Thanksgiving Advent Calendars

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday.

Although I admit to saying that about pretty much every holiday, Thanksgiving is quite dear to my Happy Home heart.

It’s a shame that this holiday gets kind of squished and forgotten between those huge money-makers – Halloween and Christmas.

Having a grateful heart is one of the most important things I want the Happy Buddy to learn – as it seems to be the cure for whining, crankiness, bickering, discontentment, bitterness, resentment, etc., etc.

Paul knew what he was talking about when he wrote, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus…” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. 🙂

So let’s kick off this season of Thanksgiving with a fabulous round-up of Advent Calendars that you can use with your Happy Home to countdown to Turkey Day!!

Check out the Thanksgiving Advent Calendar I made for our Happy Home last year – that I fully plan on using again starting today!

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. 🙂

Or try a similar idea to the one above, and fill a Thankful Jar, like this one from Parents, each day with things your Happy Home is thankful for.

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! 🙂There’s always the good ole’ fashioned Paper Chain!

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!

And, finally, here are a few sites with some super creative and simple Thanksgiving Advent Activities – a daily craft, task, or idea (all centered around being thankful) for your Happy Buddies to do each day in the month of November.

A Bushel and a Peck’s Thanksgiving Advent Activities

Five Under the One’s Thanksgiving Advent Fun (I especially liked that she included Black Friday Shopping on her list :-)!)

Happy Thanksgiving Advent-ing! 🙂