Thanksgiving and the Importance of Family Traditions
Family traditions help create tight bonds and can even foster healthy habits! Here’s how to create healthy traditions around Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a huge holiday for traditions, and it’s usually a happy day devoted to food, fun, and memories. But what if your family doesn’t have Thanksgiving traditions — or many traditions in general? That’s OK! Healthy family traditions are easy to create, and the best part is you can start whenever you want.
What Makes a Healthy Tradition?
A healthy tradition is any activity that brings the entire family together — something that everyone enjoys doing that helps promote quality family time.
You can turn almost any activity into a healthy tradition; all you need is a little creativity! Take teeth-brushing; if you have kids, you know it can sometimes feel a little difficult to get everyone excited about this habit. Why not turn teeth-brushing into a healthy tradition called Family Brush Break? This would be a set time every night when the whole family gathers in the bathroom to brush their teeth. Have your kids pick a few of their favorite songs and load them into a playlist. Every night, the family brushes their teeth together for the duration of one of those songs (just make sure the songs are around two minutes long, which is the recommended amount of time for brushing).
This tradition not only teaches healthy brushing patterns, but it also helps each child feel included! If every night sounds like a lot, start out with one night a week; all that matters is that the whole family is together, enjoying something at the same time.
And during your Family Brush Break, don’t forget to add Aquafresh Extreme Clean for the adults and Aquafresh Bubblemint for the kids so that everyone can experience a clean, fresh mouth together!
Some Healthy Thanksgiving Traditions to Try
One healthy Thanksgiving tradition you can easily start this year is a Family Toast. Before dinner begins, everyone takes a few moments to say a couple of things they’re thankful for and things they’re looking forward to.
Another idea is to make homemade garlands of popcorn and cranberries using a needle and string the night before Thanksgiving to decorate the house.
Because the Thanksgiving parade is typically a fun watch for any age, consider having the whole family enjoy a nice breakfast while watching the parade together before the craziness of the day sets in.
A fourth idea that incorporates physical activity into the day would be creating a Family Sports League and playing a favorite game before or after the big meal.
No matter what healthy traditions you decide on, what matters most is that everyone is together, soaking up that quality time!