Well here we are, just days before Thanksgiving and I would be lying if I said I really wasn’t itching to get our Christmas tree up over here.  I mean, stores had their Christmas decorations out almost immediately once back to school ended and now that Halloween has passed, I feel like Fall and Thanksgiving are an afterthought.

I know they aren’t really an afterthought.  And I’ve actually been a wrestling a little over whether starting to decorate for Christmas early means I’m rushing past it, too.  In fact, it really is just now actually cooling down in North Carolina.  Leaves are finally falling, and we’re trying to squeeze out the very last bit of Fall that’s left.

Even so.  While I haven’t started taking down any Fall things yet, I know I want to have time to decorate for Christmas before the season gets here so that I can fully enjoy it while it’s here.

It always goes by too quickly.

Don’t worry though.  I know that Thanksgiving is still a real thing and we are celebrating it over here in our house (even though their might be a Christmas tree in the living room by the time it gets here).

In fact, we’re hosting it at our house for Hub’s side of the family for the first time this year, so that’s a big deal.

Today, though, I wanted to share a new tradition that we’ve sarted this year leading up to Thanksgiving that we have been enjoying – a Thanksgiving paper chain.

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Create a Family Thanksgiving Paper Chain

The inspiration for our gratitude paper chain is actually from my friend Shani over at Sunshine and Munchkins who shared her family’s thanksgiving tree last year (you can read her post here).

I knew I wanted to do something this year to lead up to Thanksgiving with the boys and something that we could all do as a family.

For Little’s birthday this year, we made a paper chain countdown that he absolutely loved, so I thought it would be fun to do another for Thanksgiving.

If you’ve got little ones at home, a thanksgiving paper chain is a really fun way to teach them about being thankful – even for the little things in our everyday lives.

Supplies

• Construction Paper
  • We used “fall colors”: red, orange, yellow, and green, but you can use any colors you want.
• Paper cutter
• Pen/Pencil/Marker for writing
• Glue stick

How to Create a Thanksgiving Paper Chain

• Using a paper cutter, cut paper into strips.
  • You’ll want one strip for each family member for each day of November leading up to Thanksgiving.  We let the Littlest skip out on the fun this year, so we needed 3 strips for each day or 66 strips for our family.
  • I was able to cut 12 strips from each sheet of construction paper, but you will be able to do more or less depending how wide you choose to cut your strips.
• Each day, have each person in your family name something they are thankful for and write it on a strip of paper.
• Use the glue stick to glue the ends to create a new “link” with each strip of paper.
• Display the paper chain in a prominent place in your home as a reminder that THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR.

Do you have any fun Thanksgiving traditions?  How do you teach your kids to be thankful?

Be sure to also check out our 30 Day Gratitude Challenge – which is another really fun way to engage in practicing thanksgiving with your whole family!

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