Thanksgiving: Traditions to Start, Add, or Tweak (with FREE printables!)

Christmas is, of course, the holiday of all holidays. None other compares, no matter how you measure it – preparation time, money spent, number of events we host (or attend), special décor added to our homes, etc. Christmas is more of a season, while we often distill Thanksgiving down to one meal. Because Christmas is coming, it’s easy for Thanksgiving to get just a quick nod, as we prepare to hurl ourselves into Christmas preparations and celebrations.

My challenge to you: savor Thanksgiving. And I’m not just talking about the food you prepare and partake of.

Thanksgiving, time-wise, comes at the conclusion of the harvest – giving us all time to celebrate the bounty of another growing season. Perhaps only an agrarian society can fully appreciate the importance of abundant crops. Whatever your culture or time in history, however, Thanksgiving is often a time to look back over the year’s provision and be thankful. Whether a 17th-century Pilgrim celebrating survival, a 19th-century farmer celebrating the wheat harvest, or a 21st-century millennial celebrating employment, Thanksgiving prompts a pause to be thankful.

But it need not only be a time to look back. It can also position us well for looking forward. As we anticipate the potential excess and materialism that Christmas can easily become, Thanksgiving affords an opportunity to choose to be thankful for what we already have. As our children (and our own thoughts) are focused on “what I want for Christmas” and making the annual wish list, could we challenge ourselves to first make an “Already Have” list. As 21st-century westerners, our glasses are most likely more than half-full and even overflowing by the world’s standards.

So, my friend, savor Thanksgiving. Embrace the opportunity to choose gratitude – to count your blessings, hug your children, and praise our great God for His generosity.

I also want to offer a few ideas for launching new traditions (or putting a new spin on old ones) to help you and your children be fully present with Thanksgiving and give this timely holiday it’s full due before it is usurped by the one to follow. What started as a Top Ten list quickly morphed into a Baker’s Dozen (seems appropriate for a holiday mostly focused on food):

Thanksgiving book collection.
Adding just one new book a year will result in a nice coffee table collection in a short time. When the children are young, you might consider these two from the Berenstain Bears series (I purchased these for my granddaughter this year):
The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks
The Berenstain Bears Thanksgiving Blessings
Puzzle Table
Set up a card table off in a corner of the living room with folding chairs. It will offer an opportunity for 2-3 family members to enjoy conversation while honing their puzzle skills. Friends and family members may spend a few minutes – or a few hours – but its accessibility makes it an easy point of contact. There’s nothing like a jigsaw puzzle to spur cross-generational interaction. Here’s one that features a Norman Rockwell classic.
Kids Table
You might even call it a Cousins Table. Gather together some Thanksgiving-themed coloring pages, crayons, and colored pencils to keep the kids corralled and creative. Our sponsor is offering a set of free Thanksgiving Border Sheets from A Reason For Handwriting; it’s perfect for decorating then writing out a verse about thankfulness. (Here are ten suggested scriptures for them to copy.) Older children might enjoy the challenge of a Thanksgiving word search or trivia quiz, like some of those available from DLTK or Puzzles-To-Print.
Thanksgiving Recipe Booklet
If your family is like mine, you tend to make the same recipes for Thanksgiving every year. Changing it out might bring mutiny from the crew! Why not create a mini Thanksgiving cookbook? Not only will that save you time in your shopping and cooking, but it would be a lovely gift to share with new generations in your family. We’ve even created a free download to help, with an 8.5″ x 11″ Thanksgiving Recipe Page (this makes a great addition to your child’s personal recipe binder), as well as smaller Thanksgiving Recipe Cards .
Thankful Journal
Purchase a new journal and simply write “Thanksgiving 2018” on the top of the first page. Leave it out on a counter or coffee table and encourage everyone to write one (or more) things they are thankful for from that year. It will be fun to look back and remember all the previous blessings in each new year.
Scrapbook Page
In lieu of the Thankful Journal, you can download and print out our free Thanksgiving Scrapbook Page . Be sure to take at least one group photo, so you can add it in the designated space to remember the year’s celebration. Family members can sign the page, adding notes of thanks and blessings for the year. When Thankgiving is over, consider making a copy for everyone who was there, and tucking it into this year’s Christmas card as a memento of happy times together as a family.
Fill Up the Table
Look around your church, neighborhood, and community for anyone who may need a family to join on Thanksgiving. Many who live far from home may choose to travel on Christmas in lieu of Thanksgiving. If your table has an extra seat, go ahead and fill it up. Your dinner invitation might be the recorded blessing in the Thankful Journal for that guest.
Five Pieces of Corn
In tribute to the Pilgrims who survived by rationing their provisions to barely ward off starvation, place five pieces of corn at each place setting. Ask each family member to name five blessings for which they are grateful.
Display the Word
There’s something extra-special about adding a centerpiece when we sit down to dinner with family. Nothing could be better than God’s Word for the center of our table (and the center of our lives.) We’ve created a Thanksgiving Centerpiece suitable for printing on card stock and displaying on your Thanksgiving table. Use a plate stand, add leaves and perhaps a pumpkin or gourd, and make it uniquely yours. (There is also a second version, a Folded Thanksgiving Centerpiece , which displays the verse on both sides.)
Read the Word
As a companion to our Display-the-Word centerpiece, we’ve also created Thanksgiving Place Cards featuring thankfulness verses. At the conclusion of dinner, ask each person to read aloud their verse. A focus on God’s Word is a great way to end the feast – especially since everyone might be too full to move immediately anyway!
Hide the Word
Encourage all guests to take home their place card and commit the verse on it to memory. An additional suggestion is to challenge your children to memorize thankfulness verses in advance and recite those for the whole family on Thanksgiving Day.
Questions for the Seniors
Without some intentional thought in advance (and some intentional redirecting during), family dinner conversations can easily spiral downward to football scores and Black Friday sales. Refuse to let your dinner be taken captive! Come to the table armed with engaging questions that will engage your guests and create meaningful conversations. This is a great opportunity to begin training your children in the art of hosting – focusing on the other person and encourage them to share about themselves as you ask meaningful questions. While you are cooking in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, challenge the children to come up with questions for their elders. Great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and senior adult friends grew up in an era quite different from those of our children. What was Thanksgiving like for them? What did they do for fun? What was their first job? When did they get their first car and what was it? (Then delight everyone at the table by googling and finding a photo of it.) Cross-generational conversations make lasting memories! (This post from Ms. Sam offers a variation on the same idea, by creating a dinner-table game for special gatherings.)
Kids Serve Dessert
Round out their hosting skills by preparing them in advance to serve dessert to the grown ups in the family. They can clear the dinner dishes first and then take orders for dessert. Teach them to serve from the left and take from the right. Demonstrate the proper way to cut a pie or cake in equal pieces. Discuss the serving order – ladies first, and older before younger. Training them early to be a servant will set them up for a life of focusing on others.

All of us at A ReasonFor Homeschool pray you and your family have a joyous, blessed Thanksgiving filled with meaningful conversation, laughter, and memories to treasure. If you choose to adopt any of our suggestions, we would love to know which ones you incorporate and how it all works out on your special day! Happy Blessed Thanksgiving greetings