Keeping the Lord's Day Holy: 20+ Simple and Free Ideas for Family Dates

More than a month ago, I realized that my family had somehow been letting too much of regular life creep back into our Sundays. As a result, Our Lord's Day was no longer consistently being set apart and kept Holy as the Catechism explains it should be.

Sure, my family was still participating in Mass each Sunday, but, pre- and post-Mass, work, errands, chores, and the like were spilling over from the rest of our week.

More and more, we were failing to ensure "sufficient rest and leisure to cultivate (our) familial, cultural, social, and religious lives."
This was not good, I knew. We needed to amend our ways. and return to keeping Sabbath on the Lord's Day.

Re-instituting a family tradition of family dates on Sundays became one of our first steps towards reclaiming the Holy Day in our family.

This tradition is simple:

On Sundays when we do not have a pre-planned engagement, we set aside two or more hours of time for a family date.

Each week, we rotate through who in our family gets to decide what we do for the date, and, we encourage one another to keep our dates cost-free and focused on some combination of faith, family, friendship, beauty, nature, connection, charity, and relationship.

Family dates are that simple!

How we fell away from the tradition, I am not sure, but I am certainly happy we've re-embraced it! 
If you'd like to initiate a Sunday Family Dates tradition with your family, too, here are some ideas for simple dates that we've enjoyed in the past:

1. Go on a picnic.
2. Invite friends for a walk in the woods.
3. Get together with others for a cook out.
4. Enjoy a family read aloud while having treats.
5. Host a meal for friends or family.

6. Nibble on popcorn with a movie time at home.
7. Build a fire and experiment with camp cooking.
8. Visit friends and family.
9. Play board games and cards.

10. Take a hike.

11. Create art together.

12. Volunteer together.
13. Enjoy outdoor living history, community, and nature events.
14. Cook and bake together.

15. Build a fort or hut.

16. Go for a bike ride.
17. Play catch.
18. Head to the beach

19. Have a cook-off.

20. Enjoy a playground.
21. Or, as we did today, support one another's hobbies, while spending time with friends.

Yep, we went to see Daddy join a friend from church in playing out. 

Have a blessed and happy Holy Day!