Make Thanksgiving Meaningful: Free Gratitude Prompts!
Thanksgiving: the holiday that gets smooshed by Christmas and forgotten. Let’s choose to give it its proper due and make it intentional and meaningful! After all, it is such a “pure” holiday. Uncluttered by gifts and left untouched by imaginary myths such as the Easter Bunny or Santa. Just unadulterated gratitude. And really delicious food! Here are four things we do in our home to make Thanksgiving meaningful.
Think about Gratitude throughout November
I put this tip first because it begins at the beginning of November. Gratitude is not something that can simply happen one day out of the year and BAM you have a grateful heart! It is like a muscle that needs to be exercised. Every day. All year. But especially in preparation for Thanksgiving!
Find a way to pause and give thanks each day of November. I have a free printable here for you that includes 28 gratitude prompts, questions, verses, and even a few hymns! You can make them into a paper chain or simply stick them in a jar and pull one out each night at dinner time.
Perhaps the month of November is a great time to begin a Gratitude Journal with your family! You can read all about how we use a gratitude journal in this post on 3 ways to Gratitude.
Or you could decorate a small branch or basket with leaves where you write down things you are grateful for each day! You can dink around with cutting out a zillion paper leaves OR try this prettier method of preserving leaves with glycerin! The leaves will stay pretty and soft and you can easily write on them with a permanent marker. Hang them on a branch or display them in a pretty basket!
How to Preserve Leaves with Glycerin
- Gather pretty leaves and get ahold of some glycerin (Walmart has it in their pharmacy area)
- Mix up 1 part glycerin and 2 parts water (enough to be able to completely submerge your leaves.)
- Put your leaves and the glycerin mixture in some sort of container where the leaves will remain completely covered/submerged. You could use a pan and then place another pan on top to hold the leaves down or put it all in a gallon zip bag and just squeeze out all the air.
- Wait 3-4 days.
- Remove the leaves and dry them off with a paper towel!
Learn the Meaningful Thanksgiving Story
I find that it is harder and harder to find quality resources for this. (For some reason it isn’t “politically correct” any more to see the good in this precious story and some people want to twist history because the thought of those Christian Separatists being wonderful is just too much to bear. Especially for those who hate Christians!)
My all time favorite resource for this is a book and audio CD by Barbara Rainey called Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember. The book itself is beautiful and packed with interesting facts and true stories. Our copy came with a dramatized audio CD and a CD of Thanksgiving hymns. We especially enjoy the Dramatized Audio CD and take time each year to sit together as a family and simply listen to the story. I would highly recommend this resource if you’ve still got a CD player around. It can be hard to find but worth owning if you can find a copy! (Note: there is a hymn CD as well, but it is not the same as the dramatized audio CD)
Barbara Rainey and Her husband, Dennis, also share about the Thanksgiving Story in 2 parts on the FamilyLife Podcast.
Another meaningful exercise is to look up historical presidential proclamations. When I consider the Civil War context surrounding Lincoln’s proclamation that made this a national holiday I am almost brought to tears. Imagine a nation stopping to thank God amidst the turmoil that was the American Civil War! Astounding. You can read Lincoln’s proclamation here.
Share the Joy of Gratitude
Depending on your existing family traditions this may be easy or difficult for you. We have had years where we’ve been able to invite guests to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Those were some of the most meaningful Thanksgiving holidays! My husband and I make an effort to bring the focus of the actual day toward thankfulness to God in some way – even if other people we are with are in the habit of thinking more about football, parades, and black Friday planning.
We have a journal that we pass around to whoever we are with and invite everyone to write a little something about what they are thankful for.
My husband also wrote a small “liturgy” that we made to use at mealtime. It is short and serves to help everyone remember why we are celebrating.
Sing Meaningful Thanksgiving Music
Thanksgiving hymns are so often overlooked, and that is unfortunate because they are rich and beautiful. I would encourage you to choose one or two to sing with your children throughout the month of November so that everyone can really learn the lyrics! Some of our favorites are:
Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty
You can put them in a Spotify playlist and print off the lyrics to to practice and learn!
Conclusion
There you have it! Work those “gratitude muscles” all month as you get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving! I hope these ideas and links make it easy for you to be intentional this November. Share in the comments about other ways that you prepare for Thanksgiving in your home and don’t forget to share this post with others
Some links are Amazon Affiliate links which means that I may make a small commission if you click on them and make a purchase in Amazon. I only recommend products that I truly believe will be helpful.
Love the paper chain printables and can’t wait to use them this year leading up to the holidays. I’ve never tried preserving fall leaves, but that looks like a great activity to do with kids. Thank you for sharing!
I’ve never heard of preserving leaves with glycerin, and will definitely have to give that a try! So many things to be grateful for. Thanks for the inspiration!
I’ve never preserved leaves before, what a great idea! Sadly, the leaves are all gone here in Alaska and replaced with snow:( But I’ll pin this for next year! Such great ideas, especially the music, thank you!
Oh my gosh I love the preserving leaves idea! These are all great suggestions. Thank you!