Making Memories: Our Family’s Special Kid’s Day Tradition
How Kid’s Day Started
Who doesn’t like an excuse to celebrate and have a fun day? About ten years ago, we started a family tradition that has stuck with us: Kid’s Day. Kid’s Day is similar to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in that we spend the day honouring our special ones. We celebrate Kid’s Day on the second or third Saturday each August. I’m not really sure where this timing came from, we likely came up with the idea during summer holidays and wanted to have something to celebrate in the summer months with all our birthdays in the winter. The first Kid’s Day I could find pictures of was in 2013.
How It Works
Similar to how we celebrate Mother’s or Father’s Day, the person being honoured get’s to set the tone for the day. For our family this usually revolves around food and activities. For Kid’s Day, our children come up with the ideas of what they want to do and eat (within reason) and we make a day of it. This usually takes some negotiation between them, which is always interesting to watch.
Gifts aren’t a focus for the day but some years there might be something small that accompanies the day. This year we framed a picture from a recent holiday and gave them each a special memory for their room. Other years they might get a new book or lunch kit for heading back to school. This year my daughter decided to make a gift for her brother, which was pretty special to see.
As the kids get older the day has changed with them, but the main elements remain the same.
- Breakfast in bed
- An activity or two, often with family and friends
- A special dinner and dessert
Ideas for Celebrating Kid’s Day
Special Breakfast
In our house, breakfast in bed is a tradition for all the special days: birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day. So it is no surprise that we carried this over to Kid’s Day. When the kids were younger we brought them into our bed and let them pick their breakfast. The idea that they could have a custom breakfast, like ordering at a restaurant, was half the fun. While we asked them in advance to make sure we had the groceries, we were surprised by the requests for rice and chicken or other non-traditional breakfast foods.
As they got older, they would pick one of their rooms and set up a special place, bringing along their blankets and special stuffed animals. This year was our first year delivering breakfast to them each in their own rooms and having to wake them up, ahh teenagers.
Fun Activities
Our kids have had no trouble coming up with ideas on how we should spend the day. They usually start thinking about what they want to do a few days before so they can both add things that are important to them. From visiting the park, to nerf battles at home, movies, mini golf, games and ice cream stops, we usually spend our Kid’s Day close to home. Occasionally, we have woven it into a holiday when we are travelling but generally we have more fun when we can celebrate at home.
Dinner Celebration
Our dinner celebrations often include family and friends and our kid’s favourite foods of the day. These are often things that we don’t have all the time, like homemade pasta, fondue, or a special dessert that nearly always revolves around chocolate. One year everyone got to eat worms for dessert (gummy worms in chocolate pudding).
Simple Decorations
If your kids are crafty then you can get them involved in creating some special decorations to go along with the day or take an element from the day and make it special. Create golden tickets, like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or have the kids draw out the day like a treasure map that you get to follow. Dress up or add a theme to your dinner.
Honestly, anything goes and you will know better than anyone what would be most special for your children at any given age and stage. Half the fun is letting them plan the day and hearing from them what would make for an amazing day. It’s often pretty simple things and their joy comes from getting to choose how everyone will spend the day together.
Conclusion
I often wonder which of the traditions we’ve created will have the most meaning for our kids and whether they might one day carry on a few of these with their own families. For more on another fun way to celebrate with the family, check out the post on a family Surprise Day. Whether you give Kid’s Day a try or have a special tradition of your own. Please share it, I would love to hear how it goes.