Gratitude is an important part of life, which is why Thanksgiving is such a special holiday. Practicing active gratitude during Thanksgiving and throughout the year can help you and those around you feel happy and appreciated.
If you’re looking for ways to express gratitude and help others do the same this Thanksgiving, experimenting with fall decor could be a great place to start. Active gratitude is all about doing things intentionally to think about the good in life. Decorating your home with interactive holiday decorations can give you and those around you a chance to embrace intentional thankfulness.
Check out these ideas for gratitude-inspired DIY Thanksgiving decorations you can implement in your home.
Why give thanks only on Thanksgiving when you can give gratitude all season long? There’s something to be grateful for every day, so turn your family calendar into a gratitude calendar. For the month of November, you can fill the calendar with daily prompts that remind viewers to give thanks for something specific or call to mind a source of gratitude.
To boost the interactivity, ask family and friends to each add a gratitude idea to the calendar at the start of the month. Any paper or dry-erase calendar will work. You can use creative indoor lighting techniques to draw attention to the calendar.
A Thanksgiving chalkboard is another excellent interactive gratitude decoration. Buy chalkboard paper and create placemats or a runner on your table, or place a chalkboard in part of your home and hand out chalk. Encourage everyone who visits you to list what they are thankful for and be sure to contribute your own gratitude ideas each day. Remember to chalk with fall colors as part of your Thanksgiving decor!
A thank-you tree is a crafty interactive decoration that can fill folks with gratitude as the leaves fall. All you need is a vase, artificial twigs, yarn, a hole puncher, scissors, and red, yellow and orange ribbon.
Place a bare branch or group of branches in a vase. Each day or each week, attach a pretty tag to a branch, using a ribbon to hang each tag. This tag should contain a written note about something you’re grateful for. You can also buy a larger branch and attach thank you notes to each branch with a ribbon.
You can extend the joy you experience from giving and receiving holiday cards by displaying them on a gratitude card station. On a coffee table or side table, gather a group of thank-you notes, postcards and holiday cards. Each day, write a note to someone you’re thankful for. Tell them exactly why you’re grateful to have them in your life and send the card that same day. Keep a stack of stamps nearby so it’s easy to grab a card on your way out the door.
A gratitude jar is an idea similar to the gratitude tree. This time, you and those around you can write notes of gratitude or inspiration onto small slips of paper. Slide the slips into a mason jar at the start of the month and place it somewhere where people can pick one out every day of November or during your Thanksgiving celebration.
Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday for crafts, so why not spend some time with the kids in your family and create a memorable project you can keep forever? Grab a few sturdy pieces of paper and some fall-themed colored pencils, and trace each kid’s hands on the paper. Above the handprints, you can have them jot down the thing they’re most thankful for this year. Date the papers, and you have great keepsakes to look back on or hang up for the holiday.
If you’re gathering with friends and family before the holiday, take some time to create a gratefulness chain you can display on the day of the celebration. This is a memorable decoration you can keep for next year, or you can turn this project into a tradition and create a new keepsake every Thanksgiving. This way, you can look back on last year’s chain and see the different things people have written down.
This project is simple — choose a few different colors of construction paper and cut them into decent-sized strips with enough room for some writing. Provide each friend or family member with a permanent marker. Then, give them each a few strips of paper and have them write down what they’re grateful for.
Once you’ve collected the completed strips of paper, loop them around one another — taping or stapling the papers to close the gaps — and you’ll have a beautiful gratefulness chain you can display around the house.
Autumn is a beautiful time of the year to get out and about in nature. If you’re interested in a more unique crafting project this Thanksgiving, try creating gratefulness rocks. Collect smooth rocks on your daily walks, and then have friends and family decorate them with paint or paint markers. They can write one word for what they’re thankful for — like “family,” “home” or “fun” — and then add designs as they please. Display the dried rocks in a shallow bowl, or use them as place settings during Thanksgiving dinner.
Gratitude-inspired holiday decorations are great for you and your guests, and they can also spark positivity throughout the community. When it comes to gratitude, the more, the merrier — imagine living in a community full off people showing gratitude inside and out.
You can find spacious, inviting homes through Triple Crown Corporation. We manage neighborly apartment and townhome communities throughout Central Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland. We invite you to explore our rental communities so that you can join us in embracing gratitude each Thanksgiving season.
