WFMW - Thankful Tree

I thought I'd share what maybe some of you already do...something I had always heard about but never actually followed through and tried until this Thanksgiving....

The Thankful Tree.

(I know Thanksgiving has come and gone this year, but I still wanted to share this... for something to consider next year- or even to somehow use at Christmas.)

What is a thankful tree? Well, there are several ways to do this, but basically the idea behind it is to have everyone participate in being thankful in a tangible way. And though this works for small family gatherings, as well as large- it's especially nice for large families who don't really have time to go around the table and each say why they are thankful. (Which can be torture to do with the warm aroma of roasted turkey and dressing dancing in your nostrils!)

What I did was very simple. I drew, freehanded, a tree trunk with bare branches on poster board. Then I traced leaves which I drew on construction paper in various colors and cut them out. (Older children can help with this but since my children are still fairly young, this time they mostly just watched.)
As you can see from the picture, it's very, very simple!

On Thanksgiving Day, I taped the tree to the inside of the front door with the leaves, tape and a pen nearby. My girls and I then told each guest as they arrived to please write their name on one leaf and something that they were thankful for this year- then place it on the tree.

My girls really were excited about this! I had told them that it was their job to help me tell family members what to do, and they delighted in seeing the tree take on such beauty as each person added their leaf. I think they understood that the beauty was even more than the colors- but in the act of all of us counting our blessings and our gratitude towards God.

It's been so easy for these kinds of gatherings to be "all about the food".
Not that I've ever had anything against the scrumptious morsels of the holidays! It's not Thanksgiving for me if I don't have cranberry sauce (real berries, please) dressing and a piece of pumpkin pie. (OK, two.)
But it's nice to keep the real meaning of Thanksgiving in their somewhere, where we focus on all the gifts we truly have in our lives.

I've heard of other versions of this tradition, such as each person putting a leaf in a bowl and at the end of the evening or at dinner, a person takes a turn, drawing a name and reading it.
I like this, too.
However, I knew that in our family, the more casual approach would work best. Especially when our gatherings are so large that we can't even sit around the table. Everyone just grabs a chair, sofa or spot on the floor!

I think taking the basic principle and adapting it to your own family gathering is best. The important thing is just to find a way for everyone to be able to express their thankfulness.

Just about every relative that I directed towards the tree seemed pleasently surprised and very happy to add thier name! So though my main motives might have been as a lesson of thankfulness to my own children, I think that it helps all of us to stop and think for a moment on just what we are thankful for most in this life.

I think we've just started a tradition.