Family ritual ideas

We asked parents which family rituals they love best. Here are some of their time-tested favorites:

Growing green stuff
"Every Saturday (barring bad weather), our family does our gardening together. We plant new flowers, water them, or just dig and do some weeding. We even bought our daughter a toy gardening set. She absolutely loves it."

Singing lullabies
"Every night before they go to sleep, we sing our children goodnight songs. One of them is a song my grandmother used to sing to me, and the other is a song my husband made up. Then we tell the children individually that we love them, adding a quick comment about anything they've done in the day that we are particularly proud of, and say goodnight. It ensures that there hasn't been a day in their lives that they haven't been told that they are loved. They love the singing too, and it helps clear the air if it's been a challenging day for any of us. It only takes five minutes, but it's a really special time of the day."

Walking the dogs after supper
"When we started this tradition, there were two dogs and one baby in a stroller. Now there are two boys nearly as tall as me and only one dog."

Taking an annual summer trip to the beach
"Our kids have grown up alongside other families who rent a beach home near ours every year. They really look forward to that one special week and to seeing their beach friends again."

Reading aloud at bedtime
"I started reading to my son when he was still in my wife's belly. Now we both lie on the rug in his room, and he reads to me."

Sharing our days
"At the dinner table each night, we share our highs and lows of the day. It gets good conversations started and keeps me in tune with the goings-on in my children's lives. Recently we added 'one nice thing I did for someone today' as a topic. Not only is this a wonderful thing to celebrate, it encourages us to keep kindness in the forefront of our minds each day."

Celebrating school
"Every fall, on the first day back to school, I take my kids out for a special dinner in honor of the beginning of a new school year. It helps them look forward to school and lets them know that their education is worth celebrating. "

Taking a family photo in the same spot every year
"Before I had kids, my husband and I planted a tree in our front yard and had our photo taken in front of it. Every year since, we've had a family photo taken in front of the same tree. It's so neat to look at the series of photos and see how much the tree – and our family (we now have a daughter, two dogs, and a bird) – has grown over the years."

Going to church every Sunday
"We weren't big church people until our twins were born. I think the whole birth experience just made us feel like there must be a God out there. Now that the twins are older, they're very active in our church. They've never known a time when church wasn't part of their lives."

Having family movie night
"We've rented a movie and ordered a pizza every Saturday night since our kids were babies. We started out watching films we wanted to see, then dove into all the Disney stuff, and now we've almost come full circle. We can usually all agree on a movie to share."

Taking a Thanksgiving road trip
"Most of my family lives on the other side of the country. For our son's first few years, my husband's family was nearby, so our son naturally grew closest to them. When my in-laws retired, they decided to move out of state. To keep our families close, we decided that every year we'd take a road trip to visit my husband's parents over the long Thanksgiving weekend. The road trip is always lots of fun, and it's something all of us get excited about every year. It's also a nice way to remember to be grateful for the important people in our lives!"