Thanksgiving traditions often focus on delicious food and the family that comes together to enjoy it. Maybe you have a special casserole or favorite side dish that everyone looks forward to each year or you like to stuff yourself with turkey and take a nap.
No matter what your family traditions are, we are bringing you five more Thanksgiving traditions that you will want to start right away.
Make a Thanksgiving scrapbook. Get an empty scrapbook and paste a picture of your family on the first page. Each family member will write one thing that they are thankful for around the picture and sign it with their name. Each year, add a new picture and list new blessings around it. In the future you will have so much fun looking back at how your family has grown and remember how you have been blessed year after year.
Create a blessings tablecloth to use each year. Purchase a heavy duty table cloth and place it on your Thanksgiving table. Sometime during or after your dinner, distribute sharpies and have everyone in attendance sign their name, the year, and share one thing that they are thankful for. You will need to use sharpies or cloth pens so that your blessings don’t wash away when you wash the tablecloth, but make sure that they don’t bleed through onto your table. Reuse the tablecloth each year as a reminder of how you have been blessed.
Take a walk together after dinner. After the big meal, you’ll probably be tired and tempted to crash and take a nap. Why not mix it up by taking a family walk together? Let the cool breeze and conversation help you relax and digest that big meal you just ate. While you walk, catch up on life or share what you are thankful for.
Have a family football game. For many families, football is a big part of Thanksgiving. Instead of just watching the big game this year, why not have your own family football game? Pick teams, show off your skills, and have fun teaching the younger generation how to have a friendly football game. If football isn’t your thing, you could always have a card game tournament instead.
Remember loved ones who have passed away. Thanksgiving is a great time to remember all the people that have been a part of your life. Remember and celebrate deceased loved ones by leaving a place set for them at the table. Before you eat, have someone give a toast in their honor or share a favorite story. You could also watch old home videos or flip through photo albums.
Which Thanksgiving tradition do you look forward to starting this year?
A Thanksgiving scrapbook is an amazing idea! What a great way to preserve all of those wonderful memories!
I love the idea of the blessing cloth! That is definitely one I would love to do. I may start that tradition this year because I really want something for my kiddo to hold onto as a family heirloom.
I love the idea of that Thanksgiving Scrapbook. It would be a great family scrapbook idea in general.
I thought this was such a fun idea too! Hope your holidays are beautiful.
This is so good! I never thought of beginning new Thanksgiving traditions. We talk about the grossest videos that we can find on YouTube, then, play board games with one dice. These sound much better though!
I love, love, love the idea of a Thanksgiving scrapbook. You can look at it in years to come and read what your family had written in it!
I like the idea of Thanksgiving scrapbook and blessing tablecloth. This will give more beautiful memories that you can look back after a few years.
Wow!! I really like the Thanksgiving scrapbook idea. It will give more unforgettable and memorable memories that we can look back after a month or years.
I love the idea of a family walk. First it gets everyone away from the food, second it gives everyone some exercise and quality time to talk. Great idea and thanks for sharing this tips
I love making our own new traditions. These are great ones to add to Thanksgiving to make the day a little more special. I love the idea of the blessing tablecloth!
These traditions do such a good job of honoring the past and celebrating the moment!
These are beautiful traditions, I want to start doing the blessings tablecloth this year.
I love the idea of taking a walk after dinner. That is a great way to say Happy Thanksgiving to your neighbors too.
I think these are all wonderful ideas. Our family usually watches the football games, but not always. The superbowl is always one we watch together though no matter what teams are playing.
We are spending thanksgiving to New York City and visit relatives as well. We would love to go for a walk after the full thanksgiving dinner hopefully the weather is nice up there.
It looks like we are going to be in NYC for Thanksgiving as well. Have a wonderful time.
These are great ideas for starting your own Thanksgiving Traditions! My family always eats way too much and then watches football!! SO MUCH FUN!!
Hello Danielle, I love the idea of the blessings tablecloth and it’s my favorite. It’s so nice to have traditions for Thanksgiving! Thanks for sharing this at Cooking and Crafting with J & J. Have a nice week, weekend and Thanksgiving.
Julie xo
It’s long been a tradition in my family to take a walk after dinner. I love it every year and can’t wait.
Thanksgiving is a holiday that gets under appreciated. I remember growing up Black Friday didn’t start until Friday. There was no deals online either. Instead, it was focused on family and fellowship. These traditions are perfect for me and my family.
I love starting traditions with the people that I love, especially during the Holidays! I think these are lovely suggestions for families.
I like the scrapbook idea, especially because I’m always taking pictures anyway. This will be great to look back on in a few years.
All are excellent ideas but I loved the scrapbook idea and this I will start a tradition as of this year. Really liked the taking a walk idea as well. Thank you for sharing.
Carolyn
Great ideas! Love the thankful tablecloth and the walk after the feast! Gotta make room for pie, right?! Visiting from Little Bird Told Me party.
I love the idea of the blessing tablecloth. We had ones for our birthdays that each year friends signed and my Grandmother did embroidery on
Love the idea of the blessings table runner. I started a runner with my girls’ handprints made into turkeys, but gave up after a few years. This is something I could maintain a little easier, and they’d love to make!
I love these Thanksgiving traditions! We celebrated Thanksgiving back in October (Canada) and one thing we did this year is enjoying some fun with the leaves while grandma watched on.
Weather permitting, we take the walk. Somehow it helps us rationalize more pie! It does feel good to get out and breath some fresh air, and then you come back in and smell all the delicousness and collapse on the sofa:)
These are all really great traditions. The only one we have is the walk and we were so stuffed we couldn’t do that till the next day.