Thank you all for entering our Bad Santa Photo Contest! We had another overwhelming response and had some really great photos submitted. Narrowing it down has been no easy task, and you made us laugh daily with your submissions.

Here are our finalists – Winner will receive a mini-session.($200 value,) with local photographer, Hillary Gamble with Je Vois Photography. Includes 30 mins and your favorite 5 images on DVD with print rights. (Expires one year from issue date)

Take a moment to vote (by leaving a comment on this post) for your favorite, our winner will be announced Thursday, December 22nd.

Rituals are powerful. Just the thought of bedtime and sitting down alone with a diet coke at night gets me through the day. But all joking aside, rituals and traditions are important for your kids. Child psychologists say that children whose families have rituals have higher academic success, happiness, and emotional well-being for the whole family. Holidays are examples of yearly traditions and rituals. Psychologists say that spending time with extended family members over the holidays gives children a sense of belonging, unity, support, and increases their emotional health. But you don’t have to wait for Christmas break to start to help boost your child’s emotional state. There are daily rituals we all participate in too.

A good example is dinner time. Psychologists have found dinner time plays a major role in children’s language development. When families sit down to dinner daily all of the children are exposed to language and social interaction with their family. The dialogue they are exposed to includes events of the day, sharing stories about the past, and making plans for the future.   Not only are the younger kids provided with a conversation, they are engaged in turn-taking, reading cues, and other language-related practices.

Another good example is reading to your kids. Reading routines support the development of early literacy skills and will help children continue to enjoy reading through their school years. Studies have found that reading can also increase academic skill development from an early age. Reading picture books to toddlers and babies, joint reading with kids who can read, and reading first chapter books are all family rituals that effect children’s academic performance.

I said before that you don’t have to wait for the holidays to start your family traditions. Daily rituals and traditions are important, but the yearly rituals can be too. So over the holidays make an effort to get your kids involved with your extended family. Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, etc.  Research shows that talking about the past with family (which is a huge part of family dinners) makes kids’ memories stronger over time.Every family has their own holiday traditions, but here are a few that you might like to start with your family this year!

Examples:

• Christmas Ornaments: Buy each person in your family a new Christmas ornament each year that reflects what they did that year. Write their name and the year on the bottom of the ornament. (For example, if you daughter played soccer this year, get her a soccer ball ornament!)
• Pictures with Santa: Even if you think your kids will be upset by a weird Santa holing them, you have got to do this tradition. You will thank yourself for it later. The pictures get more hilarious each year!!
• Christmas Eve Box: Fill a box with some new PJs, popcorn, hot chocolate, and a book for each of your kids on Christmas Eve. Let them open it and have a snack and a special story before bedtime!
• Candy Cane Hunt: This is pretty much the same idea as an Easter egg hunt, but with candy canes! Hang candy canes all around your backyard (or inside if its freezing) and let your kids go on a hunt to see who can find the most! When the candy canes have all been found have the kids hang them on the Christmas tree.

What Traditions do you have with your family?

I think every family reaches a point when they wish they hadn’t bought their child so many toys. There used to be toys all over my house. I didn’t even know where some of the toys had come from. We got a lot of hand me downs from cousins and friends, toys from a grandma addicted to yard sales, and cute toys I myself was guilty of buying. Needless to say we were drowning in toys. Recently we invested in a storage unit and  I boxed a lot of the toys away. We still have toys in my house, but even putting away the amount of toys we did made a difference in my kids day. Psychologists say that having fewer toys can help your children develop many crucial life skills they will use in their future careers, marriages, and friendships.

Here is just a short list of the qualities your children could gain if you box up some toys and create a more minimalistic home. Christmas is a good time to start this new mentality,  instead of buying more toys for your kids, buy them something they can use this next year in school or sports.

CREATIVITY

I could buy my son batman, superman, captain america, hulk, and all the other super hero costumes. But if I don’t, he will imagine a way to become a superhero. He might figure out how to tie a towel or sheet around his neck. Just because you don’t have exactly what you need to play, doesn’t mean you can’t play. You just have to think about what you can do with what you do have to accomplish your goal. Talk about a life skill….

SHARING

When you have fewer toys, your children will be forced to learn to share. They will have their perceptions of “mine” change and they will be forced to redefine their boundaries. This is also a crucial life skill. In the future they may find themselves in a situation where there is not enough to go around and they will be able to feel comfortable and wait patiently for their turn.

INDEPENDENT PLAY

The two most glorious words in mom language. We are always trying to buy our children more toys hoping that will stimulate independent play and give us a few free minutes to wash clothes or dishes or sneak some chocolate. The real key to teaching independent play is having less. Kids will know what and where the toys are and be able to get them and put them away on their own.

STRESS REDUCTION

Fewer toys, less stress. When there are less toys there are less reasons for kids to fight and get emotional about why someone is playing with “his” toy or they “NEED” that toy. When the kids are less wired up during the day you will be too.

About Brittany:

Brittany was born and raised in Alabama. She is a Wife and Mama of two sweet babies- her son John is two years old and her daughter Annie is ten months old. She is pursuing her degree in Home and Family Studies with an emphasis on Child Development from BYU. She is looking forward to writing for Birmingham Mommy in preparation for graduation in the Fall of 2016.