Lewis Day

When our children were little, I instituted a family holiday called Lewis Day (based on our family name).

Lewis Day was on my anniversary.  Since that day was the ‘birth’ day of our family unit, I decided to celebrate it with our kids as a birthday would be celebrated.

But with a twist.

I didn’t do ‘birthday’ type of activities.  Instead, we celebrated by rolling all of the national holidays into our Lewis Day.  I put up a smattering of decorations for ALL of the holidays and did as many holiday activities that we possibly could fit into the day.

We made and decorated ( and ate!) Valentine shaped cookies. We trick-or-treated in reverse where we delivered treats.   The kids selected one friend and gave him/her a plate of treats with an accompanying poem that I wrote explaining our trick-or-treat in reverse.

A few days before Lewis Day, I took the kids shopping for ‘Christmas’ presents.  They could spend only one dollar on a gift for each of their siblings.  (This was in the day WAY before the advent of the Dollar Stores so we had to do some really creative shopping.)  First thing in the morning, the children ran downstairs to see what ‘Santa’ left (usually a game) and to open the presents from the family.  I hid jelly beans for an Easter Egg hunt.  We sang Christmas carols during the day, flew an American flag, and had a special ‘Thanksgiving’ meal.

This was a ‘holiday’ that our children really looked forward to every year.

Which brings me to today’s post.  Last night, our youngest son and his wife and their beautiful almost two-month old son came over for supper.  They had made homemade licorice which we ate while we played a game.  I ate and ate and ate licorice.  I ate licorice until I almost had an upset stomach . . . I heart licorice.

When they were getting ready to leave, they insisted that we keep some of their licorice.  I took a small handful out of the bowl.  Our son insisted we needed more.  (I knew the scales would tell me differently.)  Then, our son started ‘hiding’ them around the house.  He told his wife all about Lewis Day and she jumped right in and helped ‘hide’ the candy around the house.  (Can you see the licorice wrapped in white paper that was ‘hidden’ on the stairs??)

This made me think that I need to re-institute Lewis Day — only this time, do it with my grandchildren.  I’m sure they, too, would find it a delightful holiday.  At least I’m hoping they will!

This would be a fun holiday for you to create for your grandchildren.  You don’t necessarily have to have it around your anniversary like I did.  You can pick any date that works for you.  Just remember to use the same date year after year so that it can become a tradition that your grandchildren can look forward to.

Hope you have a fun time creating your own special family holiday!