How does your family give thanks?

For my family, we have inherited a few family traditions around giving thanks. I would like to share one of these ways with you. It is called the “Gratitude Jar.”

We have designated a jar, the Gratitude Jar, and throughout the year, as life happens and there are moments we are thankful for, we write a note and place it into the jar. The only person who knows what is on the note is the person who wrote it. In order to make this process festive, we use colorful pens and special paper to enhance the experience. Then we pick a day during the holiday season, a few good ones are Thanksgiving Day, Christmas day, or New Year’s Day, to gather in a circle around the jar and read the notes as a family.

It is nice to hear what each person is thankful for during the year. And more often than not, we are surprised by what made it into the jar, and the different things or moments that have impacted us, and now we get to share that moment all over again as a family.

In my family that has been a wonderful practice of gratitude, but it is only one way there are many ways you can choose to show gratitude as a family.

Do you have a special way you show gratitude as a family? I’d love to hear about it.