Across America we are entering the holiday season. Halloween, with its abundance of candy and costumes gives way to Thanksgiving, a day when we focus on givng thanks for our blessings. It is important to teach children the historical and spiritual meaning of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is rooted in religious and cultural traditions of thanking God for special blessings. The first Thanksgiving in the United States was celebrated by the settlers in 1621. The settlers suffered hard times but decided to set aside a day to thank God for their blessings. At the first Thanksgiving meal Elder William Brewster said a prayer thanking God for their homes, food, safety in a new land, the opportunity to create a new world, freedom and justice. The United States was the first country to make a national holiday to give thanks when George Washington proclaimed the first Thanksgiving in 1789.
Another part of the Thanksgiving holiday is experiencing and expressing gratitude. Feeling gratitude is an acknowledgement of the gifts that we have in our life. A sense of gratitude can be a balance to stressful events, giving a positive perspective to balance negative situations. Adults who are grateful report having fewer health problems more energy and a greater sense of well being. People who have a sense of gratitude are appreciative and compassionate as opposed to entitled. (Who wouldn’t want our children to have these feelings.)
Activities to help children to understand the meaning of Thanksgiving and develop a sense of gratitude include:
- Watching The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, available on www.youtube.com
- Having each family member make a list of things they are thankful for and sharing it with other members of the family. This should be done on a routine basis, not just on Thanksgiving.
- Role model saying thank you and please and writing thank you notes. Thanking others for kind acts in the presence of your children.
- Teaching children to write thank you notes for gifts as well as kind acts from others.
- Teaching children to say thank you to others for kind acts.
- Share the history of Thanksgiving with children. Check out children’s books from the library and read them together.
- Involve children in cooking the Thanksgiving meal and cleaning up after the meal.
- Have children send invitations to the Thanksgiving meal.
- Do something to assist a person in need: plan and implement it with your children.
- Establish or reinforce family traditions for the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Because the holiday traditionally celebrates the abundant harvest and having enough food, donate food to a local food bank. Visit the San Francisco and Marin Food Bank website for specifics of donating, http://www.sffoodbank.org/
- Set up a food fund drive at your church, office or school. The San Francisco and Marin Food Bank website has detailed information on how to do this http://www.sffoodbank.org/
Best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday.