{Thanksgiving Fun} Thankful Activities

We think it's important to remind our kids that Thanksgiving is more than turkey and mashed potatoes. We have started some traditions with our kids that they really seem to enjoy, and that really get everyone in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

We've been using these Thanks and Giving Trees from Chocolate on my Cranium for a couple of years now and absolutely love them. It's a great reminder that one of the ways we can express our gratitude for the blessings in our lives is to serve other people. The service can be simple, but it is amazing how much easier it is to count our blessings when we are looking for ways to serve. In our family, we add more leaves on each tree once a week and it is amazing how full our trees can get by Thanksgiving. These trees could be used as a Thanksgiving day or Thanksgiving week activity, or an activity for the entire month of November!

This was the first year we started using the Thanksgiving Countdown from Somewhat Simple and it has been so great! The countdown includes activities that you can do with your family every day to get them into a thankful frame of mind. Our kids have been so excited to see what our thankful activity is every day! The activities are simple enough that they are easy to fit into your day without a lot of advance planning, but they are really great about reminding us just how many blessings we have that we probably often take for granted!

This will be our first year using these Count Your Blessings printables from the Crafting Chicks and we're really excited about it. We are looking forward to having the kids fill them out every year and then seeing just how much their answers change as they get older!

Maybe the idea of using all of these activities is way too overwhelming for you, but it's amazing how much doing even one of these activities can turn your home into a more happy and grateful place! We think the more we can get our family into a thankful frame of mind, the better! These activities have really been a great addition to our family traditions and we hope you guys enjoy them too!