..and other awesome quirky Holiday Traditions from my house in Southern California.
It’s true! I believe Family Traditions bring us closer to our kids & they give children a unique little memory that helps define who they are, which they’ll take with them forever. It helps keep them linked to Family. Plus I really really LOVE the Holidays!
With Halloween coming up fast, we’ve got lots of traditions to squeeze onto the calendar. At Casa de Cruz we do “Fall” & “Halloween” rolled up in one. This approach makes it easier to skip right to putting up our Christmas Tree on the morning after trick-or-treating. So during October, we have to cram everything in like a Butterball Turkey! We don’t just go out & do things at favorite destinations but we also get kind of lazy & enjoy hanging together by the fire for those (very few but precious) cold Autumn nights in Southern California.
When we flip the switch on our fire & the ceramic logs with the mock flames shoot up, we all gather onto our shabby chic couch to watch something special on TV or chill on the rug with a board game. Sometimes it’s a show we all enjoy from my childhood, playing in the background. (I would say most of the oldies have stood the test of time!) But we are always looking for new things to watch & new games to play & new books to read & new music to listen to also. I scour magazines for new food recipes to try, new snacks to munch on, new creative little things to cook up in the kitchen together & of course, new desserts. Here are my top 3 ways to add a little pumpkin spice to your usual family-night.
Since games are the perfect thing to do as a family indoors when it’s chilly out & we all want to get the kids off of their screens, I have to include some of our faves. TOP on my list is this new one that every Mom should get for a Mommy-friend for Christmas. It’s called The Game Plan & it’s super fun while pretty overtly “sneaking in” life lessons for our little ones. Throw some pillows on the floor, fill a bowl with some of my Vegan Pumpkin Pie Popcorn & dive into finally feeling great about a game your kids are playing. I bet they will even try to impress you with their safety knowledge, which makes a Mother beam with pride. A couple of other faves is a good ol’ game of chess on a beautiful chess set my mother gave to my son when she learned he started Chess Camp. He is super proud of his skills so it’s really fun to watch him challenge himself when playing against his Father. And lastly, it doesn’t feel like the Holidays without the Home Alone Board Game box sitting on a table with all the nostalgia & whimsy that doubles as the perfect piece of Winter decoration.
For movies, I brought an outside Summer idea, indoors for the colder weather. The poolside projector I purchased on Amazon is now a big movie projector in the living room next to our fireplace! We gather here just like we are around a campfire roasting marshmallows, & we watch quality family entertainment. My kids are mostly requesting shows from Disney Channel right now which we access through our Disney+ family entertainment account. Each of us has our own profile (the kids even gave our cats and our lizard a profile to LOL). Hocus Pocus is on our calendar as a family watch night. Every Saturday night there’s a new episode of their new favorite show The Ghost and Molly McGee which is really great timing for Halloween but it also has this overall positive message that gives my kiddos a really good feeling about the world, which we could all use right now, right? Lastly, we know it’s the perfect time of year for all things pirates (especially because my daughter Izzy is in theatre rehearsals for Peter Pan). The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are so much fun to watch together during Halloween time. We were driving through a neighborhood near our house last night where all of the homes on an entire block got together & created a fantastic pirate theme with skeletons on their front porches a la Jack Sparrow & crew.
Trader Joe’s has everything pumpkin spice, & our Costcos have officially put out their giant pumpkin pies! But something I have on-hand is Hot Coco & to-go cups for our family adventures looking for Holiday lights. That used to be exclusively a Christmas thing, but now it happens during Halloween too! So fun! I use instant Pumpkin Coco from Swiss Miss, & my daughter’s favorite hot chocolate is the dark cocoa from Williams Sonoma. They like lots of whip cream but I also buy the non-dairy whipped cream for myself which is fabulous. Also, Starbucks now offers a pumpkin creamer that is non-dairy & it’s sold in the refrigerated section at our local Vons. If we are cruising around for lights & we want to do a drive-through, then we hit Starbucks for hot spiced apple cider OMG it is so delicious. And (this may sound crazy) you know I do everything on ice even during the cold weather, so may I suggest ordering that cider on ice with their dark caramel drizzle next time you are there. It literally is fall in a cup. California style, of course.
I really hope you enjoyed some of my personal tips from my hometown in Southern California along the coast. I would love to hear any of your suggestions from where you are, so leave them in the comments. Lots more fun stuff through the holidays coming from the momtourage so please come back! Anytime I see something interesting I’ll definitely post it on my Twitter. Please follow me there & let’s make sure to connect, share, & be the first ones to wish each other Happy Holidays!
