm upset I think myself back there and to those people who loved me so much. Everything feels so unsafe at the moment that I thought it’d be nice to start a thread where we can collectively remember a time that was.

Going out for a drive in the country in spring to look at the primroses and bluebells , all of us piled into my Grandads car (mum and dad couldn't drive), and listening to a program called 'Sing something simple' on the way home. Used to love those trips and even thinking about that tune takes me back to my Grandads car and soft evening sun.....

Hours playing cricket with dad in the back garden at weekends and on summer evenings and hunting the ball when it got hit into the alleyway by our house.

Going to see great granny with my sister in her tiny terraced house in Reading at weekends and being spoilt rotten. I also seem to remember we had tinned mandarin oranges and tinned cream quite a bit. And great uncle Fred would give us a half crown each and say Don't thank me, thank the Lord that you are lucky....

Sadly all my older relatives are gone now.

My mum used to take me and my brother and a friend each swimming every Sunday morning to the ‘big slide pool’ in the city. We’d swim for ages then come out and mum would give us all 50p to get something from the vending machine - I always got Toffos. Then we’d pile in the car and head home and mum would cook us all a big fry up then we’d all play out till dinner time…whatever the weather! No tv, no phones, no PlayStations…just welly boots and freedom!
I’d give anything for my children to have had that childhood, it was so much easier!

Staying with my nan every Friday (and some Saturday) nights, when I wasn't living with her. I now realise she was lonely, as a young widow, in her 40s when I was born, and she liked having me there to keep her company, but I remember things like having a babycham after my dinner (usually turkey burgers, mash and beans) and feeling very grown up, watching telly and then going to bed, sleeping in her double bed with her aged watching Tales from the Crypt, Tales of the Unexpected or a horror film on her black and white TV in her bedroom. I had my own (huge) bedroom there, but loved co sleeping, right up until I was 18 and was living there full time I shared with her most nights.

I lived with her in and off between the ages of 5-7, 12-14, through my GCSE and A Level years, and then when I left school until I moved in with my boyfriend.

Saturdays, we used to get 20p each to spend on sweets at the post office usually got 2oz of something out of a jar, usually Yorkshire mixture or sherbet pips that were around 12p. Then spent the rest on penny sweets.

In the afternoon we would go with my Mum to the local town to look round the shops and then the supermarket. We would get back and watch the football/ pools results with my Dad.

We always had a bottle of cola at the weekend that we all shared between us, not allowed it any other time, we always had lasagne for dinner and watched Gladiators. Very happy memories

We'd go to little chef or happy eater the night before exams for pancakes.

Saturday teatime which was eaten in the living room with big plates of toast and pate or toasted cheese on the coffee table, big tea pot, plate of biscuits. Gas fire on and Saturday early evening telly.

It's such a strong and comforting memory that I've got a list of "suitable" things to eat for tea on a Saturday at home and I get a bit discombobulated if I get anything fancier.

@Splodgerbodgerbadger

Saturdays, we used to get 20p each to spend on sweets at the post office usually got 2oz of something out of a jar, usually Yorkshire mixture or sherbet pips that were around 12p. Then spent the rest on penny sweets.

In the afternoon we would go with my Mum to the local town to look round the shops and then the supermarket. We would get back and watch the football/ pools results with my Dad.

We always had a bottle of cola at the weekend that we all shared between us, not allowed it any other time, we always had lasagne for dinner and watched Gladiators. Very happy memories

Yes, I remember sweets from a jar being 24p a quarter which was quite a lot, so we'd get sherbet pips or midget gems as they were the only things worth getting 2oz of!

Used to love Sunday afternoons at my grandma's house....roast lamb followed by the EastEnders omnibus...bliss

I have 2 memories of traditions that are very comforting.

On Saturdays my dad would walk the dog to the local newsagent and bring me back a magazine and a small paper bag of penny sweets. He did this until I started work at 16. Started with Twinkle and ended with Smash Hits!

On Sundays while my mum prepared the roast my dad would sit in the sitting room with the radiogram on, listening to one of his LPs. Frank Sinatra, Count Basie or sometime Rachmaninov. I was allowed in if I was quiet and the sound of the needle hitting the vinyl along with the delicious smell of the roast is the best!

Me going to bed on a Saturday night but not going to sleep. I’d wait until I heard my mum go to bed, then Dad would crank up the volume on the TV so I could hear the Match Of The Day theme tune starting. That was my signal from him thag the coast was clear, mum had gone to bed, and I could sneak downstairs and watch all the match day highlights with him.
I’d never last long - I’d watch a bit, then end up falling asleep snuggled up with my dad.
Beautiful memories that I’ll treasure forever!

We used to go to my grandparents on a Sunday and we would all play card games and have a nice tea. There is a photo of me surrounded by copper coins aged about 7 😂.

My Nan used to always forget how to play the games we had played the week before.

Love those memories

@Boogaloony
My grandad's caravan was of a similar vintage & set in a farmer's field full of cows near Ruthin. I remember the gas mantle lights with their distinctive (rather pleasant) smell & there was also a coal fire complete with a door with those glass strips that were prone to cracking from the heat. There is a photo of me as a chubby babby sat in the sink having a bath ! Grandad did carpentry & gardening in his spare time & made me furniture, wrote 'batcave' on his shed to make it fun for us & gran would let us raid her kitchen cupboards, get lots of pots & pans, spoons & whisks out & we'd make an impromptu percussion band that was so much fun.
I miss being so small I could rest on my mum or dad's side & feel utterly safe. An acrimonious divorce meant things went off from about 7/8 but I remember the feeling of total security & wish I could feel that again, even for a moment.

ohhh the smell of the gas mantles in my dgps caravan a wonderful memory, it was on land owned by my dgf, we would stay for the first time each year when the bluebells were out and then spent so many weekends staying there for the rest of the summer, I remember the little gas cooker on legs, the smell of mown grass, the texture of the striped deck chairs and the fact that even though I asked for a a mug we would always be served food and drink on nana's bone china 'caravan' set (she believed in 'standards' )

I have a static caravan now and our dgs spends most of the summer with us, I like to think that one day he will look back at these summers with the same fond memories of us that I have for my grandparents.

For me, it was Friday night dinner, a widespread Jewish tradition on Shabbat, but every family has their own individual traditions.

My grandmother, moved in with us when my grandfather died, I was 7 at the time. From that moment, she wouldn't let my mum make the challah for Shabbat, that was her job. I still dream of her challah. No-one can make it like she did.

There'd be lively conversation, the odd disagreement (the saying goes, if you have two Jews in a room, there'll be three opinions!), but mainly just lots of laughter and love.

My husband and I do Friday night dinner with our children, it's something we're both keen to carry on, from our own upbringings.

And no, nothing crazy ever happened, like it did in Friday Night Dinner!!!

What a lovely thread!

I remember all the excitement around Father Christmas and stockings. I am glad I had the pleasure of that. I believed in Father Christmas right up to age 10.

Sorry, just realised that you said not Christmas stuff!

Great thread though. Thanks

Definitely Christmas stuff too! I just meant not only Christmas as 'traditions' tends to be associated with it. I also have lovely memories of Santa excitement. I hope one day my own children will have lovely memories though the things that matter are so individual, goodness knows what they'll be!

My gran made a big fuss of my "Half-Birthday" once. I was 6 and a half, and she got me presents and a cake. That was fun!

Also, always watching Gladiators, Noel's House Party and You Bet o.n the telly

My Dad used to come up the stairs on all fours, banging his hands on the stairs, saying ‘rump te tump’ louder and louder, then come into my bedroom and bounce his hands on either side of my bed so that I bounced in the air. I used to laugh so much I was almost sick.

Planting hyacinth bulbs in those big old pate dishes from the deli, every November, and putting them in the cellar for Spring. I still do it now, thinking of my mum.

@JayAlfredPrufrock, that made me cry. What a lovely dad. So many lovely memories here and a pp is right, for most of us, if not all, the treats or experiences are not big ticket events. All children want is to feel loved, safe and happy. Grandparents pay such an important role. I know mine did. And now I'm a nana I make sure I'm doing the best for my granddaughter!

@JayAlfredPrufrock

My Dad used to come up the stairs on all fours, banging his hands on the stairs, saying ‘rump te tump’ louder and louder, then come into my bedroom and bounce his hands on either side of my bed so that I bounced in the air. I used to laugh so much I was almost sick.

Oh this is lovely ❤️

Lovely thread!

Have lots around holidays. Caravan in Cornwall: plastic tablewear with cartoon transfers on the mugs, we still have a few bits of it.

Train trips with my Granny. Looking for the Loch Ness Monster.

Used to have lots of sleepovers at my Nan and step grandads. Used to love how cosy it was to sleep on the sofa bed with my Nan by my side. The mornings were always special too as I’d always get up really early and go and talk and colour in pictures with my step Grandad. Miss them both too much.