When you were a child, did you have any favourite family rituals?

Every Thanksgiving at my grandparents, we would all gather in the basement after the meal and have dessert. We’d set up their slide projector and all look at old family photos while eating pie. When I got older, I realized why I loved this so much. It was a time when everyone would be laughing until they couldn’t breathe – even my grandparents.

Edit: I realize you were probably looking for more daily family rituals/parenting stuff. I guess I have my grandmother on my mind.

Here are two I recalled:
1) Visiting my great-grandparents every few Sundays and also seeing my grandparents and my aunt and uncle there. We’d all have an Italian meal together.
2) Going out for Pizza on Fridays. It was a Catholic thing for us, but apparently it’s popular secularly, too.

no

@hominid Not at all – I like your answer a lot!

@dxs Pizza once a week is popular, yes. My family had a movie night every Friday for a while, and it was usually accompanied by frozen pizza.

We would go out for dinner as a family on Friday nights from the time the kids were older toddlers to when they were late teens.

Family hikes and picnics.

Getting to open one present on Christmas Eve.

Pulling the wishbone the Sunday after Thanksgiving when it had dried out.

Fresh strawberry shortcake on my Grandfather’s birthday.

I grew up in a very nice semi rural waterfront neighborhood 30 miles southeast of Baltimore City.my Father grew up in southwest Baltimore and moved to the County in his mid twenties. once a year he would take us on a mini tour of areas in the City that he knew from growing up there. we would go to the Geppi nut company and they would roast huge burlap bags full of raw peanuts. we would get them still warm fresh out of the roaster in brown paper bags and they were so good! We would go to a City owned recreation pier near Broadway market on the Harbor in east Baltimore and then go into Broadway market to Privas for a genuine milkshake that did not contain ice cream. they had a hand cranked gear driven device that held two big tapered glasses that resembled Coca Cola glasses. they used whole milk. fruit juice and crushed ice. i remember these milkshakes as being very refreshing in the summer heat.we would go to the area of Kosher Deli’s known as Jew town on East Lombard street for corned beef and kosher hot dogs. we either went to Attmanns who were German American Jews or Jacks who were Russian American Jews. Jack used to have a huge sign on the wall next to his parking lot that said, Russia let my people go! we would also go to Tullkoff’s who were Russian Jews and buy fresh ground horseradish.

About once a year, we would have ice cream sundae blow outs. Dad would go to the store and get ice cream, bananas, chocolate syrup, wet nuts, caramel sauce, marshmallow creme, whipped cream, cherries, and anything else that look good and we’d eat until we felt sick. (Gee, I wonder why I have impulse control issues.)

I had to go to an eye hospital often as a child. So my dad always took me to a huge park that was close to the hospital when we had those visits. They were special ‘me and him’ times.

We too had the wishbone ritual like @zenvelo and I remember it fondly.

My dad would make us potato cakes or scones for a Sunday night treat and then played the harmonica and we all had a bit of a singalong.

My dad took our dog for a walk to the park every night and it was a joy to go along with him.

It wasn’t a ritual, but I used to look forward to waking really early in the morning and going downstairs for a cuppa with my dad while he got ready for work. He was a shift worker.

A common theme to these is spending time with my dad.

I actually answered for my own family rather than from when I was a child. My bad.

Two that come immediately to mind are that we always had Guy Fawkes night with our neighbours next door and also shared fish and chips with them on Friday nights. Both occasions were looked forward to and relished.

Here are some of mine (some of which still remains)
– Watch Weekend’s movies or documentaries before bed (too bad they stopped showing these things some time ago)
– Visit grandma every Sunday.
– Read books before bed.
– Clean the house every New Year with a set of music playing (that set of music have never changed).
– Go out at 12 a.m on New Year’s Eve for firework, then come back home and only the chosen person can step into the house first.

My mother did not particularly enjoy cooking, nor was she very good at it (but she tried) — so on Friday nights, it was Dad’s turn to cook. This meant either Steak-Ums, pancakes/French toast, or takeout pizza. I loved Friday nights.

Just the basics like holidays. Although my new ritual will be taking psychedelic drugs in the mountains or at a concert every 2 to 3 years. It’s just too great of an experience to pass up.

Sunday brunch at home after Mass. We would be packed off to early Mass with Dad while Mom, a closet agnostic, would prepare platters overflowing with Lyonaise potatoes, Canadian bacon, eggs, and all the orange juice we could drink—a table groaning under the weight of this feast that would be waiting for us when we returned. It was the only time in the week that we got a breakfast more than cream of wheat or oatmeal. It was a real luxury and we could relax and tell about our week and eat to our heart’s content. It lasted for a couple of hours it seemed. It was quality family time with all of us together at once and both our parents present and refreshed—not tired from working all day at either the office or in the home with seven kids and a couple of dogs and cats. Later, as adults, we would do this at mom’s whenever possible, only this time we all would pitch in and help in the kitchen, with mom being served first. She’s gone now and my siblings have long since melted into their own in-law’s rituals, Sunday dinners and Holiday feasts. Those brunches were our best times together.

The annual Passover Seder with my then-large family. Also Chanukah week (you know, the slow build-up of the Big Gift starting with one sock the first night).

Late December every year we would give each other gifts, neatly wrapped & placed under a tree with twinkling lights. We embraced our own special unique qualities with great gusto.

I totally read this question wrong haha oops.

Watching TV shows like MASH, The Odd Couple, The Jefferson’s, All in the Family, Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, and Soap were some family favorites and fun to watch together.

Passover was the one holiday the extended family got together for over the years and I loved it. I loved my grandma’s cooking, her special Passover candies, and seeing my aunt and cousins.

Many traditions died out quickly in my family. The traditions were just for us as little children and then my mom didn’t bother as we got older. Like dying Easter Eggs, going sledding in the snow, flying kites, a lot of things just went away over time. I guess if I had had kids the traditions would have stayed alive with them.

Thanks, guys. Here are my favorites:

“Attack Dad” – yelled during family times, and followed by my sister and I fighting our dad. Our goal: Remove one of his socks, tickle his feet, and hide said sock somewhere in the flat.

“New Year’s Waffles” – To this day, the whole family meets up on New Year’s Day. We make special, extra-thin aniseed waffles, and shape them into cones to hold ice cream and cherries.

“Pyjama Race” – To get us into our pyjamas quickly, my mum would often ask us to race each other. Much more fun that way!

Reading ‘Night Before Christmas’ the day before Christmas.

@JLeslie ‘s reminiscences put me in mind of my family ritual of watching Ed Sullivan, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason and other TV comedy shows. How they loved those shows!

Taking the Sunday Post to my Grandparents on Sunday evening, spending an hour or so with them then bringing the Sunday Express back.

Christmas.

Watching ‘Wells Fargo’ and ‘Sergeant Bilko’ with my father on a little black and white TV.

I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners! LMAO! It was great. I still have a great time watching TV with my husband. When my parents visit, listening to my mom’s cackling laugh while she watches sit-coms cracks me up. People who look down on TV piss me off.

Ooooh, forgot one!

When I was about nine, I spent every Thursday afternoon at my grandma’s house. Every week, she’d fry either pasta or potatoes with eggs. A messy plate of grease, delicious. And then, there was the TV and the rare treat of coke. Awesome!