My Favorite New Year’s Tradition: The “Good Things” Box
A couple of years ago, I came across a post on social media (which I can no longer find) about writing down good things that happen throughout the year and putting them in a jar. It struck me as a wonderful idea, because I’ve found that I often forget all the wonderful things that happen on a daily basis and only remember the big things. I grabbed the nearest empty box (a box that came with a Ralph Lauren candle that Chad gave me for Christmas), stuck a post-it on the front that said “Good Things 2023,” and told my husband and kids that every time something good happened, we were going to write the good thing on a post-it note and stick that note in the “Good Things” box, and then, at the end of the year, we would open up the box and read all of the good things inside.
Throughout the year, we did exactly that. Any time something good happened, no matter how big or small, we put it in the “Good Things” box. Potty training. Doing a tough Lego set. Adopting our cats. Relatives and friends coming to visit. My son reading his first words. Going to a friend’s birthday party. Traveling. By the end of the year, there were over a hundred “good things” inside. And, on New Year’s Eve, sitting around our dining room table, we passed the box around and each picked out a note and read it aloud, reflecting on the incredible year we’d had, remembering special and extraordinary things that otherwise would have been forgotten. We’d had an amazing year.
We did it again in 2024. I bought another Christmas candle from Ralph Lauren, and its box became our “Good Things” box for the year. As the year went by, the box slowly filled with tiny colorful post-its, each with a “good thing” written on it by me, or Chad, or our daughter. And then, last night, as we ate dinner, our daughter shouted out, “We can’t forget the ‘Good Things’ box!” I ran to the shelf and brought it back to the table, and we opened it and started reading, for the first time, all of the good things that happened throughout the year. There were so many inside that we couldn’t read them all at once. The little red plaid box followed us around all night, and we reached into it and pulled out more and more notes and read them as the night went on. Every “good thing” we read brought us so much joy, and reminded us of the incredible, special year we’d had.
Before the kids went to bed, we made our "Good Things” box for 2025. It’s also a Ralph Lauren candle box, one that my daughter picked out, because, well, I guess that’s our tradition now too. On the front of the box, there’s a pink post-it that says “Good Things Box 2025” and on the top, there’s a blue one that says “Do Not Open Until New Year’s Eve.” This year’s box is a little bit bigger. I can’t wait to fill it with good things.