Gratitude Tree

Three years ago our family started our annual Gratitude Tree. The first day of November we gather together as a family and talk about gratitude. I buy a paper tree from www.orientaltrading.com to put up on the wall with tacky putty stuff you can get at Walmart or Target or a drug store. The tree comes with about 25 leaves but I use my Cricut to cut out more leaves, though I've also cut out leaves by hand before too.

After our family gathering, we each write on a leaf about something we are grateful. We do this throughout the month individually. I just keep a pile of leaves, a pen and some putty handy to make it easier to add to the tree.

This is a picture of our tree on November 22nd. We still have a few days to go. We pull all the leaves off the tree on Thanksgiving Day and read them aloud while we eat our meal. It's so fun to hear the different leaves. Now that the kids are getting older, they write more and they definitely have creative minds. Robbie wrote on one: "I'm thankful for my respiratory system." That's one I hadn't thought of.

It's also fun because the kids have been writing leaves for Liliana. Things like "I'm thankful for my pacifiers and Johnny Jump-up."

I got the idea originally from a youth leader long, long ago when I was a youth. :) She said her family would take an empty shoe box and decorate it like a turkey. In the top they would cut a slit. Next to the turkey box, they'd have a pile of slips of paper and a pen on which to write snippets of gratitude. They would read the slips of paper at their Thanksgiving dinner.

I tried to do that one, but it didn't work for our family. The tree on the wall works well because it doesn't get lost in our clutter and it is big and is a challenge to fill up before Thanksgiving.

I hope this may inspire you to consider adding a tradition in your family that lasts a whole month.