One of our family’s favorite Thanksgiving traditions is recording and displaying things that we are thankful for during the weeks before the holiday. We’ve done this several different ways over the years–a list on the fridge, a turkey with blank feathers for writing on, a thankful jar–but our favorite way by far is the Thankful Tree. We started this a few years ago, and it has just stuck. Here is this year’s Thankful Tree:
The idea is that everyone writes at least one thing they are thankful for each day for a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, and then hangs the leaf on the tree. Before we eat on Thanksgiving Day, we take all the leaves off the tree and read all of the things we are thankful for as a family It’s awesome!
Here’s how I made our Thankful Tree:
1. Punch or die cut several leaves from fall colored texture cardstock.
2. Punch a small hole at the base of each leaf, then trim several 6 inch lengths of brown Baker’s Twine for hanging.
3. Gather dead tree branches and arrange them in a vase, mason jar, or other container to create the Thankful Tree. Embellish the vase as desired with patterned paper, twine, and stickers.
4. Place the die cut leaves, baker’s twine, and a pencil next to the “tree” so others can write down their blessings and hang them on the tree.
This is a great way to be mindful of thankfulness and gratitude this time of year, and it’s fun to see what others add to the tree each day.