Family Thankful Jar: A Simple Thanksgiving Gratitude Tradition

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November is the perfect time to slow down and notice all of the good things in our lives. One of my favorite ways to help kids practice gratitude is with a simple family Thankful Jar.

A Thankful Jar is an easy Thanksgiving activity that you can use throughout the entire month of November. Each day, family members write down something they are thankful for and add it to the jar. By Thanksgiving, you’ll have a collection of little reminders of the people, experiences, and everyday blessings that make life good.

And one of the best parts? This Thanksgiving gratitude activity takes just a few minutes to make and uses supplies you probably already have at home.

What Is a Thankful Jar?

A Thankful Jar, sometimes called a gratitude jar, is simply a container filled with notes about things you’re thankful for.

The idea is simple: Set the jar somewhere your family will see it regularly and add one note each day. On Thanksgiving Day—or anytime at the end of November—open the jar and read your notes together.

It’s a simple tradition, but I’ve found that the things kids write can be surprisingly sweet, funny, and meaningful.

Before we made our Thankful Jar, we had a Thankful Wall one year. I hung up a large sheet of butcher paper and we added things we were thankful for throughout the month.

The next year, we decided to contain all those little thoughts in a jar instead, and our family Thankful Jar was born!

Why Practice Gratitude With Kids?

Gratitude is an important quality to help children develop, and Thanksgiving gives us a natural opportunity to practice it.

Kids will often immediately think of their favorite toys or possessions when you ask what they’re thankful for—and that’s okay! But as you continue the activity, you can encourage them to look a little deeper.

They might begin noticing:

• People who help and care for them
• Things their bodies allow them to do
• Favorite family memories
• Beautiful things in nature
• Opportunities to learn
• Acts of kindness they’ve received
• Things that make them laugh
• Everyday comforts they normally overlook

Practicing gratitude doesn’t mean pretending that everything is perfect. It simply helps us become better at noticing the good things that are already present in our lives.

If you want to explore gratitude in a few different ways, try my Gratitude Game or use my printable Gratitude Journalwith your kids, too.

How to Make a Family Thankful Jar

This is about as easy as Thanksgiving crafts get!

Supplies:

You’ll need:

• A jar or other container
• Construction paper in fall colors
• Scissors
• Tape or glue
• A pen or pencil
• Small pieces of paper for writing your thankful thoughts

We decorated our jar by wrapping construction paper around it and taping it in place. Then we added a few colorful paper leaves to the outside.

You can make your jar as simple or elaborate as you’d like. Decorate it with real or paper leaves, ribbon, twine, stickers, or anything else you have on hand.

Next, cut out a collection of small paper leaves to use for your gratitude notes. Fall-colored construction paper works perfectly for these.

Keep the leaves and a pen or pencil next to the jar so it’s easy for everyone to participate.

How We Use Our Thankful Jar

We keep our Thankful Jar somewhere we will see it every day.

Each morning while we eat breakfast together, everyone writes down one thing they are thankful for and puts it into the jar.

That’s it!

It only takes a minute or two, which makes this one of those family traditions that’s actually realistic to keep doing throughout the month.

And I love seeing what my kids come up with.

Some of their answers are thoughtful. Some are sweet. And some make me laugh.

One year, one of my kids wrote “Care Bear pajamas.”

Honestly, I love those answers just as much as the profound ones. They capture such a fun little snapshot of who our kids are at that moment in their lives.

At Thanksgiving—or sometime near the end of November—we open the jar and read everything together.