New Year is a good reason to add something new to your life. And it doesn’t matter whether your family is young or not - it’s never too late to renew old traditions or come up with new ones!

Perhaps it is precisely these bright and joyful moments that your child will remember, he will remember them with warmth after many years and keep them in his family.

Here are the ideas of traditions, rituals and just pleasant household trifles that you can take note of.

  - Meet the New Year with your family.

Make an advent calendar or countdown to the New Year.

Craft Christmas toys and make an animal figure symbolizing
  coming year.

On the eve of the holiday, hide small gifts or notes from Santa Claus under the pillow for the child.

Arrange holiday precursors in the apartment.

A week before the New Year, give up everything tasty so that holiday treats bring real joy not only to children, but also to adults!

  - Collect unnecessary things and take them to charitable organizations.

Send homemade greeting cards.

Go to the library before the New Year and choose a thematic book that you will read every night.

Shelf books about Christmas, New Year and just about winter topics. Read them on the eve of the holiday and throughout the winter, and then clean again. Every year find new books suitable for children by age.

  - Make a photo album with pictures of the most interesting and significant events of this
  of the year. Watch the albums of previous years before the holiday.

To write down on paper the most sad, offensive and unpleasant moments of the past year, especially if they disturb your child (or you), and burn the list.

Write a list of promises and wishes for next year. Read it next year and note what it was possible to implement. You can also cut and paste pictures from magazines if the child does not know how to write.

Before the New Year, change something in the interior of the house: rearrange furniture or replace covers and upholstery on it, change curtains, tablecloths, towels, or shower curtains.

To get a New Year's service and tablecloth for the holiday. For example, made by yourself.

Make Christmas costumes for all family members and pets.

- Every year, arrange a photo shoot for the whole family, including grandparents and other close relatives. Or just take pictures every year on the background of the Christmas tree. Over time, these photos will become more and more, and it will be very interesting to watch how family members change.

Make a photo album with pictures of significant events of the outgoing year. Remember and discuss the happiest moments.

Dress up a Christmas tree, prepare salads and decorate the apartment with good New Year's songs. It can be soulful retro hits of Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong or old Soviet songs.

Bake gingerbread cookies or cookies. Collect all kinds of baking tins and decorations and make as many different gingerbread cookies as possible. Put them all in one bag and invite the guests to take them out on a gingerbread: what has fallen is what awaits them in the coming year. You have to show considerable imagination to come up with what a squirrel, a clown, an asterisk or a house mean. Also, gingerbread cookies can be hung on the tree and starting from January 1, eat one at a time, and when there is not a single gingerbread left, remove the tree.

  - The youngest member of the family begins to decorate the Christmas tree. The first you can hang a homemade toy, for example, with a symbol of the coming year. Or, each year, start decorating the Christmas tree with a new toy.

When the tree is dressed up, gather as a family, in chorus say: "Christmas tree, light up!" and turn on the garland.

To figure out how to give gifts in the New Year: quietly put gifts under the Christmas tree so that the child opens them the night before or on New Year's Eve, put gifts in one big bag and then give them out to everyone who gathers, presents Santa Claus, the child finds gifts under the Christmas tree for the next morning.

Give grandparents photo gifts every year.

Give gifts to all pets, whether it be a dog, a hamster or an aquarium fish.

The whole family watches the same film every year, for example, “Alone at Home”, “Frost”, “Carnival Night”, “Miracle on 34th Street”.

  - Leave a special gift under the Christmas tree to the apartment in which you live. It can be a new painting, a carpet, or even a “certificate” for installing windows or a new kitchen. As well as smaller items, to replace those that over the years could have become worthless: a glass for toothbrushes, cutting boards, a trash can or a door mat.

To put up before the New Year with friends and relatives, ask for forgiveness so as not to bear resentment in the coming year.

To thank each of those gathered at the table for any specific spiritual qualities or actions. Or just take turns saying compliments and kind words to each other.

Put almond nuts in a cake or salad. Whoever comes across will have a happy New Year event.

Put small gifts in sneakers every day until the Old New Year, if the child does not forget to put the slippers under the tree. Also, gifts (for example, just candy) can be put under a pillow or in a Christmas sock.

  - Every year to make a gnome from the trunk of an old tree.

On Christmas Eve (the evening before Christmas) put on the table twelve different dishes or at least twelve different products.

Fortune telling at Christmas, such as wax. Pour the melted wax into a bowl of water, and when it hardens, put it on a contrasting background and try to guess what kind of figure you got and what it reminds you of.

Family traditions of the New Year

The second tradition is making sweets for the New Year with children. A rare child does not like to work with the test. And although children's cooking is far from perfect, it is on the festive table. In my parental family, it was customary to cook dumplings and put a lot of pepper in one of them. It was a “happy” dumpling.

I saved the idea, but instead of dumplings we are now preparing cookies, inside of which are inserted pieces of paper with wishes and predictions. Of course, only I know about the contents of these notes. The paper is folded and sealed into a piece of foil. Then, for tea, everyone recklessly selects their "lot", read the "predictions".
  These are the wishes and predictions used this year:
Good luck awaits you!
  You will have a lot of enjoyable chores.
  Business - time, fun - an hour.
  Do not put off until tomorrow what can be done today.
  If you want to eat kalachi, do not lie on the stove.
  During the holidays, driving caution will not hurt.
  New Year holidays will be full of fun and new acquaintances.
  Parents planned something good.
  By the summer you grow up by 7 centimeters.
  Laugh carelessly so that happiness lasts forever.
  Seven times measure cut once!
  Listen to everyone. Ideas come from everywhere.
  Focus on family and harmony with the world around you.
  Well done is better than well said.
  One who does not expect gratitude will never be disappointed.
  Whatever is done is all for the better.
  Do not look for external enemies: to understand what is hindering your development, look inside yourself.
Be mindful of the clues of fate.
  Be persistent in the battle with your own selfishness.
  When I select expressions, I think about who it suits. We can say that I even hope that the prediction will become prophetic and the person will change for the better. (I’m rarely able to “Fit in,” but that’s why everyone is happy, with the exception of me).

Carnival preparation  - Another New Year's tradition.
  Now it is customary to arrange at school not just a Christmas tree, but a carnival, therefore, a costume is needed. You can buy the costume in the store, or you can sew it yourself, which is much more interesting and useful in all respects. The child and his family members are included in the process of preparing the costume, which makes them very united. The child comes up with an image, looks for the necessary accessories, chooses a style, measures different outfits, enters into the role, looks forward to a holiday, which is very good. Preschool children are happy to join this process. And although they have few offers, they are happy to dress up and play a role.

Children up to a certain age believe in the real Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden, and we do our best not to destroy their faith in miracles and create surprise moments. This year I recorded a video in which the beautiful Snegurochka (teacher of our garden) congratulated the grandchildren on the New Year and wished them to grow up as kind and obedient children. This video appeal was shown during a children's party. A little later, when the grandchildren were passionate about the game, the doorbell rang. It turned out that they brought a parcel from "Santa Claus" with a real wax seal and postage stamps. The gift impressed not only the children, but also their parents.
  The next tradition is meeting guests in the form of an animal symbolizing the coming year.  So last year I met my grandchildren in a goat’s wig, and this year my grandfather put on a Monkey mask and scared someone whom he made fun of with his grimaces.
  Photographing, of course, is a long-standing family tradition, thanks to which children well remember the events of their lives, and we, adults, remember them with emotion as little ones.
Making gifts and souvenirs for all family members - another tradition. Grandchildren prepare gifts for great-grandmother and great-grandfather, for grandparents with their own hands under the guidance of their parents. For this, various creative sets are used, the choice of which is unusually wide. The idea is put into the minds of children that a handmade gift will delight their relatives much more than a gift bought with parental money. All other family members exchange traditional gifts. And we prefer to give impressions to children, namely: tickets to the theater, to the Christmas tree, a trip to Moscow, travel, etc.
  We exchange gifts after the game program in order to maintain intrigue and keep the attention of children.
  By the way, this year I immediately announced that the gifts from under the tree had disappeared, but there is a chance to find them if all the requirements of the evil trolls are met. Where did the trolls come from in the city apartment, the grandchildren did not begin to find out, but immediately started searching. (By the way, not only gifts were missing, but also some of my notes - tasks and even one prediction from cookies, which is still impossible to explain logically, as if the trolls were to blame!)
  I don’t want to make a festive feast the main event of a family holiday, although I like to cook, and my guests love to feast on. Since we Russians are distinguished by hospitality and hospitality, I believe that grandchildren will easily accept these traditions, and the rest - I would like to instill them.

New Year is always a noisy celebration. Holiday fuss in the form of choosing and buying gifts, dresses, Christmas tree decorations, products for preparing a dinner party brings many nervous breakdowns and fatigue to many. As usual, this holiday takes place according to the same scenario every year. And every time we try to meet the coming year outside the home, outside the family, away from loved ones. The article presents thoughts on the following topics: what scares us the prospect of meeting the new year with our family; why it is important to make this holiday truly family-friendly and what is needed for this.

For many years, the New Year's Eve has become a symbol of renewal for the world created by mankind. On this magical day, December 31, until midnight, each of us makes an uncountable number of unshakable promises, indestructible vows, makes a host of fulfilled or doomed desires, and, of course, prepares to start on January 1 a completely different one, full of joy, kindness, love and happiness life.

The vanity precedes all this. Buying gifts, which in most cases are either very expensive (for greater effect), or very similar to buying out (it is customary to give, so you need to give something). Disputes about where to celebrate and what to wear. If there are children, then thoughts about where to attach them during the “adult” feast. If there are elderly parents, decisions are made as to whether to go to them at all, and if to go, then how long it takes to stay there. If you plan to visit several familiar families during the evening and night, then the procedure for their visits is established by the method of quarrels and slamming doors. Options can be listed indefinitely.

There is no doubt that New Year's holidays intuitively force us to strive for a noisy, provocative pastime thanks to historical premises. “As you celebrate the New Year, you will spend it,” our ancestors used to say. Therefore, January 1 at all times was considered a day of idle idleness and rampant festivities, while December 31 was recommended to be quiet, boring and sad, so that the coming year would be joyful and gracious. From time immemorial, songs and screams, the ringing of bells, a shot from rifles, and guns on New Year's Eve were called upon to cast out all evil spirits and to call forth good spirits. Today's loud screams, explosions of firecrackers and crackers, small fireworks, the burning of sparklers and candles worthily continue the ancient traditions described in our country. We seem to have forgotten about only one tradition behind all this external carnival: new year - family holiday.

Most of us have a negative attitude to all kinds of family celebrations and therefore do not burn with desire spend a new year with your family. These are really not too pleasant chores: you need to clean the house, decorate the rooms, spend almost all day cooking festive dishes (everything should turn out not only delicious, but also elegant), be nervous about the money spent on food, alcohol, souvenirs, holiday clothes and tinsel. In addition, almost all relatives have at least 15 people, and you cannot invite someone, but someone cannot, otherwise the mistake will turn into an insult for life from the side of the “rejected” person. And as the apotheosis of unrest - an anticipation of the end of the holiday. It must be present, for example, motionless guests, who will need to be sent home by taxi as a valuable cargo. Also, uncontrollable children participate in it, who will constantly get confused under their feet and create whatever comes into their heads. And after guests leave, the owners will still have mountains of dirty dishes, which you don’t want to wash at all after a day of cooking. As a result, there will be no pleasure, no strength, and no desire for Grandfather Frost from meeting the new milestone.

On the other hand, an alarming observation can be made. Weekdays - work; I want to devote a vacation to myself; birthdays and other holidays are monotonous gatherings at the table that end the same way, so there is absolutely no desire to go there. It turns out that the family practically does not get together. And this is regrettable, because just now this is what our society lacks - strong family ties. For many centuries, gender has been an important part of human life. Everyone knew that behind him there was real support, protection, help, and this was calming, giving strength. Now gender as such does not mean anything. He gradually lost his authority, and we, instead of returning its significance, on the contrary, strongly repel any opportunity to change this set of circumstances. Thus, we make ourselves weak and partly lonely with our own hands.

Many European countries have their own long tradition of celebrating the new year. In Russia there are none. Noisy sleigh rides, trips abroad, trips to nightclubs, corporate parties, the launch of colorful lights into the sky, and more - all these types of winter holidays are held in many places on the planet. So why not create an authentic tradition, which will not only become a hallmark of the coming year for the Russians, but also make us stronger spiritually?

It’s easy to stay close to your loved ones on New Year’s Eve and have fun with them. Without labor, as they say, you can’t catch a fish, so you have to make a little effort to all family members. It is advisable to think over the menu in advance, distribute responsibilities around the house, plan the day on December 31 so that everyone has time to walk together, go to the theater, to a concert, to the square where folk festivals take place, to a slide, play snowballs and carry out similar events.

In order not to turn the holiday into a dull everyday sitting at the table, into the process of absorbing food and alcohol, it makes sense to come up with interesting activities in advance, in which the whole family will participate. Board games, viewing positive new Year movie  (preferably, without the participation of the TV - it’s better to make a disc of your choice), predictive balloons, gift exchange, karaoke (who has everything you need) - together with other exciting options, these activities will make staying at home, next to family, comfortable and positively saturated.

Having shown imagination, having connected the whole family to the preparation of the holiday, everyone will get a chance to give themselves the best New Year's gift, rallying together that which maintains harmony with the world, calmness, and confidence in the future, regardless of prejudice.

Is New Year a family holiday for you?

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For many, the New Year is associated with Olivier salad, The Irony of Fate, fireworks, and an elegant Christmas tree. However, the most wonderful thing about this holiday is that it is at this time that you can get together as a family and together spend the outgoing year.

Letidor made a list of five reasons why the New Year is the best family holiday, and hardly anyone will be able to argue with us!

New Year unites people of different religions

No matter who you believe in and what your religious preferences are, on New Year's it does not matter at all. After all, this holiday has no attachment to any belief.

People of all religions are happy to see off the outgoing year and meet a new one with hopes for a brighter future.

On New Year the whole family gathers together

Family is the most important thing in the world. And when all our relatives gather, sit at the common table, smile, joke and laugh, then we are really happy.

Nothing can replace mom’s care about what kind of salad you would like to try, interesting stories of the sister, gentle hands of her husband and funny tricks of the children.

On New Year's Eve, you can get everything at once, you just have to get everyone together and cook as many delicious treats as possible!

And you can dance, hug and believe in a miracle. And also - all together.

In the New Year you can remember all the good and let go of the bad

When was the last time you sat down and looked at a family album with old photos? A festive night is a great opportunity for this.

After a fun feast, take out your photos, find old videos and plunge the whole family into the memories of the past year.

We are sure that you will have something to remember and something to laugh at!

This is a holiday when you can make plans for the future

New Year new life . It was at this time that it was necessary to boldly make plans and set goals.

Have you been dreaming to go to an exotic country for a long time? Want to attend cooking classes or dance classes? New Year is the time for grand decisions.

You can even make yourself a list of desires / goals and follow them for 12 months, each time marking a completed task. The list will be filled with “checkmarks”, and at the end of December you will be surprised how much you managed to do!

A magical atmosphere reigns everywhere

Flickering lights, the smell of fresh biscuits, a snowball outside the window and your favorite films on TV - this is what creates a truly fabulous mood. The house is filled with warmth and comfort, all family members after household chores sit down at a large table and raise glasses with champagne.