My friend Maureen will not be happy with me over this, but I have never seen Gilmore Girls. Netflix is doing a special short series called Gilmore girls: A Year in the Life on November 25th. This is supposed to wrap up the Gilmore Girls series and I hope that it is everything that my friends who enjoy Gilmore Girls are expecting. I’m not saying this because I am a Netflix #StreamTeam member, but Netflix has been doing really well with their original programming especially those that were continuations of existing properties like Longmire, and I’m hoping, Gilmore Girls.

What does Gilmore girls have to do with Holiday Traditions? Well, the show had many of its own traditions like Friday night dinners. I think about what my own family has done for traditions especially as we move into the Holiday season. For the past couple years Allison and the kids and I have gone up to the Christmas Farm Inn for Thanksgiving. This was something that I thought would be our own unique family tradition. However, we are opting out of that this year because the pull of greater family traditions was much stronger for Eva. During last year’s trip she really missed celebrating Thanksgiving with my mom and dad. So, this year we are heading down to the Cape for Thanksgiving and maybe starting up a combination of new and old traditions.

New traditions that we started at the Christmas Farm Inn: Coloring books and board games, the Macy’s Day Parade and Family Christmas Pajamas. I got our family pajamas at Target this year and they are really cute. We’ll make sure that everyone has their coloring books and crayons and such for Thursday and Friday. Something new that we are doing this year is going to Edaville Railroad. We’ve gone in the past but never as part of the holiday season. If we like it it may be our day after Thanksgiving thing.

Old traditions that we do are decorating my parent’s Cape House tree. The kids do this with my mom and dad. Also, right before we leave the house I hide our Elf on the Shelf somewhere so that when we return after Thanksgiving the kids will find Fitzy and be delighted. They really like that thing.

No matter what traditions we do have we do try to be together as a family and take some time to unplug a bit while having fun adventures. Speaking of adventures, there are plenty of families having fun adventures and celebrating traditions on Netflix this month. I will break it down for you below.

There are families who overshared way too much like the Bluths of Arrested Development. I think that you can relate if you’ve ever heard the same story every single year that you get together with certain family members. If you are a bit of a sarcastic wise ass like me then you may also enjoy titles on Netflix like Haters Back Off, The Ranch, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. These feature families that are a bit out there but at their heart they love each other.

My in-laws usually have an orphan Thanksgiving. They open their home to anyone that doesn’t have family around. It is very nice of them to do. It just goes to show that family can be made up of many different people. Movies like Lilo and Stitch show the meaning of family even if you may be from two different worlds. In that same category would be the movie Home as well as the new series based on the movie called Home: Adventures with Tip and Oh. House visitors don’t need to be from out of this world, though, they can be from darkest Peru like Paddington.

You may be from a large affectionate family, full of huggers like The Fullers of Fuller House. If that is the case then uplifting family shows like Girl Meets World, Parenthood or Friday Night Lights may be just what you need in your queue. These shows portray families and friends who may get into trouble but work things out together in the end.

With the turkey eaten and the game over it is time to think about the next holiday, Christmas. I don’t listen to any Christmas music before Thanksgiving but after Thanksgiving we are in full on Christmas mode. The Elf comes back and hides all around the house doing strange things. Speaking of strange, or rather Stranger Things if you need help stringing up the Christmas lights then Will Byer’s mom is the one you need.

With the holidays comes music and Netflix has you covered when it comes to musical shows. I haven’t watched it yet but The Get Down is a show I’ve heard good things about. The kids and I love Beat Bugs and the second season just released on November 18th. So many great Beatles songs done by the cutest bugs ever. And, while I have never caught a full episode, Allison watched all of Glee and she loved it. I know that they did a ton of amazing music on that show, too.

While it isn’t a holiday story, it is one about family and it was something I almost had the opportunity to see on the red carpet, The Jungle Book is being released on Netflix on November 30th. That will be a nice one to watch with the kids. They loved the animated version. Just another great Disney movie hitting Netflix.