Gratitude activities like journaling, sharing kind thoughts and even just saying, "thank you" teaches respect and kindness as well as boosting happiness. Practicing gratitude together as a family will strengthen familial bonds as well as reinforce the pleasure of developing a positive mindset towards others.
Family gratitude activities don't have to be complicated! While a simple and effective routine is to sit around the table each night and share, "I am thankful for..."Â try fitting one of these creative activities into your family's gratitude practice.
Thankful Tree and Wall Ideas
You can make your thankful trees as simple or as elaborate as you wish. Families with a strong artistic bent will want to build upon the following simple ideas:
Thankful tree
A thankful tree is a classic gratitude activity for November in the run up to Thanksgiving, but you can create one any time of year.
Spend some time together out in nature collecting branches. Place the branches in a jar, cut out leaves from colored construction paper. Each day kids and parents write down something for which they feel gratitude, and hang the leaves on the tree with a bit of string threaded through a hole punch in your paper leaves.
Gratitude wall
If you decide to make a gratitude wall you will want to keep it up long after the Thanksgiving season is over, just like we did! I loved seeing our family's collected gratitudes every day!
You can make a simple thankful wall with index cards but one year we made painted thankful leaves from newspaper for our gratitude wall.
MamaSmiles has the best simple idea for a gratitude tree I've seen!
MORE: Sibling Kindness Jar
Gratitude Printables
If your family prefers a little artistic guidance, try using these printables as a jumping off point.
Thankful cards
Print out our super cute illustrated thankful card coloring pages. Kids can color them, write down their gratitudes and then either hang them on a tree, paste them in a gratitude journal or pass them out to family members.
- Get them here: Thankful Cards
More printable ideas
I love, love love this idea for thankful hearts from Let's Lasso the Moon.
30 day gratitude printable from Coffee Cups and Crayons. The best part is the flexibility.
I am thankful story window slide from Buggy and Buddy. Includes a free printable. If you want to extend this for a month, you could make a really, really long slide! (My kids would actually love that.)
MORE: Read these picture books about gratitude!
Gratitude Arts and Crafts Ideas
Getting arty is a great way to improve family bonding. You don't have to be Great Artists to enjoy these simple creative ideas. All of these suggestions will spur conversations and reflections.
Make Kindness Tokens. You can even upcycle your plastic containers as a way to say "thank you" to the environment.
These kid-made thankful napkins from Homegrown Friends are fantastic!
This kid-made thankful table spread from ArtBar is so artsy-craftsy!!!
I like this idea to make a table runner so family members can write down their blessings.
Gratitude sun catcher from The OT Toolbox. To extend the idea create a new petal every day.
Ideas to spend more time together as a family:
- Family Activities for Black Friday
- Indoor Family Games (no board required)
maryanne @ mama smiles says
I am trying to decide what I want to do for our thankful wall/gratitude activity this year. I like the simplicity and message focus of your cards.