A fun filled 2014 is nearing the end. Our little family of five has a lot to be thankful for. We had an excellent year filled with fun, vacations, road trips, friends, and lots of laughs. As all kids do, my minis tend to get wrapped up in the whole Christmas commercialization. Halloween is over and instantly it's Christmas. They're young kids so it's completely understandable why they get so wrapped up in 'what's Santa bringing for Christmas???!!??"
As a mom who's favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, I try and try with all my might to get them to focus on the importance of Thanksgiving. This year we made a Wall of Thanks.
I went over with the minis what Thanksgiving was all about, some things I was thankful for, and why I was thankful for them. I then asked them to list out things they were thankful for. Some of them were beyond hilarious.
I don't expect my kids to jump for joy at the Thanksgiving season just yet. I love to see how excited they get for seeing Santa at the mall, singing Christmas carols, Christmas lights hanging from houses, and everything else that comes with the Christmas season. I do, however, expect as they get older they see the importance of being thankful for what they have and even for what they don't have. The Wall of Thanks was the best visual representation I could think of for my young minis to actually see all there is to be thankful for in their lives. So far, this has worked out great. The minis will walk by and read (or look at) the leaves on our Wall of Thanks and quickly think of more to be thankful for. My hope is that this wall will be full of leaves by the time Thanksgiving arrives!
Just when I think they are embracing Thanksgiving and everything we have to be thankful for, I hear "I'm thankful for Christmas and all of the presents Santa's going to bring me....right after we eat lots of turkey on Thanksgiving."
Want to create your own Wall of Thanks? Do an image search on Google of the image you'd like to use (we used leaf cut outs, but also considered using pumpkins or turkeys) and print it out. Have the kids color them. Write what each person is thankful for in the middle. We taped our's directly to the wall so they can be easily removed after the holiday (although I do plan on keeping these gems for the memory books). A Tree of Thanks is equally as easy to do: head to Michael's craft store for a small fake tree (these range in price from lower than $10 to over $50, depending upon size) and use string to tie your leaves.