A time where family and friends gather to remember the abundance of blessings bestowed upon them during the year.
A time where a harvest of food and lighthearted fun is shared around a table.
Where memories are made and the holiday season begins.
With all the focus on food, family, activities and Pinterest perfect tables, how much of Jesus do you put your focus on during the season of Thanksgiving?
At our Thanksgiving table we have a tradition…
Every person shares what they are “thankful for” from the past year.
We began this at the very first Thanksgiving we hosted in our home.
Our children were young and they grew up knowing that if there was only one time and one time only, it was at the Thanksgiving table we shared our grateful hearts with one another.
To make it even more fun for the children and to teach them how important being thankful is, we incorporated these fun activities over the years:
Thankful Jar
Beginning November 1st, our family would leave a Thankful Jar in the middle of the table and every time we were thankful for something during the month, we would write it on a slip of paper and place it in the jar. These would be shared during dessert on Thanksgiving Day. We enjoyed trying to guess who wrote each one.
A Thankful Tree
A Thankful Tree was made out of items found on a nature walk and we would post what we were thankful for Thanksgiving morning on colored leaves. We would then hang the leaves on the tree branches to be shared after our meal. Even our guests for dinner would participate.
Scripture Place Cards
When the children were older, each child had to find bible verses representing thankfulness and write them down on place cards to set at each person’s table setting. They could be as creative as they wanted in decorating their cards. It was always a joy to see what verses they chose and see their creativity in action.
These were a few ways we taught our children the importance of making much of Jesus during the Thanksgiving season.
