Family Gratitude Activities To Help Your Family Be Thankful

Thanksgiving is not just the last holiday before Christmas. It is a time to give thanks for all the things that you have been blessed with. Thanksgiving is a time to be spent with family and friends.

However, with all the work that goes along with those family gatherings, it is easy to lose the Thanksgiving spirit.

Do you often feel like your kids are so focused on the coming of Christmas that they are losing the real meaning of Thanksgiving? I know this is something that I’ve struggled with in my family.

I want my family to go into the Christmas Season with an attitude of gratitude for all of their blessings. Even though I’ve put up my Christmas Tree before Thanksgiving this year (for the first time), I’m not going to let Thanksgiving gratitude be ignored.

I thought a lot about what all I, could do to help my family remember why Thanksgiving is so important and have found five things that I’ll be doing with my family this season to reintroduce the attitude of gratitude into our lives. Hopefully, these ideas are ones that will work for your family as well.

Here are six ways to make sure your attitude is one of gratitude.

1. Write love letters

Remember how you felt when you use to receive love letters from your spouse or that old flame? Capture those feelings again throughout the whole month of November.

Cultivate a Thanksgiving attitude by writing love letters to your family members. Choose one family member per day to write a brief love letter to. Let that person know how thankful you are that they are a part of your family.

You don’t have to go it alone. Get the whole family involved by inviting them to also write love letters to each other.

This doesn’t work for younger kids, so I’m having my three-year-old draw pictures for everyone. She doesn’t quite the concept yet, but I’m hoping that the idea will stick with her and she’ll understand the importance of the season.

I picked up these simple notepad from Micheal’s and these little tags to help everyone get in the mood. I think small and simple is best, you can’t expect your kids to write a huge long letter.

2. Nature Walk

Going on a nature walk with your children is an exciting way to get into the Thanksgiving spirit and to explore the great outdoors. A nature walk will expose your children to the beauty of the season. You can show them the different colors of autumn leaves, and you can even collect some to use to make a Thanksgiving scrapbook.

I’m an outdoor girl, so this is something we do regularly. It doesn’t need to be anything crazy though.

For example, there is an awesome park near my house with ducks, turtles and fish. My daughter loves going there and can spend hours just running around.

You don’t need to make a production about it, but being outside and pointing out all of the amazing beauty around us is a great way to instill gratitude for nature.

I snapped this picture of my daughter and grandson as they enjoyed the flowers in Illinois a few months ago. Little moments like this are something I will always treasure.

3. Thanksgiving Scrapbook

Make a Thanksgiving scrapbook using family photos from past Thanksgiving and some fall foliage. Collect some of those beautiful leaves that are decorating your lawn or collect some while on your nature walk.

Take some individual leaves and press them between contact paper. Then place the leaves between the pages in a large book to flatten them. Once the leaves are flat, you can add them to your family scrapbook.

You kind of have to plan this one out a bit in advance. I’m not organized enough to do old Thanksgiving photo’s, but have found that just having a few photo’s around creates a sense of thanksgiving. The photos always remind my family of fun happy memories which in turn makes them thankful for the time together as a family.

I love these little adventure scrapbooks, they are super simple to assemble and are a great family activity.

4. Harvest Necklace

Design a harvest necklace with your children. All this takes is some dried fruit, popcorn, and any other edible item you want to add. Thread these on a piece of string. The kids will love these and so will you.

The biggest plus is that the necklaces are edible, and they are a fun way to cultivate a Thanksgiving attitude.

My daughter loves making harvest necklaces (really she just loves the candy).

Items for a Harvest Necklace:

• Raisins
• Popcorn
• Fruit
• Candy – Candy Corn and similar type candies
• Dried fruit

If you don’t want them to eat them, you can dye macaroni noodles and string them as well. It is also super inexpensive to purchase the big cans of beads.

5. Harvest Tea

Host a Harvest Tea. During a Harvest Tea, the guests each bring a dish that is one of the colors of fall. These colors include gold, orange, brown, green and red.

Have several different tables with each table decorated in one of the fall colors. The dishes are placed on the table according to the same color.

Invite your friends over and create a true Thanksgiving feel.

Keep in mind this doesn’t need to be crazy elaborate with matching dishes and perfect centerpieces. I’m all about keeping it simple and whenever we have company over I’m all about paper plates and easy cleanup.

Don’t stress about having a perfect party, just invite your friends over and have fun. After all, the reason you are doing this is to help others have an attitude of gratitude as well.

6. Do A 30 Day Gratitude Journal

I really struggle to journal regularly but have discovered that if I have gratitude journal prompts I actually manage to do it and love the process.

Everyone journals differently, so do what works for you. The important thing is that for the next thirty day you are going to keep a gratitude journal. It may be as simple as writing down something you are grateful for each day.

Or you may do the gratitude journal prompts like me – here is the list of gratitude journal prompts that I use.

Creating an attitude of gratitude with your family is possible.

Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks and sharing. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude by doing some fun activities with family and friends.

I know this time of year is crazy!!! I never seem to have enough hours in the day, but I’ve found that by planning out one simple activity each week I’m able to remind my family of why we celebrate Thanksgiving and how important it is to focus on having a grateful attitude.

These simple family gratitude activities have changed the way I look at Thanksgiving and hopefully have positively impacted my kids as well.