I LOVE Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday, because it’s all the family of Christmas without all the pressure. It’s just food and family. And gratitude!
It’s gotta include gratitude. I mean the holiday has Giving Thanks in its name. Here are a few ideas of how you can share gratitude at your Thanksgiving celebration.
1. Thankful Tree
Cut out paper leaves from construction paper. Create a tree to hang the leaves from—maybe real branches strategically arranged in a vase or a tree drawn on poster board. Place the leaves and some magic markers near the tree and invite your guests to write something they’re grateful for and hang it from the tree.
2. Appreciation Cards
Place a card and a pen at each person’s place setting. After everyone sits down, ask them to write the name of the person to their left at the top of the card followed by something they appreciate about that person. Then, passing the card to the right, the next person adds an item to the list. Keep passing the card to the right until everyone has written something on everyone’s card and they get the card with their own name on it. Each person can then read aloud what other people appreciate about them.
3. Gratitude Grab Bag
Place in a bag or basket, a random number of pieces of paper. These pieces of paper have categories written on them. The categories might include People, Place, Thing, Experience, Food, Nature, or any other category that might catch your fancy. Pass the bag around the table, each person reaches in the bag, pulls out a piece of paper and then must say something they are grateful for in the category on their paper.
4. Roll the Dice
Each person rolls a die and shares as many things for which they’re grateful as the number on the die.
5. Show and Tell Gratitude
Let your guests know before hand that you’d like them to bring to dinner an item that represents in some way what they are grateful for. Go around the table and let each person show their item and tell their gratitude story.
From my heart to yours, I’m wishing you a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving.