Why Family Traditions Make You Happier

Who doesn't love being happy? People seek happiness in all that they do. Sometimes they find happiness in all the right places, and sometimes, sadly, people waste time looking for happiness in all the wrong places. One surprising font of happiness is the iconic family tradition. It's not so much what the tradition is, but rather just the fact that it is a family tradition. 

The science behind why this works: The Association of Psychological Science published an article called Waiting for Merlot: Anticipatory Consumption of Experiential and Material Purchases. The study revealed that material purchases offer far less joy than experienced purchases. So, that means a vacation or a day spent zip-lining offers more lasting joy than a day spent shopping for material goods. The experiences make us happier than the goods. Why? It's all about the lead up. As our brains process waiting for an experience, we are generally happy and excited.  The brain does not process the waiting period for a material possession with the same depth of feeling. Plain and simple: experiences make us happier and that happiness is far more lasting than the excitement of material item.

So, what does this have to do with family traditions?

What are family traditions if not an experience? Family traditions create joy because they are an experience.

4 ways family traditions contribute to familial happiness

• Creates a sense of identity: Family traditions are often based on culture and/or religion. Inviting your children into your culture and religion through traditions is the most effective way to share your own heritage. Learning about your heritage is an easy way to create happier children. A study from the University of Michigan followed children from 1981-1997 and demonstrated that children who participate in family traditions (whether it's eating dinner together every night or another tradition) are happier, have less behavioral problems, and do better in school.
  
• Comfort: Family traditions act as a source of comfort for families. This is especially true in time of change. For example, if a young child is having a hard time adjusting to a new sibling in the house, family traditions can help comfort and calm a child. If the child knows that Sunday will always be Smith Family Sunday Funday Game Day, the adjustment period will be just a tad bit easier.
  
• Support family values: What are the values that your family is built upon? Trust? Love? Empathy? The traditions we make support the values we want our children to have.
• Memories: The best part of family traditions is that we are able to give the gift of memories. Time is a tricky thing and we cannot replay, pause, rewind, and live it again. But, we can cherish the memories we make.

Family traditions we love

Every family has their own traditions, but here are a few of my favorite.

• Christmas quiche: I'm not sure why this started, but when my husband and I were first married, we began to make family traditions - even though it was just the two of us. One of the first traditions to pop up was the installation of the Christmas quiche. We make it every year on Christmas morning.
• Themed movie nights: Again, this started when we were newly married, but it has been fun for our kids to join in on this tradition. We pick a movie from the foreign language section of the library and make a meal to fit the theme. My favorite was a Bollywood film with Indian curry for dinner.
• Winter Summer Day: This tradition started when my oldest son was almost a year old. We spent the morning sledding; after we were tuckered out from sledding, we drove to an indoor waterpark and spent the afternoon swimming and splashing in the water. Must end this day with pizza!
  

What are some of your favorite family traditions? Comment below!