Canada Day celebrations in Canada is similar to 4th of July celebrations in the United States. 

I grew up on the St. Lawrence River right on the border between Canada and the United States and experienced both.

Part of my family is from Canada.

It's always been my goal to share our family heritage with my children. 

This can be challenging as we live in the state of Virginia.

Here's how our family has chosen to celebrate Canada Day when not in Canada.

How to Celebrate Canada Day when You're Not in Canada

Since there are no Canada Day parades, fireworks, and parties where we live, we have decided to celebrate Canada Day a little bit differently.

Canada Day Breakfast

We started off with a delicious breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup.

Everyone enjoyed it.

Canada Day Attire

My kids love shirts to celebrate holidays, so we were sure to make sure they each had a Canada Day shirt. 

These specific shirts were from Eddie Bauer.

Something different about Canada Day in these pictures is that the smoke you see in the background was actually from the fires in Canada. It had made its way all the way down to Virginia.

My husband and I also enjoyed our own Canada Day shirts!

Our youngest went a step further and was sure to create accessories to go with her outfit.

Canada Day Necklace

Sunshine made a beautiful Canada Day necklace from red and white pony beads as well as red maple leaf buttons I found at our local craft store.

The necklace was absolutely beautiful! 

Canada Day Meal

Since we save our grilling for the 4th of July, we make our favorite traditional Canadian dishes for Canada Day.

Sunshine decorated our table with fabric maple leaves.

Our meal consisted of Poutine and Tourtière. I was so excited to be able to find cheese curd, which is rare where we live.

Canada Day Dessert

For dessert we made Nanaimo Bars. My kids love this dessert. 

We usually only make it once a year, special for Canada Day.

The rest of our Canada Day is enjoying all things Canada related, whether it be a book, movie, music, or some other source of entertainment.

We talk about our family history.

Though we're not in Canada, we still have so much fun celebrating Canada Day and honoring some of our family heritage.

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