The holiday season has begun and for some of us, our first reaction may likely be overwhelming panic! However, with just a few changes in your daily actions, your holiday season can be filled with peace instead of panic. One simple Thanksgiving tradition we have established for over a decade has helped change the way we experience the season.
We create a Thanksgiving tree each November, crafted the old-fashioned way using brown paper grocery bags to form the trunk and tree branches taped to the wall. I used to go to the store to purchase colored leaf cutouts, but then I started using whatever we had on hand, which turned out to be colorful post-its.
Everyone takes a minute at dinnertime to write down one thing they are grateful for on a post-it to attach to the Thanksgiving tree. Sometimes our days get crazy and we don’t always add to our tree every night. The beauty of our tradition is that we give ourselves a lot of grace and mercy when our lives get hectic and start fresh the next day by decorating our tree with gratitude post-its during breakfast time!
Our leaves contain a wide assortment of grateful sentiments such as coffee, a ride to class, a tax deduction, God’s patience, modern-day science, dessert, names of a particular person, family, the cat, a warm bed, and sleep. Sleep was a popular one with our teenagers! We had to start implementing the rule that we couldn’t repeat items already up on the tree, otherwise our tree would have been filled with leaves about sleep!
Our Thanksgiving tree has given us a simple and easy way to bring focus and connection into our busy lives during the holiday season, giving us time to purposefully notice the small things that bring us joy.
I love how just 20 seconds of gratitude can influence your whole day! We’ve discovered that taking the time for gratitude every day is a powerful tool for our health and resetting ourselves, especially during our hectic schedules.
Even if we’re two weeks late, we put up our Thanksgiving tree. I can’t remember a year we haven’t put up our tree, even if it’s up late. Some years we have lots of leaves and other years, it’s a skinner tree, but I’m always amazed at the little things my kids truly appreciate.
Our kids are older now, but they still ask for a Thanksgiving tree! Sometimes it’s the simple traditions that are the most meaningful and really stick with us over the years. Start your own simple tradition today and see how you can turn panic into peace this season.
Peace to you
Mary
P.S. Although I can’t remember if the tree came from this resource, my family celebrations were made rich from the book below. If you still have primary age children at home check it out!
Resources: Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions: Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations of Comfort & Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach
[…] part of my weekend reset to December I had to take down our Thanksgiving tree (see linked post). Normally I just rip it down. This time I took down the thanks one by one and […]