Last year we did a beautiful thing. I saw a Thankful tree on Pinterest and on a whim decided the day before Thanksgiving that we were going to make one.
It was super easy and turned out to be a memorable experience. We actually had people from both sides of the family – in-laws, grandparents, great aunts and uncles; people in their 80s down to small children. And guess what? Everyone participated over the next two days.
All I did is make the preparations and tell some adults to pass on the instructions and before we knew it we had a tree full of Thankful cards. It was actually really cute, because the adults wrote a lot of funny things, while the kids ended up being the ones to write things that pulled at the heart strings.
Even those who couldn’t write words drew little pictures about what they were thankful for.
How to Make a Thanksgiving Thankful Tree
Making the Tree – Super easy!
1) Scout around in your yard, woods, or neighbor’s yard (I’m sure they won’t mind if you pick up some fallen sticks for them) for a small branch that will work nicely, or a number of long twigs.
2) Get a tall Vase, bucket, gourd, pitcher, large mason jar, or whatever you find handy.
3) Fill the vase with one of the following: popcorn kernels, bird seed, pine cones, nuts, rocks, marbles, legos, dirt.
4) Push the twigs or branch down into the vase so that it stands up.
The Tags
I just went to the dollar store and got large gift tags. They were super easy to tie onto the tree and were beautiful as well.
Other options: Cut out paper leaves, ornaments.
Pens
Don’t forget to leave out some pens for people to use. The kids liked the neon pens we put out! If you use ornaments, make sure the pens you put out will write on them and dry well.
Family Time
Don’t forget to have a reading time! After eating, we all went into the living room and a few of the kids read out the Thankful cards and tried to guess who wrote them down. It was a wonderful time that I can’t wait to do again this year! Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Family Time everyone.
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