With Black Friday sales starting earlier and earlier every year, the spirit of Thanksgiving seems to be getting lost amongst the shopping bags. Below are some unique ideas to put the focus back on giving thanks and making the Thanksgiving dinner even more special for your family.
Bring the gratitude of Thanksgiving dinner to each family meal for the month of November.
Every night when your family eats dinner, go around the table and share one thing you are grateful for. Too busy to sit down for dinner together? Hang a chalkboard
Making personalized placemats to use at Thanksgiving dinner is a great way to get the kids involved and add a little something special to the table décor.
Use construction paper to design and color individualized placemats for guests. These can include finger paintings, acrostic poems using the person’s name or a simple drawing of a turkey. You could also include one reason your kids are thankful for that person. Then laminate them. Not only will you have custom-made placemats, but your guests can take them home—grandparents will especially love this!
Ask your kids to help plan the Thanksgiving menu.
You can teach them how to make a family recipe or a delicious new dish you’d like to try out. There are tons of Thanksgiving recipes for beginning to experienced cooks. Check out our list of Thanksgiving side dishes and Thanksgiving desserts for people who can’t cook!
Start a new family tradition of charity.
This is the time of year we should be giving thanks for what we have, but many of us are often busy compiling a list of presents for the upcoming holidays. Share an experience with your family that reminds them how lucky they are to have each other. Clean out your closets and donate clothes to a local thrift shop or shelter. Take your kids to the toy store to pick out a gift for donation to Toys for Tots. Volunteer at a food pantry on the weekends or donate to Feeding America.
Host a Thanksgiving food scavenger hunt party for your kids and their friends.
Divide kids into even teams and ask an adult to chaperone each group. Contact the local food pantry and ask about the most needed, non-perishable items for Thanksgiving dinner. Give the list of items to each team to use as a scavenger hunt worksheet. The team that collects all the items on the list the quickest wins!
