 ~ MRS. SHARP'S TRADITIONS ~  NOTE: The entire text below is taken directly from the book Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions. I cannot take credit in any form for the ideas and creativity on this page unless so noted. The book is written by Sarah Ban Breathnach and is currently out of print. If you can find a copy (the softcover version is called Victorian Family Celebrations), definitely grab it and run…and DON’T lend it to a friend because you’ll probably never get it back! "Come celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness this month as our family revels in the good old summertime and the joys of an old-fashioned Independence day --- parades, picnics and fireworks. Next we’re off on our family vacation and excursions to the seashore. Finally, like more Victorian families, we’ll celebrate Christmas in July. Would you care to join us?" On the big day, Mrs. Sharp’s Independence Day celebration begins with a candlelight breakfast that lives up to the holiday: blueberry pancakes with strawberry syrup. Soon it’s time to pack up the family to attend Takoma Park’s annual Independence Day Parade. May I pass on a few suggestions that may make the difference between enjoying the parade and enduring it? My parade survival kit includes a thermos of cold lemonade, as well as tempting snacks from home, since children seem to require endless amounts of liquids and food. We also pack paper fans, small flags to wave, napkins and a wet washcloth in a plastic sandwich bag for wiping sticky hands and faces. You might also want to bring folding chairs and/or a blanket to sit on. After the parade, the family heads off for the annual Independence Day picnic. There’s no reason why the spirit of the community picnic of days past cannot continue in your backyard with a covered-dish gathering of neighbors, all contributing their best recipes! How about using blue and white dishes and adding the distinctive red touch with large dishes filled with strawberries and raspberries? Little flags decorate every possible dish and these flags become souvenirs at the end of the day. After supper, it is time for the games! Tack a large flag to an outside house wall (or board). Cover the stars with a square of dark-blue cloth. Each person is given a white paper star, and after being blindfolded, they are twirled around, then told to pin the star in its proper place on the flag. Then there are the assorted relay races. When everyone has happily exhausted themselves, the participants all adjourn for ice-cold watermelon! At nightfall, everyone gathers together to watch fireworks ~ a memory no child should grow up with! NOTE: A book you might want to read in preparation for this holiday is Fireworks, Picnics And Flags (click on the title to order!) by James Cross Giblin. Ah, the family vacation! As humorist Robert Benchley observed, "There are two classes of travel ~ first class and with children." If the above describes your last family vacation, Mrs. Sharp urges her readers to take heart. Why? Because family vacations can preserve sanity and unity. Today’s families hardly even have time to eat with one another. A family vacation affords parents and children the time and opportunity not just to get away from it all, but to get it all together. Happy trips with youngsters are not only not impossible, they can be fun. This is because children add a new perspective to our travel. First of all, children make friends more easily than adults do. They’re not as intimidated, so they open up a whole new world for their parents. Vacations with children can also be more leisurely since families traveling together are more selective about their activities. Mrs. Sharp believes the three most important rules to a happy and successful family vacation are that parents have the right attitude beforehand, that you can truly afford the vacation you have chosen, and that you do your homework before leaving home. The more you can involve the children in planning the vacation, the more successful it will be. The youngest child is normally the hardest one to satisfy and has the most needs. Since many vacations require hours driving in the car, one of Mrs. Sharp’s traditions for car trips is "happy trails kits," designed to keep parents happy while preventing the backseat occupants from getting too restless. The kits, one for each child, hold both new surprises and tried-and-true favorites. To get more mileage out of the items, Mrs. Sharp likes to wrap each novelty individually in colorful tissue paper; the children are permitted to open a package each hour. If the trip is going to take several days, she’ll ration the surprises to last the duration, at night refilling each bag to be ready in the morning. Victorian mothers used to make up a special travel toy called The Magic Ball. One magic ball would be made for each child. Inside a ball of yard we would insert little novelties, continually wrapping the yard around them, so that as the children unraveled the ball of yarn, they would discover another small ty. Using a roll of crepe paper to create a Magic Ball also works well. Every child will enjoy creating a travel diary. Get artist’s sketchbooks and glue sticks and let children paste in menus, place mats, ticket stubs and other paper momentos. Bring along a supply of stamps and have the children mail postcards home to themselves with their travel impressions. When they return, they can add these special (and inexpensive) souvenirs along with photographs to their travel log. Each young traveler will also appreciate a map (a clear photocopy will do well) with the route colorfully marked out along with cities and landmarks. In each kit, Mrs. Sharp includes art supplies, activity books, colorforms or reusable stickers, magic slates and possibly a variety of magnetic games and puzzles. Other things to bring in the car include a first-aid kit, a cooler for food/drinks, a sewing kit, extra batteries and garbage bags. She also likes to pack a complete change of clothing separately from the suitcases in case of spilled drinks, car sickness or wet pants. Finally, remember there is no such thing as the best family vacation. The best family vacation is the one that works best for your family! But what works best for any family vacation, Mrs. Sharp has discovered, is to remember to pack patience, flexibility, and good humor along with the travel guides. Don’t leave home without them! Observing the Christmas in July was the custom of resourceful Victorian mothers who started thinking about Christmas long before Thanksgiving. This is because a century ago we made the majority of our gifts. By the end of the summer, Victorian families were almost done with their holiday gift making. It is still possible to entertain children with an old-fashioned pastime when the summer doldrums appear…encourage them to begin making their own holiday gifts. From the garden we can gather flowers to make potpourri or dried-flower bouquets. Vacations at the seashore inspire gift ideas such as seashell picture frames; kids in the kitchen can have fun preparing spiced tea bags, nine-bean soup mix, and preserves. Mrs. Sharp’s tradition to get everyone in the gift-making mood is by having a birthday party on July 15th for the Rev. Clement Moore, author of The Night Before Christmas. We read his poem aloud over afternoon tea and then enjoy birthday cake. From the library Mrs. Sharp has collected various craft volumes and Christmas books. You need not be an experienced craftsperson to create something lovely. When adults encourage children to become aware of the process of creating, the sense of purpose becomes as important as the object itself. Celebrating Christmas in July keeps youngsters as busy as Santa’s elves, while nurturing a gift that will last a lifetime: their creativity! In childhood’s scrapbook, summer provides some of the most cherished pages. For many of us, a favorite summer memory is the annual family excursion to the seashore. However, permit Mrs. Sharp to share with you a truth she has learned after a century of trips to the seashore: the annual family beach trip may be a change of scene, but for Mother it is certainly not a vacation. Having admitted this, let Mrs. Sharp add, she wouldn’t dream of missing one. A practical suggestion to help make a beach vacation less stressful is to pack a plan for the family as well as suntan lotion. At the beach house, chores still have to be attended to; assigning the children vacation jobs before leaving home distributes the work load. Finally, dear Reader, while it is true we carry our habits with us wherever we go, most of us can relax our housekeeping standards while on vacation. Certainly Mrs. Sharp does. Some of the most enjoyable seashore memories are created when parents and children abandon familiar roles and become beachcomber companions. Learning together is a wonderful and permanent glue for keeping happy families intact. Take time to wander on the beach with your children collecting shells. Build a sand castle together. One resource that will encourage your family to explore the hidden mysteries of the seashore together is The Beach Book and Bucket (click here to order!). Designed by naturalist Karen Dawe for Children ages 5-10, this palm-size guide can transform your entire family into beach detectives and biologists. WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?
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