Opposite Day and Backwards Day are a chance to shake the winter doldrums and do something fun and out of the ordinary with your children. Use your imagination to celebrate these holidays. Plan meals and activities ahead of time with your children or surprise them first thing in the morning.
Opposite Day
According to the Holiday Insights website, January 25 is Opposite Day. On Opposite Day, families do the opposite of what they normally do.
On Opposite Day, wear the opposite of what you normally would. For instance, you could wear pajamas all day. Or, wear summer clothes for the day. Of course, remember to properly dress children for outdoors in the winter. Keep the summer clothes under wraps and use them for indoor use only on Opposite Day.
Eat breakfast for supper and supper for breakfast. Make a homemade chicken noodle soup or beef stew in the crock pot the night before so that supper is ready at breakfast time. In the evening, have pancakes and bacon or your favorite breakfast food for supper.
Alternatively, you could save all of the opposite day festivities for one special, evening meal. Host a summertime picnic, complete with summer foods and summer clothing. Decorate the house to look like a sunny, summer day. Make a large, yellow, paper sun to hang in an upper corner of the living room. Make paper flowers to decorate the floor. Spread a picnic blanket on the living room floor and serve summer foods, like burgers, potato salad and lemonade.
If you have a fireplace or woodstove, gather the family around it like a campfire. Sing summertime campfire songs, make s'mores and roll out some sleeping bags for a camp out.
Backwards Day
The Holiday Insights website states that Backwards Day always falls on January 31st. Celebrate this interesting holiday with your children by doing things backwards.
Wear your clothing backwards. Try walking backwards, eating with the fork held backwards and singing songs backwards.
On Backwards Day, hold a family game night and play games backwards. Start board games at the finish line and work your way backwards to the start. See if you and your children can talk backwards or read backwards. Read a book from the last page to the front, or try to read the words backwards.
To end the day, sleep backwards in bed. Put your feet where your head goes and your head where your feet go.
Establish new family traditions by celebrating Opposite Day and Backwards day in January with your children.
Source:
Holiday Insights website, January 2009, "Bizarre and Unique Holidays" list, accessed December 9, 2008.
