Word Count: 747 Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 3:21 PM
Family Fun Celebrating Untraditional Holidays
Most families give each other mushy cards on Valentine's and dress up for Halloween. But what about those times when you want to have a reason to celebrate with your family and it isn't Thanksgiving or Memorial Day?
Let’s face it. families get so busy doing homework and racing to soccer practice that they have little time for just plain fun. Celebrating untraditional holidays provides a new and unique activity for your members. How about celebrating National Dress Your Pet Day or International Puzzle Day? For example, on April 22, there’s not too much going on in the way of special events. However, if you are celebrating National Jellybean Day…you just might get even your teenager to participate. Ask everone to dress in bright, solid colored clothes to look like jellybeans for dinner. Have a “Guess the Number of Jellybeans” contest. For children, plan a jellybean hunt. Fill small plastic eggs with jellybeans and hide them for the youngsters. Try a jellybean tasting contest. Blindfold family members and see if they can distinguish between root beer flavor and French vanilla.
These untraditional holidays are all easy to celebrate.
Try some of these:
May 1-7 is National Family Week. Plan a family potluck with friends or a family scavenger hunt. Set aside a day to play tourist in your own town. Go to a few stores or museums you normally wouldn't visit. Have a Sparks party. Simply buy a pack of Wintergreen Lifesavers. Take your children into dark closet or bathroom and put the Lifesaver between your two front teeth. Bit down and watch the "Sparks" fly!
June 1: Superman’s Birthday: Ask family members to display their super-hero skills such as eating pizza while standing on one leg. Superman is only thwarted by green Kryptonite. Invite everyone to a green Jell-O eating party. Pass out Superman comic books to everyone. Wearing your underwear outside of tights is optional.
If you want to be a bit more serious on June 1st, participate in National Barefoot Sunday. This is an ideal way for churches to help the over 300 million people around the world living without shoes. The process is simple. The act of removing your shoes and leaving them at church is profound.
To celebrate National Barefoot Day at your church, simply contact a Soles4Souls representative at Sunday@giveshoes.org. Since National Barefoot Day is June 1st, start advertising the event at your church by early-May. This way everyone can clean out their closets and bring extra shoes on June 1st. On National Barefoot Day, ask children and adults to remove their shoes during the service and leave them at church. Walking barefoot back to the car leaves a lasting impression about the importance of shoes in the lives of people in need. Donating shoes is a practical way to help people living without the basic necessities of life. www.soles4souls.org
July 8th is Be A Kid Day. Have a contest to see who can tell the silliest knock knock joke. Have adults in your family dress like kids with overalls and pigtails for dinner. Get silly (like a kid) and award a rubber chicken to the person that does the best chicken imitation. (To order inexpensive rubber chickens (and rubber pigs!) check out S&S Worldwide. www.ssww.com They also sell novelties such as glow in the dark bouncing balls and inflatable saxophones…perfect for National Saxophone Day of course!
April 29 is National Hairball Awareness Day…well, maybe that’s one day you don’t want to celebrate!
If those holidays are too wild for you, then try something more “sophisticated”.
May 12 is National Limerick Day: Encourage family members to write limericks. Stage a Limerick Reading evening with a coffee house atmosphere, complete with strong hot chocolate. Display all the limericks on the refrigerator where everyone can read the literary masterpieces.
The holidays never end: Donald Duck’s Birthday is June 9th, the third week in July is National Avoid Boredom week, and don’t forget National Mustard Day on the first Saturday in August. Even if members choose not to participate, they will still remember that the association celebrated a unique holiday.
Take advantage of "ordinary" by celebrating untraditional holidays with your family. Who wouldn’t want to celebrate National Bubble Wrap Day?
About the Author
Silvana is a professional speaker on the topic of humor in the workplace.The author of 11 books, she's also trained her dog for TV commercials and appeared on the Fox reality show, Trading Spouses. http://www.silvanaclark.com
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