A new year managed to slip onto the calendar while we were busy doing life and making family memories. If you’re like me, you’re wondering how the days and months passed by so quickly, but I sure hope you have plenty of family memories to serve as reminders of God’s faithfulness and the blessings of family togetherness.
Find ways to celebrate the love you share with your family in unique ways this year, starting with adding these silly, but real holidays to your list of fun family adventures for the month of January.
Z Day – Started as a day to recognize all those who found themselves last or near the back of the line because of an alphabetical list, Z Day lets you know you are seen and honored! Join in the celebration by making it an all-day-Z-day. Start with dinner food and end the day with breakfast. Let the youngest or shortest member of the family decide which show to watch on television or pick the books to read before bedtime. Eat ziti for lunch and include a side of steamed zucchini. And make it an extra-special celebration by having a sleepover in the den to catch some z’s together as a family.
Walk Your Pet Month – Hopefully every day serves as a day to exercise the family pet, but make it extra special this month with a few creative walks. Then find a fun chapter book about pets to enjoy together with a chapter or two each night shared orally as a family. Check out a few of these books to read: The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford, Wish by Barbara O’Connor, The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary, Haven by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.
Drinking Straw Day – An inventor filed the first patent for a drinking straw back in 1888. Celebrate the day with lots of fun beverage and straw activity, like chocolate milk and orange juice for breakfast, a sip of tea at mid-morning for a tea party, water or punch for lunch, a milkshake for an afternoon snack, a smoothie with dinner, and warm milk just before bedtime.
National Play Outside Day – Obviously this one’s self-explanatory, but find new ways to spend time outdoors with the ones you love. Play disc golf or toss creative flying discs like large sour cream or whipped topping lids. Build a string fort around three or four trees, fashion a treehouse in the limbs of a large tree or create a stick tipi around one tree with large limbs leaning on the trunk of a large tree with an opening left for the entrance.
Play basketball, ride scooters, rollerblade, go bikeriding or jump on a trampoline. Collect sweetgum balls or acorns. Toss rocks in a creek. Play hopscotch, tag or hide and seek. Squeeze in as many minutes outside as possible, today and every day!
Apple Tree Day – Have fun with this craft to celebrate the day and be sure to snack on apples while getting creative. Dip a hand into a shallow container of green paint. Then carefully press the painted hand onto a large sheet of drawing paper to form the leaves of an apple tree. Make about five or six handprints fairly close together to make a full, bushy apple tree. Use a paintbrush to add a brown trunk. When the green paint dries, dip fingers into red paint and make apple shapes throughout the leaves of the apple tree.
What’s on your family fun bucket list for 2025? Make sure to include little adventures, medium sized ones and ginormous ones, too.
Refresh old memories by keeping family traditions active and up-to-date. Create new memory-making events with fresh ideas of fun and entertainment. Include a goal of “x” number of books read each month with the family, “y” number of hours spent outside in playtime together and “z” number of footsteps taken on hikes and family field trips. Make this the best year ever with the ones you love the most. Happy New Year! May 2025 be a good one for ya!
Statesboro native Julie Lavender is the author of A Gingerbread House and other books and enjoys spending time with her husband, David, their four kids, two sons-in-love, and three grandchildren.