List of Thanksgiving Traditions

Last night we searched for lists of Thanksgiving Traditions. I have listed the ones we liked the most (in no particular order).

Go for Quantity- Each person in the family writes down 10 things for which they are grateful for every year that they have lived. Example- If I am 27 years old I will write down 270 things.

Christmas Ornaments- Make Christmas tree ornaments that represent 5 things that you are thankful for. This will make sure that you remember those things from Thanksgiving until Christmas each time you look at the Christmas tree.

Letters to Friends- Probably one of the most important things that we can do, is spend time writing personal letters to friends and family expressing specific things for which we are thankful. The most important thing is to be specific and genuine.

Read “Yearly”Thankful Book- Many families do daily or weekly activities throughout the year where they have everybody in the family submit what they are thankful for and they write it in a book. On Thanksgiving day they take an hour to read the book and while reading the book, the family member can expound on the experience and it can be a recap of the year.

Video- It is good to make a video of people actually saying what they are thankful for, and then after the day you can make one long video with pictures of those things, or you can compile it and show it at a later family party.

Table Cloth- Get a white table cloth and different colored fabric markers and have everybody at the dinner write down one or two things they are thankful for and sign and date the tablecloth. Do this each year with the same tablecloth and simultaneously you’ll have a gratitude list and a guest list.

Blog Entry- Write a blog entry, listing or describing in detail what things you are grateful for

Thanksgiving Jar Game- As people come in to have Thanksgiving dinner, give them a piece of paper to write down 5 or 10 things. You can discuss them at dinner, or you can have them put them on little slips and put them in a jar and later you can pull them out of the jar and have everybody guess who wrote that specific thing

Read Scripture- Read the same passage of scripture every year that is centered on Christ or Gratitude (Examples John 14; Colossians 3:15; Alma 34:38; 3 Nephi 11; Doctrine and Covenants 78:19)

Family Picture- Take a family picture in the same spot every year

Go Bowling- Every time somebody gets up to bowl they have to say one thing they are grateful for.

Pictures- Make a slideshow of things you are grateful for.

Note to English perfectionists in my life: I know that this whole post is full of grammatical errors (specifically dangling participles), please don’t say anything about them unless you would like to submit a revised and better version of this post that I can copy and paste into my blog