Family stories and everyday acts of love and kindness don’t always look the way you think they will. A family can smell like a meat bouquet instead of roses, or they can live in a tiny plastic dinosaur on a shelf at school. These 18 stories show that the most normal things can make the best memories.
We are celebrating my mother-in-law’s birthday. My father-in-law walks into the room with a big bouquet. My mother-in-law happily picks up this “bouquet.” When I look closer, I see that it’s not flowers but a big piece of meat!
I’m shocked, but my mother-in-law laughs and says, “Girls, you don’t get it.” My husband brought me flowers for my birthday when I was pregnant. And I said, “I’m hungry.” “Why do I need flowers?”
Since then, they have kept up the same tradition: every year, my father-in-law gives her a big “meat bouquet” instead of flowers that don’t do anything.
I make a lot of cookies for my family and friends every year.
Every Christmas, my extended family gives an award to the family member who was voted to have done the dumbest thing that year. The “trophy” is a gold crown that the winner must keep on display in their home for the rest of the year.
In the past, people have won by sneezing and crashing a bike, sinking a rowboat, getting on the wrong bus in London, or mistaking a NERF football for a cardinal. You need to be tough to be a part of my family.
My parents have been together for 26 years. Friends want to know how they’ve been able to stay together for so long without getting on each other’s nerves. “Love and respect,” my parents say. But I know what they are hiding.
“Rock-paper-scissors” decides everything. Who will do the vacuuming? Paper is the winner! Who is going to wash the dishes? Scissors are the winner! Where are we going on our trip? “Rock-paper…” and the schedule is set.
There are no arguments; everything is clear. And every time I see these grown-ups having a mini-duel, I think that they are still kids at heart.
We always get the ugliest tree we can find for Christmas and give it a loving home.
My friend lost a bet and had to go to a tall building at night and yell “Euan” for 40 minutes.
At 2 a.m., he walks up to the building, looks up at the windows, and starts yelling for Euan over and over again. Some people looked out of windows and saw curses coming out of them.
The light came on in a third-floor balcony about 20 to 30 minutes later. The window opened, and a basin of water was poured out. Then a girl looked out the window and said, “I chose to give you a drink or you might lose your voice calling for Euan so loudly.”
My friend wasn’t bothered and asked for warmer water because he was afraid of getting sick. A few minutes later, a second basin of water was poured over him, this time with warmer water. They began to talk.
That day was five years ago. This is the day they go to the water park every year because they are having their second child. You never know when you’ll meet someone special who is ready to bring you a glass of water. Or maybe even a washbasin.
When we make dumplings, one of them must have very spicy ground meat in it. This is a family tradition. Grandma made a batch of dumplings when Mom brought our stepfather to meet the family. Of course, that dumpling went to him. He didn’t even flinch, but later he said he was scared he might have to eat a whole plate of these dumplings.
My grandparents are 80 and 82 years old, and they still hold hands everywhere they go after being married for more than 50 years.
We don’t spend a lot of time together as a family, even though we live together. School and work. That’s why we have a tradition in our family. We sit down at the table every Sunday at 6 p.m., pour out a bunch of sunflower seeds, and start eating.
When I was a kid, this tradition started. I didn’t know how to shell the seeds back then, so my parents would do it for me and put them on the table. I was so happy when I found the ones that were already shelled!
A family values its traditions. That’s what I think, at least. Every year on September 1st, I buy my daughter a stuffed dog. We have 11 of these this year.
A coworker told me that she and her daughter used to take a picture by the same tree every September 1st. Her daughter graduated from school this year and got a gift: a book of her first-grade pictures! I think it’s great!
My family has a holiday tradition of making chex mix at home.
We always throw big parties for our wedding anniversaries with lots of people. This is true for both my parents and my in-laws.
We got married in Cuba, and every year on our wedding day, we fly to a different country. But before that, we celebrate at home with friends and family, always in our wedding clothes. Why should my fairytale dress stay in the closet?
Everyone in the family started a betting pool to see when our clothes would stop fitting us. Every year, the pot gets bigger. Someone is going to win a lot of money.
We have our own family traditions, my boyfriend and I. We bake each other a cake at night on our birthdays and bring it to bed with candles in the morning. We also have the “20 seconds.” One of us comes up to the other and says this phrase, and the other person drops everything and hugs them for that time.
We had dinner together. My partner and I sometimes sit in the kitchen and talk while I eat when I get home late from work. So, whoever gets home first makes tea with lemon and mint for the other person. This is the base of a strong family for me.
We used to have a great family tradition. Mom found some old pictures.
When a family member turns 16, they have to sign their name under my grandmother’s kitchen table. There has to be something clever, funny, or personal, as well as their name and the date. Of course, people who “join” the family later, like through marriage or a long-term relationship, or even just very good friends who have been to a family event or two, sign when they are inducted. It’s a big deal, and everyone takes pictures.
It’s fun to go under the table every now and then and read some of the old sayings from family and friends who have passed away or stopped talking to us. Everyone’s grandkids were excited to turn 16 so they could finally put their names under the table.
This tradition has been going on for about 20 years. Every New Year, Dad buys a big piggy bank that looks like the animal of the year. He weighs it, puts a label on it and then he and Mom fill it with coins over the course of the year.
We break it on December 31, the last day of the year, with the hope that all the bad things will go away with the pieces. Everyone in the family then counts the coins and decides how to split them up. My brother and I used to get this money, but now it goes to the grandkids.
For 20 years, a new piggy bank has started on January 1.
My sister and I have been taking our “Droste Photo” for 26 years!
I pack my 14-year-old daughter’s lunch every day and put a note in her bag, like “Have a great day!” or something like that. Sometimes I forget, and then she always texts me, “How could you forget the note?”
We read a book together on paper. First me, then my husband, and then our youngest son (who lives with us; the older ones have their own families). Then we talk about the plot, the characters, who understood what, what we liked and didn’t like, and so on. Just like critics, we really break it down at our evening get-togethers.
In our family, gifts have to be strange but useful. So, on my birthday, my mother-in-law gave me a brick with a serious look on her face. There was a lot of dust. I put it away and smiled.
A week later, I heard a crash. My son had found the brick and dropped it. There was an envelope on the floor with a gift certificate for the course I’d been dreaming of.
Since then, every birthday person has sat down at some point with a look of complete confusion on their face, holding something strange. And then they realise it, which is the best part of the party. Yes, we try to make sure the person figures it out sooner, not a week later.
We told our 3-year-old that New Year’s is special because you get to drink to a new year. “Are we going to make a toast now?” she asked a few hours later. And so a tradition for New Year’s Day was born.
My husband and I have a tradition that started by accident.
He went on a business trip for two weeks during our first year of living together. To keep myself busy, I started putting notes on the fridge with reasons why I’m glad to have him. Just to not be alone. He came back, read them all, and didn’t say anything. He just smiled.
A week later, it was my turn to go. When I get back, all of his notes are on the fridge. Now, every time one of us leaves, they come home to a wall of notes. We now have three albums with notes saved in them. We changed the fridge a long time ago, but the tradition stays the same.
We keep a “jar of good” at home. We put notes in it all year long—funny things that happened, nice things, and things we’re thankful for. It’s just a regular glass jar on the kitchen shelf. We read them all out loud on December 31, just before the clock struck midnight.
We started it in a very hard year, thinking there wouldn’t be much to read. We ended up having to read an hour and a half’s worth of notes. It seems that there was a lot of good; we just didn’t see it at the time.
A 16-year-old birthday tradition
When our daughter turned five, she made us come up with a “secret word of the day” for her every night. It could be any word as long as it was funny. The next day, she would bring it up in conversation whenever she could. We thought she would get over it.
Now she’s 14. She came up to me last night and asked, “What’s the word?” “Kalaboomba” was today’s word. We don’t know why, but the tradition goes on.
When my son started first grade, I thought it would be a good idea to put a small toy in his rucksack to give him courage. Each time, a different one to “protect” him on tough days. He put away his toys as he got older, but one day in high school, after a hard test, he came home and quietly put a small dinosaur on the table. I didn’t get it. “I bought it myself,” he said. It worked.
He is now 19 years old, and the dinosaur is on a shelf in his dorm room.
You don’t always need to spend a lot of money on gifts to feel like you’re part of something. A lunchbox note, a pile of sunflower seeds on a Sunday night, or a dusty brick with something hidden inside are all it takes sometimes.
