Turkey, football, and pumpkin pie are all great, but they’re not why we celebrate Thanksgiving in America. At least, those are not the things we should focus our entire holiday around. Somehow, though, the holiday has evolved into simply one more reason to stuff our faces with twice the amount of food we probably should, drink way too much, and sit around for hours glued to the television set. Those are hardly the most important things in life that deserve our “thanksgiving”. Try these ideas to help your family bring thanks back to Thanksgiving and make it about so much more.
Get involved with giving outside your own door. Want to remind your kids and other family members to be grateful for all that they have? Make it a group effort and volunteer to help out with a local charity, needy family, or group that is less fortunate. After all, the true spirit of giving extends far beyond the four walls of your own house. “Teaching Children the True Spirit of Giving” offers firsthand stories from teachers and parents on how they’ve practiced giving with kids that will help inspire you.
Send some thanks someone else’s way. Set a day aside to create and decorate Thanksgiving postcards with your kids. All you need is a pile of cardstock, scissors, stickers, markers, stamps, a list of lucky recipients, and lots of creativity. Cut the cardstock to postcard size and decorate one side. On the flip side of the Thanksgiving card, draw a vertical line down the middle. Address the card on the left-hand side and include a short message to the recipient on the right side. The postcards can be as simple or ornate as you choose. The recipient list might include: grandparents, favorite school teachers, a babysitter, or the neighbor down the street. The real purpose is to let some of the special people in your life know you’re thankful for them and to remember just how blessed you really are.
Create a blessings tree a few weeks before Thanksgiving and encourage everyone to add to it often. Find a small tree limb with many smaller side branches to serve as the tree frame. Plant it in a flower pot or flower vase and surround it with sand, moss, or small stones to secure it. Cut small leaves from foam board (use fall colors like red, orange, yellow, and brown) and make a small hole in the stem of each of them. Tie a short loop made from twine to each leaf. Leave a pile of leaves and a marker beside the blessings tree and encourage family and friends to add leaves to the tree that share the things or people that they feel blessed to have or know. As the tree fills up, it will make it tough to deny just how fortunate your family really is! You may even choose to leave the tree up after the holiday to serve as a beautiful reminder to always count your blessings.
Pass the gratitude and hold the attitude, please. Help get family and guests talking about all the little things they’re grateful for by filling a small bowl with slips of paper with the names of all the people who are present written on them. While you’re gathered around your Thanksgiving feast, pass the bowl around the table. Each person should take one piece of paper, read the name written on it, and offer one compliment or memory related to that person that he or she is grateful for. Make it clear that the answers can be sentimental or funny, but all must be positive even the participant draws the name of his or her pesky sibling!
Don’t let the Thanksgiving you share with your family be a one-day-a-year celebration. Instead, find simple ways to incorporate practices like this into your everyday lives, and teach them by example. Live with an attitude of gratitude, give thanks for all that surrounds you, give freely of yourself to others, and count your blessings every day.
Read more from this contributor:
Stories from parents and teachers: Teaching kids about giving
Setting goals for your family
When famly members live far away