Thankful Tree

With Thanksgiving being a little over a month away, I want to share a tradition my family started two years ago. It’s called a Thankful Tree.

Since Wade and I have been married, we have spent Thanksgiving with his family. Because we were not celebrating at home, I sometimes felt like we didn't have any anticipation leading up to the holiday. We enjoyed spending the time with his family, but we weren't doing anything at home that seemed “Thanksgiving-ly”.

Wanting to start some sort of tradition for us at home, I started looking around online for ideas. I had seen this idea of the “Thankful Tree” and liked it’s whole concept and decided to go with it.

The idea is to create some sort of bare “tree” that you will add “leaves” too throughout the month leading up to Thanksgiving. You write something you are thankful for on the leaves.

Here is our first one:

It screams "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!" just a bit, huh?
I used a white terracotta vase filled with
river rock to hold the branch in place.

Elizabeth and I cut leaves from patterned scrapbook paper and I hot-glued pieces of floral wire to each leaf to twist around the branches. Each family member had a specific pattern of paper so we knew whose was whose. I kept all the blank leaves in a basket by the tree.

Elizabeth and I went tromping through our woods and found a tall limb. The only mistake we made was wearing fleece pants. It took us longer to pick off all the seeds from the hitchhiker plants than to pick out and cut down our “tree.” We had over 200 seeds on our pants. Ha ha. (Lesson learned.)

I liked the look and idea of how we did it (back in 2012), but making those leaves were a bit of a pain. Plus, I was adamant that each leaf had to be wrapped tightly so they did not droop. Then when it was all said and done, I had to unwrap them to take them off because I couldn't throw them away. (Be forewarned of that – you’ll get sentimental and want to keep them.)

Starting on the first day of November we would do one each evening after dinner (unless it was a hectic evening and then we would make up for the day we missed). It almost became where no one wanted each other to see what they were writing – like it was a secret. lol However, throughout the month I would find all the family members walking in the dining room and reading what everyone else had written. Hee hee.

Here is how our tree turned out last year (2013):

The first tree pictured at the top is another view.

We put it in the kitchen because I found a branch that would fit in a corner. I liked having it where it was more accessible.

For your tree you can use a branch, a small bare tree, or even put some twigs in a vase. You can leave them the natural color or spray paint them white, gold, silver, purple, whatever. You don’t even have to do a “tree” at all. Make a garland or banner and attach them by tying the paper leaves on or with mini clothespins or tape. Use the fall leaves in the floral department instead of making your own. Buy a white tablecloth and use fabric markers to write on it each day giving every family member a different color marker. Or have a thankful jar or box and put the slips of paper inside. You could even attach leaves (or pumpkins or turkeys or feathers) to a wreath. See, there are lots of ways to take this idea and make it work for you.

One of Andrew's from last year. ♥

When we have company we even invite them to participate if they want. It makes for sweet memories – all of it. 

Can you tell this was a preacher boy visiting with us?
Check out that alliteration! :)

These memories from even guests are special.

As you can see below I used circle punches and hole punched them and added cord to hang them. I just piled them at the bottom of the tree. This galvanized bucket is from Walmart (under $13) and I held the tree straight with bricks then filled the rest of the bin with wadded newspaper and covered it with burlap. This year I plan on doing something different! ;)

If you are home for Thanksgiving Day, then that would be a great time to read them aloud around the table. You could also keep adding to the tree until the end of November. Hey, we have more than 27 things to be thankful for this year!

I wanted to share this to allow you time to put something together before November 1st arrives. Don't worry if you don't get it ready in time. Our first year we started on November 2nd. And like I said, sometimes we do two (or three) when we have to catch up from not doing one on the previous day.

The whole idea is to stop and think about how MUCH we have to be thankful for and to use those thoughts of gratitude to create some Thanksgiving décor.

We have been blessed!

What about you? Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions before the holiday? Does this look like something that would be good to start with your family?