To ask what traditions made your childhood special?

[Bubandbump]

Sorry, bit of a thread about a thread but..

Just sat here with sleepy DD in arms reading the cupcake v fairy cake thread. Someone wrote that they do fairy cake Fridays which I would love to steal think is lovely.

So I wanted to ask what made your childhood special, to give me some ideas for when 10 mo DD is growing up?

country walks on a sunday afternoon..weather permitting...we whinged and moaned as kids at the time but look back at paddling in fords and climbing styles and walking along side the narrow boats ...soooo many happy memories.

I think the things I try to re-create now are quite simple routines - like:

• having the same meal every Saturday evening (fajitas in our case - sardines on toast in the '70s!)
• watching a DVD together on a Sunday afternoon with crisps
• going out for a pub Sunday Lunch in the Winter
• reading to them nearly every night (mine are 9 and 11)
• crumpets toasted on the fire
• grandparents coming over on a Saturday and taking one or other of the DSs to see a football match
• trips in our Campervan - these are v special and have made us (literally and figuratively) closer

Lots of food-related things now I think of it

Always buying madam pettalingo fortune telling books for each of us for annual holiday! My dad also talking in a Devon accent all the way there!!!!!

Long evening summer walks and joy of joys stopping at 'the outdoor' for crisps and coke.

I don't think we had any traditions as such. We just had a fun childhood. What made it best was all the other children in the neighbourhood. Our next door neighbours kids were like siblings to us and the next door neighbour but one as well. We spent all our time playing and exploring. I barely saw my parents!

Sadly the children on our street are all teens now but we are moving in the next couple of years so it would be nice to move to a street with lots of families.

Mum doing the ironing on a Saturday afternoon whilst we watched the Saturday Matinee on ITV. Introduced me to loads of old classic films I would otherwise never have seen.

You make a good point AngryFeet - my childhhod was much more about playing outside with friends than it was about parents. Parents were in the background

Rupert the Bear Annuals.
Bar of chocolate on a Thursday night.
Going to visit my Grandparents on the bus.
Flying down the hill on my bike and going over the handlebars
Sitting in the pub beer garden with a packet of Golden Wonder and pop in the bottle with a straw.

I don't think my DCs are as easily pleased.

Sunday morning bike ride along the derwent walk with my dad, then back home for mums home made Sunday dinner.

Now I have my own baby I'm hoping to have 'family outing saturday' and Sunday has always been granny/ nana day x

We lived in a prefab. People trying to get the prefab community together and did easily organised a summer competition in a neighbouring field [races of various sorts]. I was so pleased to return home one year with a 6d savings stamp for winning something oh dear; can't remember what. The prefabs are no longer there (in Cheam/Banstead).

On our birthday we were allowed to choose whatever we liked for the evening meal that day. Whatever you chose was beyond question and I always had the same fave thing. :)

What did you have GIN?

We didn't go on holiday, so my mum got this big book of things for children to see in England, and we got to list 5 things each, that were within an hour of home, to go and see in the Summer. I guess it turned out to be 2 each in the end, but we spent hours and hours thinking about them.

And going to my grandparents, mum (who otherwise wouldn't buy us any sweets) gave out a tube of sweets every hour at certain towns.

Sunday 'picnic' tea in front of Last Of The Summer Wine and Antiques Roadshow in the playroom- sandwiches, Grandad's wonderful pickled onions and Mum's lemon cake.

I might suggest that holiday idea to my lot CMOT. I find holidays very stressful.

Welllll......I had oxtail stew!

My birthday is in feb in the days when it was properly cold at that time of year and it was always so nice to munch the bones and lick the plate clean hearty.

Hadn't had in in years until I saw some cheap and thought it'd be a nice trip down memory lane - it was though I don't lick my pate clean these days it was greasier than I remembered. :)

Simple things, really, and lots to do with food.

Sunday lunch or early dinner all together (do this for my kids)

Lazy Saturday breakfast (try to fit this in before various extra curricular classes that my kids have that my mum could never have afforded!)

Baking on the first day of the holidays (I work full time like my mum did, so we rarely did it otherwise)

Planting spring bulbs every year (still do this)

My granny used to take me to a cafe for lunch during half term, and my mum does the same with my kids.

Drawing up a big 'summer holiday planner' every year - still do this

Oh! and helping my grandad pick the raspberries / radishes / sweet peas etc he grew. Loved that. :)

Chinese takeaway on a tablecloth on the living room floor in front of the Antiques Roadshow.

We always ate together round the table, no matter what. Sounds like an obvious one but we still try and do this.

Being allowed to sit in the boot on the way home from hockey club, hearing mum whistle (loudly)to get us in from playing in woods to throw sandwiches at us and our mates for lunch, having a 'bits' dinner on a sunday (whatever you found in kitchen was fair game and led to some interesting meals), reading together or each their own book in quiet, cosy winter moments. Really hope my DS has some of these of his own when he is older -oooh, feeling all nostalgic and excited at same time.

Not an awful lot really apart from Saturday tea was always spaghetti with a jar of dolmio sauce on and served with toast (not garlic bread )

• The song mum and dad used to sing us to sleep with every night
• Advent calendars - and generally December. This was more exciting than Christmas itself in my memories
• Being allowed to read a chapter of my book before having to switch the lights off every night
• Our annual Ascension day barbeque party with all my parents' friends and their kids
• Making hay at my grandparents' farm - and being allowed to drive the tractor from age nine (because I had hay fever; it was the only useful thing I could do). I felt so grown up!

Oh yes Gun. I just had a advent calendar with glitter on and just doors (no chocolate ) I loved them.

My Dad sang 'You are my Sunshine' to me at night.

Ours were of the non-chocolatey variety too. Tons of sparkly stuff and a pretty picture behind every door, though.

I used to open all the little doors and then try to properly shut them again - it never occurred to me that our parents must have known!

There were always double doors and a nativity scene on the 24th. Proper Christmas.