Thanksgiving is almost here! A day full of family, friends, and delicious food makes this holiday a national celebration. Every year, just before Thanksgiving, adoptive families celebrate National Adoption Day. This day is celebrated to raise awareness of the children in foster care waiting to find loving and caring families. Thanksgiving is an opportune time to celebrate your adoptive family and to create some new traditions. It is an ideal time to discuss your many blessings and demonstrate gratitude to others. Adoption brings so much to be thankful for. We’ve prepared some fun Thanksgiving adoptive family activities you might consider bringing into your household.
- Share the history of the holiday.
If this is you child’s first Thanksgiving, you should share the history of the holiday. We all remember the stories about Thanksgiving taught us in elementary school, but your child may never hear them. Creative parents could even demonstrate the spirit of this holiday and create a Thanksgiving play with appropriate costumes. This way your child is going to remember the story for a long time.
- Donate to your favorite charity or volunteer as a family.
There are many ways you can help your child internalize the gift of gratitude. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to help those who don’t have a family so you can donate to your favorite adoption organization or charity and teach your child the importance of adoption. If your child is old enough, you can even volunteer to serve meals at a homeless shelter or help them to create a meal to share with a neighbor.
- Give thanks in your own way.
You can create some special activities to share what are you thankful for. Taking turns around the table to state what are you most grateful for is a part of Thanksgiving tradition, but you can show gratitude for many blessings more than once during this day. Place a leafless branch in a vase on your table and create a thankful tree. Cut out leaves from paper and have each guest write what are they thankful for on a leaf. Showing gratitude will help children learn about the true spirit of Thanksgiving.
- Express thanks in your decorations.
You can decorate your home with adoption sayings or memorable quotes about adoption and special pictures of your family. Decorate your home with words of thanks and try to find some interesting crafts project for the whole family.
- Read your adoption story book.
Share the special story of how your family came together and read your family’s adoption story book out loud.
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