Families Don’t Celebrate Enough: Here’s How You Can Change That

As human beings, we tend to focus on problems instead of the things that are good in our lives. For all intents and purposes, we currently live in paradise, with all the food, shetler and entertainment we could ever want. However, we can sometimes forget to count our blessings. 

This fact applies to our families. We don’t spend enough time celebrating what we have. In fact, we can spend so much time worrying about things that are wrong that it can prevent us from being grateful at all. 

We don’t think families appreciate what they have enough. Therefore, we’ve put together this post, showing you how you can celebrate with your loved ones more. Here’s what to do:

Involve Everyone

To get the most out of family time, make sure that you involve everyone. Get kids to come along and join in the fun activities with you. If they are resistant, find things that everyone enjoys doing. Importantly, don’t force anything. Instead, sell family time to your children as something that they want to do and will enjoy.

Activities you plan don’t have to be complicated. It could be as simple as going for a hike or doing gardening together. 

Add Group Chat

Instead of talking to each other separately on messaging apps, create a family group chat. This central hub keeps everyone on the same page and serves as a public record of all the conversations that your family has had. People can then make new additions or refer back to what was said before to see what’s happening.

When you have a group chat like this, it helps to create a shared family identity. It’s like a team chat in a business organization. The people involved feel like they are part of an exclusive group with a shared purpose. 

Recognize Each Other’s Achievements

As families get older, their members accomplish new things. It could be passing a music exam or getting a new job. Whatever it is, it’s worth recognizing and celebrating. 

Don’t just leave celebrations to birthdays or Christmas. Make it an active part of family life and an ongoing reason for bringing everyone together as often as possible. 

Have Breakfast Together

It might sound like a simple thing, but having breakfast together is a great way to maintain close ties and bonds in your family. Spending just 15 minutes at the dining table every morning lets family members discuss the problems they are facing and get advice from older generations. It’s also a time for everyone to plan the weekend and discuss how they’d like to spend their free time, once school and work is ovr. 

You can also bring everyone together for dinners, but this tends to be a little more challenging. People return home at different times, and many children feel hungry around 5 pm, not 7 pm when adults get back from work. 

Create A Shared Scrapbook

Family photo albums are great, but digital scrapbooking is even better. As services, suc as Lalo point out, creating private, digital memories is easier than ever before, thanks to the cloud. 

The way it works is simple. Each family member gets access to a set of digital tools that let them record events. They can upload photos and messages, and share their thoughts and experiences with other family members.

Next-generation scrapbooks are a great way to celebrate family life. Plus, they bring everyone closer together. Family members feel more invested in their shared history. 

Invent Family Traditions

Family traditions might seem a little silly and random on the surface, but they are incredibly important for creating a shared identity. Close-knit families often have rituals they perform monthly or yearly that reminds everyone that they’re a part of the group.

These traditions are often celebrations in their own right. They get passed down from generation to generation because they are enjoyable and fun.

Cook Meals Together

Cooking meals together is another great way to celebrate life as a family. When you have time at the weekend, you can take on more inventive projects, such as making your own pizzas. This way, you can enjoy special moments together, snap photos of each other, and generally bond over a great meal.

Work Every Day To Build Closer Bonds

If you want your family to celebrate more, you need to create a set of relationships that are worth celebrating. If everyone is in constant conflict all the time, that will make it difficult for people to get in the mood to cherish what they have. 

You can change this by working to build closer bonds. Try to get to the root of conflict in your family and see what’s driving it. If you can resolve problematic issues and help everyone get along better, it is much more likely that individual family members will want to celebrate with you. 

Create Dedicated Time To Spend Together

Weekly schedules can be hectic, preventing families from spending as much time together as they would like. However, if more celebration is your goal, you need to set aside at least one afternoon for bonding. 

Of course, making that happen is easier said than done. If both parents work and kids attend clubs every night, you’re going to run out of hours. 

The solution here is to make a sacrifice. Does your child really need to go to their fourth lacrosse practice of the week? Or would it be better if they spent their time with their parents and siblings?

Get Grandparents Involved

If you really want it to feel like a party atmosphere, get grandparents and other family members involved. Bringing everyone together can make it feel more like an event worth celebrating instead of just another activity to add to the weekly schedule.

Do Something Good Together

Families don’t just have to celebrate themselves and their relationships. They can also adopt a shared purpose or mission, doing something good in the world for other people. 

What you do depends on your values. Many families, for instance, help with feeding the hungry but you don’t have to walk down the well-trodden path. Have a brainstorming session with your kids and see what matters to them. Ask if there is anything that they would like to do to serve the community. 

Connect With Your Teens

Being a teenager is emotionally challenging. They are going through so many changes in life that it can be hard for them to even see the point of celebrating with their families.

The trick here is to connect with them more. Many teens long for support from their families, but they don’t feel understood. If you can get to grips with the issues they are going through, they are much more likely to want to celebrate with you, when the time comes. 

Don’t stop at your teens, either. Get to know their friends, too, and bring them into the family. Try to expand your family’s borders, so to speak, so that your teens feel happier during family time. 

Do Something Big Every Month

You don’t have to take the whole family out to the theme park every weekend, but going on a fun excursion every month can be a great way to celebrate together. 

Pick somewhere new each time. In January, for instance, you might go to a museum, then in February you could hit the park. In March, you could go hiking in the mountains. It’s totally up to you. 

Take A Walk After Dinner

Going for a walk after dinner isn’t just great for your health: it’s also a good way to bond with family members. Walking can be a great healer, letting people talk about their issues while feeling good from exercising their bodies.

The evening is the best time of day to walk. It’s cooler and actually might be a time for your kids to bring up any issues that they face.

Fix Up The House Together

When it comes to celebrating more, having something to celebrate is important. Major life milestones, such as earning a degree or landing a promotion, don’t come around all that often, so looking for things to celebrate more frequently helps.

But what, exactly?

Well, one idea is to simply fix up the house and then celebrate that. Because you can immediately see the results of your actions, you feel more attached to the achievement, making it more meaningful to you. 

What’s more, both you and your kids learn a lot along the way. Fixing the plumbing under the kitchen sink or tiling a floor teaches important life skills they can use in the future. 

Conduct Family Interviews

Lastly, you might also want to conduct family interviews. These are a good way to learn more about a particular member of your family, discovering things you didn’t know about them before. 

Make your questions probing so that you can get a read on their character. Often, during interview sessions, you discover things that make you relate differently to the person than you would otherwise. The more you find out, the better able you are to celebrate.

Families Don’t Celebrate Enough: Here’s How You Can Change That