[Idiom] happy family

[Meja]

Are there any sayings, idioms or expressions (or more complex adjectives) which can be used to describe a (large) happy and functional family?
I have heard the Brady Bunch (I'm not sure how informal and common it is), but I cannot remember anything else.

 

[Tdol]

We also have Swiss Family Robinson, from the TV show of the same name, but I can't think of a genuine idiom off-hand.

 

[GoesStation]

We also have Swiss Family Robinson, from the TV show of the same name, but I can't think of a genuine idiom off-hand.

It was a novel more than a hundred years before it was a movie or a TV show.

 

[emsr2d2]

And The Waltons​!

 

[Lynxear]

I don't really know of an idiom describing a happy family. However, the phrase "happy family" can be used in a negative sense. I believe it is more a British English expression but it is understandable in Canadian English as well.

Here is an example said with a sarcastic tone.

"Look! There is John and Mary playing happy family."

Here the meaning is that the person saying the phrase thinks (rightly or wrongly) that John and Mary are not happy in their relationship. But they are pretending to show people that everything is ok when it is not ok. The idiom here would be "playing happy family"

 

[emsr2d2]

In BrE, we'd say "Look at them playing happy families". There is a children's card game of the same name.