Ideas For My Pocket: a Support Group for Families: Now It's Here; Bring in the New Year!

1. Noise--Darlene grew up with the tradition of joyfully welcoming in the New Year, with hugs and greetings to each other. “Happy New Year!” the whole family would shout, at the top of their lungs out the front door, banging pots and pans and pie tins. That five minutes of noise was not enough for any neighbor to ever complain about, for the joy it brought.

2. Building Graham Cracker Houses--The Davis family thought of a fun way to fill the time waiting for the clock to strike twelve to usher in the New Year. They would pair up, and build “candy houses” out of graham crackers and stiff frosting. Starting with a flat cardboard square covered in aluminum foil, they fashioned their houses (or cars or tanks or etc), with Daddy Eric as the chief engineer. Candy saved from Halloween served as decoration on top or beside the structure. As the children grew older, the Davis’ included a friend or two and later, the in-laws, who had joined them for the holiday, and divided up into teams to work together. Hattie Davis kept butter dishes of frosting filled, cleared away the wrappers (and extra candy), and took pictures of everyone’s creation. The finished masterpieces adorned the sideboard, one of which became desert for each of the next nights and were then thrown away. Or, one was gifted to a friend! (Hattie liked that idea best!)

3. Special Foods--Whitney grew up with the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of eating pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day to ensure a prosperous new year. When she married, however, her family didn’t care for pork, so she came up with an original tradition. She introduced her family to sauerkraut, by making Reuben Sandwiches, which contain corned beef, swiss cheese, and sauerkraut. It was a fun, new dinner to look forward to once a year.

4. A Family Dance—Our family loves to dance together! All ages can dance and there are so many varieties of dances to try: line dances, partner dances, an easy swing, even a square dance! My sister came up with a flash drive full of fun dance music for her family to dance too. My daughter enlisted a friend to teach her family a Regency Style dance, straight from Pride and Prejudice era dancing.

Waiting for the New Year is a great time to Dance. Our Stake usually sponsors a Family Dance from 7 to 9 on New Year’s Eve. Every family is invited to bring a snack to share, and balloons are simple and fun decorations. A DJ provides all different types of dancing for young and old.

But even if there is not an organized dance, we can still dance! We move some couches back and turn on some music. The kids love to see Mark and I dance together (and do a twirl or steal a kiss to show how much we love each other)! A little one can dance being held in a bigger one’s arms. Teenagers can teach the family a new step or a current line dance they know. Anything goes in a fun “Mosh Pit!” Laughter usually abounds!

5. A List--The Rawlins’ liked to make a list of all the great things that happened during the past year at dinner one night near New Years or at Family Home Evening. This was an exercise in talking over happy times and realizing the Lord’s blessings to their family. Toya would help her young children get out their journals and draw pictures of the fun times, then tell about them as she wrote down the words. It was a fun record of happy memories, cemented in their minds.