I know there are a lot of versions of this, and I love them all! The older I get, the more I understand and value gratitude.
I think the best example of this is something I've heard Rachel Hollis talk about. Take 30 seconds and look around the room wherever you are right now. Count as many blue things as you can see right now. Go ahead, it just takes 30 seconds (or okay do 15 seconds). Don't read ahead....
What number did you get? Okay now, tell me how many orange things you noticed. That's just it! You see what you are looking for. Look for the good and the things to be thankful for, and more and more of those things are going to shine through to you in your life. Which brings me to the Thankful Tree.
I have been doing the November Thankful Tree with my kids for about a decade now. I'm sure it was on some mommy blog or Pinterest board at the time, but this tradition has stuck with us. Our version is getting leaf shaped craft paper, or cutting out our own, and then I take a hole punch and some ribbon to make a loop so I can hang it. Oh my gosh Amazon has the perfect turnkey option, literally just ordered this for myself this year. Our tree has looked different every single year, that isn't the important part. What is, is having the kids write one thing a day that they are grateful for on a leaf and then hanging it on the tree. We do this each day until Thanksgiving. Of course I encourage the kids to put some real thought into it. No duplicates, not just mailing it in, but some real thought behind what they were especially thankful for on that particular day.
On Thanksgiving day we read aloud all of the things that the boys wrote down on their thankful leaves. This is super sweet ("Grandma") and super funny ("That I'm a boy so I don't always have to wear a shirt"). Of course the dog and friends and video games always get a good shout out, but so do mom and dad and brother too.
This is a really great practice in gratefulness and a great tradition all on its own, but we take it to the next level by having each boy pick only one thing, the thing that they are most grateful for this year, after reading them all aloud on Thanksgiving day. Then they write that thing that they are most grateful for on a table runner that we use every Thanksgiving, with the year, in permanent marker. It is so fun to read those each year as we are waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven, and laugh about how they have changed, "Most thankful for Angry Birds", etc. If you look close in the photos below you will see the table runner in each photos. We let the gravy spill on it and everything. Gives it character!
You will miss days to have the kids write on their thankful leaves, but don't sweat it. Sometimes there are activities, or homework or you just forget. It doesn't matter. Do two the next day, or just skip it altogether. You'll end up having plenty of gratefulness material to read.
It's a great way for younger ones to practice writing. I had to write the translation on many oh leaves over the years.
Let them be them- funny, creative and sometimes appropriately, inappropriate. :). You'll be glad you did later.
I have been using the same tree that I use for my Halloween Memory Tree, which works great (although I wish it were a little bigger for both), but for many years we have just used a branch from the yard as you can see in the photos above. Looks cool and nothing to store!
Keep the leaves. I stick all the leaves for that year into a manilla envelope and write on the outside the year and the thing they chose as the thing they are most grateful for. We don't usually look back on them, but I'm sure some day I will be so glad I kept these leaves.
If you happen to not be celebrating Thanksgiving at home, just read aloud and write down the #1 thing you are grateful for on the table runner so you can still keep that memory.
Here are a couple of links to some trees I saw on Amazon that would likely work well for this project, as well as the Halloween Memory Tree.
This could be really great- I love the twig look (although you can usually get the same thing from your yard or neighborhood).
I like the size of this guy. Wish he was brown though...
Hobby Lobby, Michaels and HomeGoods normally have the best.
Please share your ideas of how you incorporate this gratefulness idea into your homes. What are you doing other than leaves on a tree? And, I'm sure there is a much cuter way to do the table runner than a sharpie. :)
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