Creating a Real Thanksgiving Season

We love the Pothier family’s “Thankful Tree.” www.71toes.com

Halloween’s over, and everywhere I go, Christmas decorations are popping up. But I’m not ready for that. I want to focus on THANKSGIVING first.

This tradition – or a variation of it – has stuck with everyone in our family.  As a college student in Boston, as a missionary in Bulgaria, during the time I worked in Washington DC, and on into my married life, the thankful list has been part of every Thanksgiving. Any roommate, friend or relative involved in any Thanksgiving celebration involving any Eyres has been asked to add their “thankful things” to a list (not many of us have made the effort to find cash register tape – but any piece of paper will do). As a mom, I’ve loved focusing on gratitude with my own children each year. I’ve saved precious thankful lists dictated by my little toddlers and painstakingly written out by first graders with creative spelling. We’ve had contests to see who could create the longest list and have made it a tradition to share our “top ten” while enjoying our Thanksgiving feasts.

Thanksgiving Tree
In the past few years, we’ve expanded on the “thankful list” idea and made it a daily part of November to think about and write down something we’re thankful for. Starting at the beginning of November, we talk about what we’re most grateful for at dinner each night and everyone picks one “thankful thing” to write on a “thankful leaf” that we  add to our “Thanksgiving Tree.”  Our tree is just a collection of branches we found in the backyard and stuck into some of that green florist styrofoam-type stuff in a left-over container I found in the basement. The  ”leaves” are made of leaf-shaped pieces of yellow, red and orange construction paper that we write things on and tape to the tree’s branches. My sister’s Thanksgiving Tree is pictured at the top of this page – she does a “flat” tree that hangs on her fridge. And when I hopped on Pinterest and typed “thanksgiving tree” into the search bar, I found lots more ideas and put a couple of them below (click on the image to go to the original source where there are further details).

The Loosli Family Thanksgiving Tree. We’re just getting started! It’ll be full of leaves by Thanksgiving.

 

Gratitude Journal
Another thing I’ve done the past couple years to focus on upping my personal level of gratitude (which greatly impacts my personal level of happiness), is to keep a gratitude journal. I write about one thing I’m especially grateful for each day in my journal or on my blog. Sometimes I write just a few words. Sometimes I write a couple paragraphs. This little practice makes me look for the positive every day and celebrate the good things that can be found even in hard days and hard situations. I like the person I am when I’m searching out and celebrating all that is wonderful in my life. If you want to see my gratitude blog posts from last year (I did every single day in November!), feel free to visit Five Kids in Five Years – Gratitude Posts.

Here are some new ideas from a brainstorming session I had with my mom and sisters the other day (and you can listen to our brainstorming session in this podcast for more explanation and further ideas – PODCAST: Thanksgiving Ideas).

Make gratitude a deliberate part of our every-day lives
If we’re reading a book to our kids, we can point out where a character in the story lacks something we have and express gratitude for that thing. If we’re enjoying dinner at a restaurant, we can point out how blessed we are to be able to go out to eat and enjoy good food without even having to make it or clean up. If we’re cleaning the house, we can talk about how blessed we are to have carpets to vacuum and toilets to clean when so many families lack the basic things we’ve got.

Watch video clips and look at photos with your children that make you recognize your blessings. Here are a few great links that made me and the kids realize how incredibly blessed we are:

• The World is Amazing (by Discovery Channel – points out how cool our world is)
• Where Children Sleep (a photo-essay about children and the places they sleep – from lovely bedrooms to an old mattress on the side of the road to a dirt-floored hut)
• Orphans in Bulgaria (a video I made with the photos I took while visiting orphanages where babies are left in their beds 24 hours a day and where children have very few opportunities for learning and nurturing – we show this at the fundraiser my kids put on in our neighborhood each year. No matter how many times we’ve watched this, it makes us so grateful for our family and our home and all that we have.)
• Pollyanna (We love this movie/book. It’s cheesy, yes, but it’s such a great story of optimism and recognizing blessings. Watch a clip or get the whole movie for a family movie night.)

Write thank you notes. Brainstorm with your kids a list of people in our community who we are thankful for and spend an hour or so writing thank you notes to them. Kids could tape a thank-you note on the trash cans for the garbage man, hand a thank-you note to the check-out lady at the grocery store, take a thank you note to their teachers at school, etc. And thank-you notes or emails to relatives and friends far away would be very meaningful as well. There are so many people who do so much for us – many of whom don’t get thanked very often – and November is a great time to say thank you.

Do service. Many families search out service projects to do during Christmas. Why not focus on service in November as well? December can get so busy and perhaps it’s even more helpful to serve at a soup kitchen or gather clothing for those in need or sing a song at a nursing home in November – before the Christmas rush. As we serve those who are less fortunate, our own blessings are brought into focus for us.

Express gratitude for your children and your husband. Make it a daily practice throughout November to tell your spouse and each child one specific thing you are grateful for about them as you tuck them in bed or say goodnight at the end of the day.

Use social media. Using Instagram, Facebook, a blog or email, you could post a photo or statement about something you’re grateful for each day during November. This can help encourage the joy of gratitude in others while increasing it in yourself.

I hope that some of the ideas here may help you and your family embrace the joy of gratitude this month and make this the best Thanksgiving ever.

QUESTION: What are your favorite traditions and ideas for Thanksgiving?

CHALLENGE: Pick one new activity you’ll do this Thanksgiving Season to focus on gratitude.