Make Every Month More Memorable

Are you looking for activities that will foster family togetherness? Trying to find fun and meaningful ideas to help you bond with your loved ones? Searching for ways to make every month more memorable? Our free printable of fun annual traditions offers lots of great ideas for inspiration!

If your children are anything like mine, they love a good celebration. Even my adult children get excited about eating green food on St. Patrick’s day or dying eggs for Easter. Fun family traditions add spice to life while simultaneously providing a comfortable sense of rhythm and repetition.

Here’s a sampling of some of the things our family has enjoyed doing on a seasonal basis (plus a few new ones we plan to add in the future). Feel free to use our free printable version as a checklist for your own merry memory making. Or treat it as a starting place to come up with a more personalized list.

Either way, you’ll want to print out your final version and post it in a prominent place. Because, with kids, anticipation is half the fun!

Ideas for making every month more memorable:

Click on linked text to access more FREE printables, download family recipes, or view purchase information (via affiliate links) for any of the books or movies mentioned.

January

• Pray for God’s guidance & blessing in the New Year
• Eat black-eyed peas
• Write thank you notes
• Begin a new Bible-reading plan or a family-friendly devotional book
• Build a snowman
• Drink hot cocoa
• Cut paper snowflakes
• Read a great book aloud
• Work a jigsaw puzzle
• Plant onions
• Pop some popcorn
• Pull out the sleeping bags for an indoor campout
• Roast marshmallows in your fireplace and make s’mores

February

• Make a bird feeder
• Watch Groundhog Day
• Eat groundhog cupcakes
• Recite 1 Corinthians 13
• Host a mother/daughter Valentine’s Brunch
• Weave paper hearts
• Share a box of chocolates
• Have an all-red meal
• Sing US Presidents song
• Go daffodil hunting
• Do random acts of kindness
• Go ice skating

March

• Celebrate Seuss’s birthday
• Read Green Eggs and Ham
• Help campaign for a politician you support
• Fly a kite
• Go fishing
• Shoot some hoops
• Wear something green for St. Patrick’s Day
• Eat green cuisine
• Cook a pot of Irish stew
• Admire azaleas and other spring blooms
• Cook in bulk and stock the freezer (frozen food month)

April

• Make resurrection cookies
• Buy an Easter lily
• Dye/decorate Easter eggs
• Host an Easter egg hunt
• Watch The Passion
• Make homemade pretzels
• Take a walk in the rain (umbrellas optional)
• Plant a tree
• Read a book of poetry
• Play Scrabble
• Plant new annuals
• Stage a cherry pit spitting competition with prizes
• Draw family chalk portraits on the sidewalk or driveway

May

• Leave May baskets on neighbor’s doors
• Hunt wild blackberries
• Bake blackberry cobbler
• Break open a piñata for Cinco de Mayo
• Play Putt-Putt golf
• Go on a family bike ride
• Sign your kids up for a summer reading program
• Pick your mom a bouquet for Mother’s Day
• Write Limericks as a group
• Do the chicken dance
• Attend a Memorial Day wreath hanging ceremony
• Have a crawfish boil with cob corn and new potatoes

June

• Play a game of baseball
• Pack a picnic
• Go blueberry picking
• Make blueberry muffins
• Hunt lightning bugs
• Take Dad breakfast in bed
• Host an ice cream social (have friends bring their favorite toppings)
• Make “Sun Tea”
• Eat strawberry shortcake
• Have a hula hoop contest
• Can pickles and preserves

July

• Pray for America
• Fly the Flag
• Cook hot dogs and/or hamburgers out on the grill
• Buy your kids sparklers
• Go see a fireworks display
• Listen to John Phillips Sousa
• Wear glow-in-the-dark necklaces to play after dark
• Visit a water park
• Volunteer at a soup kitchen or library or neighborhood clean-up committee
• Go to the zoo
• Head to the community swimming pool for a family diving exhibition
• Explore your hometown

August

• Play water volleyball
• Make cherry turnovers
• Visit a science museum
• Conduct an experiment
• Eat fondue
• Go to the beach
• Build sand castles
• Collect seashells
• Break open your banks to count and roll loose change
• Team up for 3-legged races
• Break out the water colors and paint some pictures
• Enjoy ice cold watermelon
• Make banana splits
• Have a tea party
• Shop for school supplies
• Watch Davy Crockett wearing coonskin caps

September

• Make homemade pizza
• Play some flag football or ultimate Frisbee as a family
• Pick apples
• Bake apple dumplings and serve them with ice cream
• Stock your closets with sweaters and other cool weather clothing
• Go visit the grandparents (or adopt new ones from a local nursing home)
• Make hats out of felt or newspaper for National Hat Making Day (Sept. 15)
• Make homemade play-doh
• Watch Mary Poppins
• Eat ice cream cones
• Go to the lake and have a stone-skipping contest

October

• Attend the State Fair
• Enter cooking or craft contests there
• Camp out
• Gaze at the stars
• Admire the fall foliage
• Have a log-splitting contest
• Build a bonfire
• Visit a pumpkin patch
• Go on a hay ride
• Conquer a corn maze
• Play charades
• Make/update a family tree
• Play “fictionary” or “pictionary” on Oct. 16 (Dictionary Day)
• Pass out gospel tracts with candy to trick-or-treaters

November

• Go to an airport and watch the planes take off
• Make pinecone turkeys
• Read Pilgrim Stories
• Stuff a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child
• Make button crafts (11/16)
• Play Monopoly (11/19)
• Start a gratefulness journal
• Count your blessings
• Run in a 5K Turkey Trot
• Bake sweet potatoes
• Rake leaves
• Play in the piles before bagging or composting
• Put on a recording of “The William Tell Overture” and dance with your kids

December

• Make an advent calendar from candy kisses
• Put up house lights
• Trim the Christmas tree
• Memorize/review Luke 2
• Watch It’s a Wonderful Life
• Volunteer as a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army
• Go Christmas caroling
• Drink hot apple cider
• Make fantasy fudge and other holiday treats
• Attend a Christmas concert
• Buy new PJ’s
• Hang Christmas stockings
• Read A Christmas Carol
• Give to those less fortunate
• Make any needed New Year’s Resolutions

To download our free printable list of family-friendly ideas for January through December, click here. That’s all. We hope these ideas will help you make every month more memorable. Let us know how it goes!

More Opportunities for Year-Round Memory Making

Did you know I’ve done a whole series on monthly holidays and quirky celebrations? Each post contains all sorts of suggestions for celebrating big days and small, with links to related free printables and other resources you’re going to love.

I suggest perusing the appropriate post at the beginning of each month, making notes in your calendar of celebrations you want to make happen, and printing out in advance any resources you’ll want to use in doing so. ❤️