Every family has holiday traditions that we hold near and dear to our hearts. They’re sweet memories that we look forward to recreating, and sharing with others every year for generations to come.
This year we’re planning on the tradition of a thankful pumpkin.
As busy as the holiday season gets, it can be easy to let traditions slip by simply because there is just not enough time!
How often do we get caught up in the craziness of the holidays without taking the time to slow down and refocus our hearts on the things that are important? I mean, that’s really what holiday traditions are all about!
Seven years ago, author Amy Latta found her family in this same predicament. Getting bogged down by the busyness of the season, and wanting to teach her son Noah, then 3, about gratitude and Thanksgiving.
She came up with the idea of using a pumpkin as a place to write down the things her family was thankful for, and simply called it, the Thankful Pumpkin. It’s a tradition every family needs in their lives this holiday season.
“At meals, we were playing the ‘thankful game,’ where we would take turns going around the table and saying things we were grateful for, and I thought it would be fun for [Noah] — and for all of us — to physically see just how many blessings that added up to,” Latta told TODAY Parents.
They had recently visited a pumpkin patch near their home in Hampstead, Maryland, and brought home several pumpkins. Latta grabbed one and began marking down the things they were grateful for with permanent marker.
