I’m usually not all about fads but I am all about starting traditions that I feel I would want my kids to carry on in their own family someday. I stumbled across this tradition of the Thanksgiving Thankful Tree and thought I would share. Thanksgiving trees are a gorgeous seasonal decoration with a heartwarming twist. The trees combine a do-it-yourself decoration with giving thanks, which makes them the perfect centerpiece for Thanksgiving celebrations…my kind of tradition.
Making your own Thanksgiving tree requires a few branches, hang tags, and a little imagination. Start with a few small, bare branches and arrange them in a vase or bucket as artfully as you can manage. If you want, decorate the branches with seasonal ornaments or just leave them bare to fill later. Then comes the fun part: write things you are grateful for on tags, notecards, or paper cut-outs in the shape of leaves, and attach them to the branches with string, ribbon, clothespins, or whatever you like. Ask kids or guests to contribute, and then suspend their notes from the branches. You can start to fill the tree early to have a gratitude-filled centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table or work the Thanksgiving tree into a Turkey Day activity to fill time between dinner and dessert. Either way, it’s a sweet way to remind family of the reason for the season.
Of course, Thanksgiving trees don’t have to be merely centerpieces or part of a tablescape. Some people go all-in on Thanksgiving trees, putting up lofty firs in their living rooms and filling them with autumnal decorations like pumpkins, acorns, turkeys, and horns of plenty, and adding in some handwritten notes of gratitude. If you want to celebrate the season with a giant Thanksgiving tree, why not. After all, why should Christmas have all the fun? For us, a simple reminder of the things we are thankful for is just the touch for a new Bockert family tradition.
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