My family loves to celebrate holidays. We’d never forget about Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the 4th of July, but sometimes, we feel that we need a bit more. A typical year has a couple of lulls when there aren’t any big holidays. (I’m looking at you, August.)
When and How Many?
I browsed a couple of websites (like this one) to see what funny or obscure holidays happen each month. It turns out that there are many to choose from each day. I decided that 3-4 holidays a month is plenty, so I chose some random ones to fill in where we don’t already have national holidays or birthdays. These obscure holidays seemed the most fun for my family to celebrate:
- January 25th: Opposite Day
- Varies (Feb./Mar.): Mardi Gras
- March 14th: Pi Day
- May 4th: Star Wars Day
- 2nd to last Friday in June: Summerween
- August 4th: Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
- August 13th: Left Handers’ Day
- Varies (Aug.): 1st day of school
- September 19th: Talk Like a Pirate Day
- Varies (Sep.): Oktoberfest
- 2nd Monday in October: Indigenous Peoples’ Day
- November 1st: Dia de los Muertos
- 2nd Sunday in December: Children’s Day
We have since celebrated most of these, many of them more than once. I had no idea how much they’d benefit our lives.
Our Family
Our family gets stronger as we do things together. These holidays make sure we set time aside to play, especially when our lives get busy with other things. Some, like Pi Day, are simple and revolve around food. Other, like Dia de los Muertos, offer learning experiences that help bring us together.
Our Community
A few weeks ago, I’d been feeling lonely and isolated from my neighbors. I also hadn’t met the new neighbors across the street. It was August 4th, so I made a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies for Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. I then delivered them (with my kids’ help) to as many neighbors as I could. It was great to stop and talk for a minute, and I felt a lot less lonely as I walked home. A simple holiday helped me get outside and socialize a little bit, and it probably wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t have the day written down on my calendar.
Our History
The main point of these holidays is to always have something to look forward to, even if it’s small. Sometimes, we look back at a year and wonder if we’ve really accomplished anything. Then, we look at our pictures and remember how much fun we’ve had as a family. It’s nice to reflect on lessons we’ve learned from difficult times, but it’s even more rewarding to remember the good times we’ve had with our kids. Some of these times happen spontaneously, but most of them require some kind of planning or work to make them truly memorable. These holidays help us remember our history while creating our own memories and traditions.
I’m glad we decided to add more holidays into our year. We always have something to look forward to, and our family has grown closer in the process. I’d call that a win-win situation.
Read more about memories here.