It’s a shame that Thanksgiving gets kind of squished and forgotten between those huge money-makers – Halloween and Christmas.
Today is only November 2nd and you literally can’t find any fall decorations or Thanksgiving items ANYWHERE! We went to the mall tonight with the boys to let them get their wiggles out just walk around and Kohl’s was completely decked out with tinsel and trees.
In our Happy Home, I try really hard not to rush past the humble spirit of this sweet holiday even with all the outside pressure to get into Christmas mode.
I intentionally do this because having a grateful heart is one of the most important character traits I want my Happy Buddies to learn – as it seems to be the cure for whining, crankiness, bickering, discontentment, bitterness, resentment, etc., etc.
So let’s kick off this season of Thanksgiving with a fabulous round-up of Countdown Ideas that you can use with your Happy Home to prepare their precious hearts for Turkey Day.
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Check out the Thanksgiving Advent Calendar I made for our Happy Home a few years ago.
I am not even kidding when I tell you how easy it was to make that thing.
The best part about it are the little pockets (one for each day in November) that we get to fill with slips of paper scribbled with our daily gratitudes. 🙂
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Fill a Thankful Jar, like this one from Parents, each day with things your Happy Home is thankful for.
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Here is a fun Turkey Countdown from Baby Center!
Simply add a feather each day leading up to Thanksgiving.
I loooooooove this idea that originally came from Alphamom (but the post seems to have disappeared from the site…).
Simply take some small paper cups, fill each with a piece of candy (break into that Halloween candy stash), cover each cup with a glued square of tissue paper, attach all to a foam board and voila!
Your Happy Buddies will have so much fun punching through the tissue paper each day to reveal a little treat – a little something to be thankful for. 🙂
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This Thankful Wreath from Chica and Jo is so easy to make!
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There’s always the good ole’ fashioned Paper Chain like this one from One Charming Party.
Have everyone in your Happy Home (including pets and visitors) add a link each day expressing what he/she is thankful for.
Before long, you will have a beautiful decoration adorning your dining room for all of your Thanksgiving Dinner guests!
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This Thankful Jar is filled with Thankful Activities for your Happy Buddies to complete – 1 per day.
Pop over to Somewhat Simple for the FREE Printable.
Activity cards say cute things like:
I am thankful for pies – Go make a pumpkin pie to anyone.
I am thankful for Grandparents – Call and tell them “I love you,” or “I am grateful for you!”
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Honeybear Lane has this sweet homemade Handprint Advent Calendar.
You can add things your Happy Home is thankful for to the finger feathers each day.
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Finally, you must check out this brand new FREE Printable Family Gratitude Devotions for the month of November from one of my new favorite blogs to read, Frugal Fun for Boys.
What a great way to dive into what God’s Word says about being thankful, AND you get to do it every single day this month.
I know your November will be full of sweet blessings with any of these creative ideas!
Happy Thanksgiving Countdown-ing! 🙂
*Check out my Thanksgiving Pinterest Board for more great countdown ideas!*
Perhaps you Americans should take some advice from your genius neighbours in Canada. :). Thanksgiving in October. November first, we’re all ready waiting for the first Sunday of Advent!! 🙂
I used to be the same way, until I learned that the best thing to do is celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas together! What I mean is, to focus on being grateful WITH the Christmas season. Instead of being thankful on Thanksgiving, then on Christmas we have our kids write letters to Santa with what they want, and the focus changes to “want, want, want.” So we celebrate the two together- celebrate Jesus’ birth starting in Nov., and practice gratitude Nov and continue focusing on it through Dec. We write thankful letters to Santa, do service, etc.
I agree about our society forgetting about Thanksgiving, and the fall season. Thanks for the great ideas! I’m going to use the paper chain idea in my music studio! I’ll have each student write one thing they are thankful for and add it to the chain to decorate the studio with fall colors! I know they will love to watch the chain grow each week!
Yes, we are pressured to run from one commercial event to another, without stopping to give thanks to God and remember that all our blessings come from Him. Fabulous ideas. I’m going to share this with my readers… hope it blesses you today. : )
Thank you so much for these great ideas! I did a thankful tree with my daughter last year and have been trying to think of something new for this year. So excited to try a couple of these out!
Nice collection. I hope you don’t mind I promoted this blog on my Skinny Scoop list Crafty Ways to Express Gratitude.
Thanks for sharing these ideas! I made the clothespin wreath with my two little boys and it turned out great! So cute, and such a fun way to count our blessings!
I love this! We do Christmas Advent each year already and I was trying to find premade kid Advents for Thanksgiving. It was a lot harder to find easy, elegant ideas that would be Christ centered instead of patriotic. I had a ladies day and we did the rolled devotionals, and while I didn’t use your link I did find a paper chain printable I loved because of your post here.
Thanks again!