Since families grow stronger with traditions, I’m all about finding tiny ways of celebrating and creating time together.
We’re already counting down to our new and improved Advent Activity Calendar and our holiday-cookie baking day, and our kids always look forward to opening one special present on Christmas Eve–their new holiday pj’s. I just ran across our binder of New Year’s Family Interviews, and it was just what I needed to take a minute or two to read our family’s responses from the past few years.
We’ve got traditions thrown in whenever and wherever we can–traditions that include just our immediate family, our friends, and sometimes our extended family. It gives us something to look forward to and gives the kids–and parents!–some solidity and consistency in our sometimes busy and chaotic lives.
One of our favorite family activities on our Advent Activity Calendar always includes a holiday movie night where we cozy up in our holiday pj’s, snuggle under blankets, and hang out together, eating popcorn and sweets.
The holidays are right around the corner, and thanks to PBS Kids, we can kick ’em off tomorrow, November 23, with the Curious George Holiday Spectacular!
Here’s the skinny:
- Curious George Holiday Spectacular: It’s a totally free, completely fun premier of the original Curious George movie which will air as part of the CURIOUS GEORGE Holiday Spectacular.
The Holiday Spectacular is a three-movie on-air event that starts with Curious George (featuring the voices of Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore and Dick Van Dyke, as well as the music of Jack Johnson (love!), followed by Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey and Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas.
The Curious George Holiday Spectacular is a marathon of three movies: Curious George, Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey, and Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas.
Take a peek at a clip of Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas, and check your local listings for the programming time and channel so you can pop your popcorn and park your tinies in front of the tube (or set your DVR for the correct time!).
We will celebrate the holidays with Curious George. . . and we’ll make frames to capture our funny faces.
The good people at PBS Kids sent me an incredible movie fun kit so that I could host a happy Holiday Spectacular pre-viewing party, but sick kiddos prevented the whole thing from going down as originally planned.
So instead, we’ll celebrate the Curious George three-movie event by ourselves tomorrow when it airs, and we’ll plan a very monkey, very merry Curious George Holiday Spectacular par-tay during the busy month of December with some of our holiday movie-watching buddies, on the date we decide on our Advent Activity Calendar.
As a reader and advocate for supporting early literacy in any way possible, I especially love that with this movie we can bring to life one of our children’s favorite characters–Curious George!
Hopefully we’ll be finished with the tissues and coughing by then and can focus our attention on popcorn and silly monkeys!
Need some more tradition-creating ideas?
PBS Parents provides additional ideas to create meaningful traditions for the family such as:
1) Write an annual letter to your child. The holidays are an appropriate time to mark your child’s growth with a special message that will be cherished for a lifetime. Seal letters and store them in a keepsake box until they are old enough to read and enjoy them.
2) Do a Secret Santa gift exchange for charity. Turn the tables this year. Instead of buying a present, make a donation or spend time volunteering for a charity of the giftee’s choice.
3) Make a family walk an annual event. Walking is a great way to spend time with each other, and work off those extra gingerbread cookies! Set aside time — even if it’s 30 minutes — to get outside and stretch your legs with the family.
4) Leave a legacy that lasts (and helps the environment). Each New Year’s Day, plant a tree in honor of your child(ren). Hold a special ceremony in which everyone in the family plays a part in planting that year’s tree, and take lots of pictures, both when the tree is planted and over the years as it grows.
5) Take part in a community service project as a family. Designate a day that will be devoted to serving others in your community.
6) Select a recipe and make it a tradition to make it together as a family, giving each family member a task in preparing it. In honor of the CURIOUS GEORGE Holiday Spectacular, make monkey bread or a banana dessert. (FUN!!)
Happy holidays, my friends!!
fyi: This is an unsponsored post, and the opinions and ideas are my own, influenced by my three little tradition-lovers and my amazing husband who lovingly goes along with all of my crazy tradition ideas. PBS sent me a Curious George Holiday Spectacular viewing party kit, which included screener DVD’s and party supplies.
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