This game will help you to create a thanksgiving tradition with immediate and/or extended family as a reminder of the many blessings from the Lord. Make sure you have the following on hand:
- Construction paper in fall colors
- Scissors, pencils/crayons
- Small plant or small tree branches in a vase
- Optional: old magazines/glue sticks
How to play:
Follow these steps for a great experience…
- Place a small plant or arrangement as a centerpiece for your table.
- Cut leaf shapes out of the construction paper or trace/cut everyone’s hand to make a special leaf. Punch a hole in the paper and run ribbon through it. Place the papers in a basket with pencils/crayons.
- As each family member arrives for your Thanksgiving meal time together, ask them to write out what they are thankful for. Younger children can draw a picture or cut/paste something out of a magazine.
- Before you begin eating, place each of the leaves on the centerpiece “tree.”
- During the meal, take turns allowing everyone at the table to share what they wrote on their leaf.
- Read 1 Chronicles 29:13 together: “Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.”
- End your time together by asking the oldest person to thank God for His abundance and the many blessings He has given your family.
Optional: When the meal is over, take the thankful leaves and record the items of thanks that were written down in a Thankful Journal to update each Thanksgiving and review the prior years’ blessings together.
Optional: When you are finished, have any children draw on a poster a tree trunk, grass, flowers, etc. Take the leaves and attach them. Hang the poster during the next couple of weeks to remind you of the things you are thankful for.
© Inkling Innovations & Lydia Randall
