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.

Lots of lovely memories of my grandparents too ... I stayed with them a lot and they were so kind, delicious meals, a small sherry served before dinner (I was only 12/13 ), proper coffee served in a perculator (heated by a candle) after dinner. My DGM used to take me to London and go round Kensington Market and Biba with me (this is in the 1970s), I am the same age now that she was then and can think of nothing worse than dragging round the shops with a teenager- she was so kind.

My grandma's coin jar.

She had 6 grandchildren, 2 in Australis, 2 that she lived with and then got her own place but very close and then me and my brother, we lived about an hour away and didn't visit that often.

As my grandma inevitably treated the 2 she saw every day she would save all her 1p and 1/2p coins and on visits we got to share out the jar.

She also had a coal fire that was much more fun than putting things in the bin.

My dad used to fire up the proper sound system on late Sunday morning 60s songs

Thursday night was chocolate night. We weren't allowed chocolate any other day. Dad would come home from work with a bar of chocolate each for after dinner and we would look forward to it so much.

My Gran and Grandpa would come over at the weekend and Gran always had a bag of home baked goodies and we would sit and eat rock buns and talk about our week. Grandpa would squash two 10p coins into our hands on the way out.

My mum had three of us quite close together in age. She was a teacher so in the summer holidays, each of us was taken out for a trip all by ourselves and the other two were left with grandparents. It was a chance to do a fun trip with just our mum's attention on us.

Trips to the garden centre are another great memory as we were allowed to go look at the pets and buy some flowers to look after for the spring. It also had a Christmas section so we were allowed to choose one new bauble a year...the arguments as to colour between me and my sisters was epic!

There are quite a few for me:

My DM giving us bowls of strawberries sprinkled with sugar as a treat in front of Saturday night TV.

My DF pretending he was a rodeo bull, he'd get down on all fours on the swirly 70s carpet and we'd sit on his back with him spinning round and trying to throw us off .

Going to my Great Grandma's house, she'd serve us tiny servings of orange juice in sherry glasses. We thought it so sophisticated!

After school on Fridays, we used to watch Mr Rossi and Happy Days and then df would come home, get changed fast and take us swimming. It was about the only time in the whole week he played with us and it was wonderful.

Sunday was always Roast and my Dad would fetch my Gran over as she was widowed quite early. She would come about 10am and me my Mum and Gran would do lunch prep while my Dad was in the working in the garden.
The cozy feeling especially in winter chatting and cooking with them all morning was lovely. My Gran was always so interested in the goings on in my young and then later teen life.
We would have a indoor picnic for tea with sarnies and scones and proper tea watching antiques roadshow.
I can still remember surprising them once when I sneaked back from Uni and the look on my Grans face on that Sunday morning as I burst in.
The other one that sticks is going to my Dads mum for the day and she always had to get her feet up after lunch on the bed. We would get snuggled in and she would make up a story for me and I would think I was bored and would never have a nap and then be fast asleep in minutes.
She always had about 5/6 layers on the bed I could never work It out but once you were in it was so heavy and lovely.

Oh these are just beautiful stories! I feel so warm and fuzzy!!

I used to get a week's holidays at my grandma's in the summer. She lived in a tiny coastal town. She would save up bits and bobs in a little cardboard box for me and we would spend endless hours making stuff out of stuff. She got me to press flowers and would make me pancakes for breakfast in all different shapes.

My granda would take me to the greenhouse and show me which tomatoes were ready to pick for tea. It was only in the past couple of years I bought some cherry tomatoes and had a sniff and the smell of the vine took me right back to being seven.

Granny used to take me to her library and I loved seeing all the 'new' books. I was an avid reader and had worked my way round my town's library long ago. I'd curl up in granda's chair next to the range and their dog would lie next to me and I'd read.

I'm so please that my kids got to meet her. And I'm so pleased my parents are doing soemthing similar with my own children now.

What a nice thread this is. I had to think hard as my childhood wasn't brilliant but what I used to absolutely love was going to the library - my mum used to take me and it was quite a long walk, about 25 minutes. We would take her tartan shopping trolley and she'd take my dad and brother's library cards - both adults so they could get 8 books but never actually went to the library - so I could get way more than the three allowed on my child library card. She also persuaded the library, when I was about eight, that I read so much I needed an adult library card too!

I loved it when we got home and we would sit down with piles and piles of new books to read, all quiet and cosy.

Staying at my grandma's for the night. She always made us stew and dumplings (it's still my go to comfort food but can't make it the way she did). I would sit on the footstool next to the radiator with a little side table in front of me and do colouring in while watching TV. Then get to sleep in the big bed (a double but I had single at home). Always felt so safe.

It's definitely true it's the little things that matter not the big trips. And it's often a smell or a taste or a sound that brings comfort.

When my parents wanted a night off me and my brother would go to my grandmother's. But a lot of times we were already wearing our pjs and slippers. I remember I could feel the cobblestones under the thin soles and it was cool

Also I liked playing with my GM's hand veins is that weird?

@grey12

When my parents wanted a night off me and my brother would go to my grandmother's. But a lot of times we were already wearing our pjs and slippers. I remember I could feel the cobblestones under the thin soles and it was cool

Also I liked playing with my GM's hand veins is that weird?

I used to play with my granddad's 'tramlines' the lines on his forehead.

Oh and my nana and grandad had a dalek in their kitchen (it was actually a hot water tank in a high up cupboard) and grandad would sometimes open the door to let us see it.

My dad has never been one for reading and he never read a bed time story to us (he's probably dyslexic) but he would occasionally (he also worked evenings) tell bedtime stories, but these were no ordinary stories, my dad also loves pantomime, so Cinderella involved me sitting on his knee being the carriage mouse, one of the ugly sisters trying the shoe on a false wooden leg/foot, my own slipper being put on my foot.

Basically a one man panto.

When my brother's children arrived my dad invented a character that would be far too outing to write about here.

Arriving at Grandma and Grandpa's house after a very long trip in the car, and finding a big pot of their special stew all ready for dinner. So delicious and comforting.

And the next morning waking up to a big pot of oatmeal made by Grandpa, who made toast to go with it. He always let our Mum and Dad sleep in. I am sure they needed it having four of us, and the very long (probably 12 hours) drive from the interior of BC to the coast.

I forgot the "hardtack" in a big tin that we spread with butter to go with the stew. It was quite exotic to us kids as our grandparents were immigrants to Canada from Finland.