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?

I know what you all mean about the advent calendars. I bought myself a picture one this Christmas just gone and it really delighted me. I had those wonderful feelings of childhood excitement back when I saw a little bell or a little shepherd behind the doors.

My kids were only interested in the chocolate ones thought and felt sorry for me because I didn't have one!

Sparkling - my dad sang 'You are my sunshine' to me too!

Mine include:
Stopping at the 'Happy Eater' during long car journeys to visit relatives.
Birthday parties at home, with my dad being the life and soul of the party and making all the children laugh (while my mum did all the organising of everything!)
Playing with my best friend after school, at her house or mine. Used to return to own house at 5 o' clock, or 6 if staying for tea
'Swapping' toys or books with best friend. At the end of playing at her house I would take something of hers home with me for a few days, and she would do the same when she came to mine
Summer holidays to my parents' best friends who lived in the countryside. They had kids around my brother and I's age and we had such a fun time playing together
Painting hard boiled eggs for Easter Sunday tea
Decorating eggs for the library's annual children's competition
Fancy dress competition at the school summer fete (no shop bought Disney costumes in sight!)
Family holidays at Holiday Camps such as Butlins pretty much every year
Coming down stairs on Christmas morning to find the living room door locked by Santa's magic key. Funnily enough the magic never wore off until we were dressed and had breakfast (and I never once caught my dad unlocking it!)

Better stop now as I've rambled on a bit, but I had a lovely childhood.

The Simpsons advent calendar is just not the same is it? And as for the Playmobil ones.......

we had a pear tree in our back garden.
every year, as soon as it was "summer", my dad would go out and do a handstand against it.

he never did a handstand at any other time of year.

I hope you got pictures of that nickel that sounds great. Did he do anything in winter?

Is your DH going to do this for your DD to continue the tradition?

This is a lovely thread! My favourites memories of traditions are:
-saturday evenings in summer doing a long walk to a nearby village on the coast and sitting outside with coke in a bottle and crisps
-pre-Christmas helping to choose which items to buy from the Unigate christmas club with all the stamps we saved- top items were "Jokers" cans of shandy
-helping my nan set up the christmas display of nibbles- white cloth on the sideboard with dishes of dates, nuts, orange and lemon slices, chocolate mints, turkish delight ( with the wooden dibber...)
-making leaf pictures in October half term

never thought to take pictures.

i don't think he did do a winter thing.

I can't imagine DH doing a handstand

He will have to start a new summer tradition for your DD then nickel.

Singing in the car to my dad's car mix tape.
Fish n chips on a Tuesday
Racing my dad and just playing stupid games and having competitions with him over every little thing
My mum peeling a really extra specially long bit of cooking apple skin for us to munch
Doing crosswords together
My dad driving very fast down a little steep bit of road in our town to make our stomach's flip
My mum phoning her mum every Sunday morning when we were all still in bed. I'd listen until my ears dropped off to catch what they were talking about
At christmas, we were allowed to make jam turnovers with left over pastry and jam from the apple pie and jam tarts
Beds on the sofa and mum making a fuss when we were sick
The whole family screaming in horror when the music for Gardner's Question Time came on.

Watching Barbapapa and Mary Mungo and Midge with my Mum when I was very little.

Pestering my Dad to put the Top 40 on , on a Sunday afternoon in the car and he hated it.

Painting hard boiled eggs for Easter Sunday tea

Me too! My mum used to boil them with onion peel and we'd etch designs on them with toothpicks and lemon juice afterwards!

Yes, my parents were utter and complete lentil weavers - and in hindsight it was great (though I resented never being allowed white bread).

Long walks on a Sunday followed by a massive lunch.
Bunty annuals and chocolate coins at Christmas every year (RIP Bunty )
Family birthday dinners at the Harvester.
Listening to Storyteller tapes on a Saturday night with a picnic supper in the living room.
Always being bored senseless while my parents were glued to Weekend World.

My favourite ones are the xmas ones. Being the joint youngest we had to wait for the really good picture advent calenders to be passed down to us. Even though we knew what the pictures were for those to fall into our hands was a sign that we were big enough to be trusted (of course our elder siblings hadn't outgrown them).

My dad being really busy at work, he was a self employed painter, everyone wanted things done for xmas which in those days didn't start in September! Our house was always last he artexed the ceiling around a decorated tree one xmas eve. After clearing up he somehow left a plastery boot footprint in the hall. I went to the loo during the night and saw this big white "snowy" print and nodded off to sleep in the knowledge that Santa had visited. My DPs had to reproduce the print every year after that.

Yes, now I shift icing sugar and stamp a boot in it for my DDs.

Yes to the boiling eggs in onion and rolling them after Easter Sunday mass, the smell....

I forgot car picnics! Instituted by my adopted GM one rainy Saturday when we visited a National Trust place. Continued into car fish and chips as we grew up: take the car to the beach, park with fish and chips, have thermos of tea & bag with ketchup etc (DM even optimistically includes cutlery ). Wind down the windows and watch the sea.

Oh I used to love that Charmingly. Car to the beach with picnic or fish and chips. It was such a treat.

AGunInMyPetticoat

Oh yes. In Rutland, I was 4 and 'helped' with the harvest by trying to 'help' build the stooks. And I rode astride cows bareback and noticed what sharp backbones they had.

Singsongs in the car driving back from nan's house on a saturday evening and as christmas approached counting the Christmas trees in peoples' windows.
Also getting to choose dinner on my birthday (I always chose steak and chips).
Our house was at the bottom of a hill and round a corner and on journeys home my dad used to cut the car engine and see if we could coast right up to our house!
Accompanying Dad to the tip with the wheelbarrow and getting a lift in it back home.
Washing the car and then going for a drive round the block 'to dry it'
When it was particularly cold pulling the sofa right up to the fireplace so we could practically put our feet up the chimney.
Not really traditions but lots of little memories that made up a great childhood.
(sniff sniff wishing I was 8 yrs old now !)

Valentines Day. Mum would put something on the front doorstep, ring the bell, run and hide. Repeat until all 3 daughters have found their valentine present.

ANy time a Tom and Jerry cartoon came on that was directed by Fred Quimby, Dad would bellow 'Good old Fred' which was the signal to the rest of the household that a good tom and jerry was starting. We were never fans of Chuck Jones' efforts.

Oh and using any leftover pastry from Mum's quiche to make jam tarts.

We never did anything much - just played out. As others have said, my childhood memories don't have many adults in them - with the exception of Xmas. One treat was going to the beach, though, with sandwich spread sarnies (always warm by the time you ate them) and a bottle of (equally warm) squash.

And there were Sunday evenings....salad and trifle, followed by a bath and getting dried in front of the fire and listening to the top 40 on the Rediffusion tv - you had to turn a switch on the wall. And if my nan was on nights, my grandad used to let us watch Ripping Yarns, or play us War of the World, or Peter and the Wolf.

I was raised by my great auntie and every sunday whilst making dinner she used to sing old land army songs which i still remember and sometimes sing myself.
Also we always had a "special tea" on a sunday, rice pudding with skin on it or tinned fruit with bread and butter!!
Baked potatoes cooked in the ashes of the fire, sooo tasty, being allowed to sit on the draining board of the kitchen sink so I could see the neighbors bonfire, happy days :)

Ohh these are lovely memories - thankyou everyone!

Gosh it seems that lots of things revolve around food and just being together or doing things together. I am definately a fan of the long Sunday walk followed by a roast. The hard boiled eggs painting for Easter sounds great and I think that I may implement the trip to the seaside with fish and chips in the car tomorrow.. Too good to wait!

It also seems that we had less 'treats' on a day to day basis so getting them seemed more special.