Tradition of a Thankful Tree

Posted by Jamie | 0 comments

“To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us — and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence a gift of grace.” ~Thomas Merton

I believe that developing a real habit of gratitude is a wonderful way to grow our faith and to keep our focus where it should be – even in the most difficult of times. As we navigate life in a blended family, including a teen daughter adopted just two years ago, and now as we face a very difficult medical diagnosis for my father, this has become even more important. I also believe that family traditions are a delightful way to anchor us together, giving our children warm memories to look back on fondly many years from now. I treasure those memories of my own growing-up years, and I want my children to have many of their own special memories of family times and traditions.

With that in mind, a few years ago our family decided to focus a bit more on gratitude as the Thanksgiving season approached. While I do love turkey and sweet potato souffle, there’s a little more to Thanksgiving than that, and it seems entirely too easy to forget as we get into the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

So… we decided to make a “Thankful Tree.” The first time I heard of this basic idea was from my friend Nita who had her boys write on their glass back door (with dry erase markers) every fun thing they did over the summer in order to get them over a case of complaining about having “nothing to do” that summer; once they saw all these things written down, they realized they didn’t have it so bad after all! The first time I saw the idea specifically as a tree was on Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, and I loved it immediately.

We used a roll of paper and cut approximately a door-sized piece, so that we could hang it on the back of our front door. Our foyer area opens into our living/dining/homeschool area, which is central to our whole house. There’s no way to get anywhere in our house without passing through this area, so the front door was the perfect place to put our Thankful Tree.

I sketched a large, bare tree on the paper, and lightly colored it in. Then, using several different fall colored construction paper colors, we cut out leaves for our tree, and put them in a basket near the door. We kept pens and tape next to our little basket so that we could easily write a “thankful” anytime we thought of one. Anytime a guest came by, we asked them to add at least one leaf to our Thankful Tree before they left. Soon, we had the delightful problem of running out of room on our tree!

Our thankfuls have ranged from the profound to the not-so-profound.

A small sampling:

• God’s grace and mercy; hot tea; laughter - Jamie
• Phones; my church; nature; family; Grandpa’s bears – Lindsey
• My warm bed; lots and lots of books to read; sweet neighbors; muffins – Kathryn
• Walks; chewies; my humans – Lacy the WonderDog
• Ability to run; my family – Ken

We left the tree up until nearly Christmas, so the following year we decided we’d do the same concept with a Christmas tree. Instead of leaves, we used construction paper ornaments. This was just as fun! More possibilities include making an Easter tree or a springtime meadow with flowers instead of leaves on a tree. Your family’s “thankfuls” could be written on snowflakes (though harder to cut out!) on dark paper for a wintery scene. There are nearly endless ideas for how you could do this from season to season! If you have a uniquely creative idea, share it in the comments so others can get inspired by it as well!

I’m eager to see what our family and friends will put on our Thankful Tree this year. As an added part of the tradition I may start jotting down all of the thankfuls on our tree in a notebook. Wouldn’t that be lovely to refer back to years from now?

If you decide to try this with your family this year, I’d love to hear how it goes, and I’d love to see photos of your Thankful Tree!

Jamie is a wife, homemaker, home educating mama, adoption advocate, and professional photographer. Her blended family includes three kids: one by birth, one by marriage, and one adopted as a teen. She tries never to venture too far from a steaming hot cup of tea. Visit with her at See Jamie Blog!