Best Thanksgiving Thankful Tree Tradition Ideas

Give thanks this Thanksgiving, and cultivate an attitude of gratitude in the home, office, or classroom with the thankful tree tradition.

There are many different types of thankful tree ideas that can be used for this fun Thanksgiving tradition. The one thing that each Thanksgiving gratitude tree has in common, is that they serve as a reminder of everything that we have to be grateful for.

Give thanks this year with a Thanksgiving thankful tree craft. Use any of these easy gratitude tree craft ideas, or, gather inspiration to create your own DIY thankful tree for Thanksgiving.

Invite friends and family to share what they are most thankful for with these Thanksgiving tree ideas, that double as gorgeous fall home decor ideas!

Related: 20 Thanksgiving Traditions and Fun Things to do for Thanksgiving

Related: Four Seasons Handprint and Fingerprint Tree

Thankful Tree Thanksgiving Tradition

Give thanks, and cultivate an attitude of gratitude in the home, office, or classroom, during the holidays with the Thanksgiving thankful tree tradition.

Learn all about Thanksgiving trees, and, how to design your own Thanksgiving gratitude tree with these fun Thanksgiving ideas.

Related: Thanksgiving Gratitude Activities and Crafts

What is a Thankful Tree?

A Thanksgiving thankful tree can be used as a Thanksgiving advent, as a centerpiece, wall decor, and more.

Simply invite family and friends to write what they are most thankful for on a gratitude ornament, and place it on the tree to decorate it.

There are many ways to create a thankful tree and many items that can be used as gratitude ornaments; real leaves, clay gratitude leaves, leaf-shaped paper leaves, scratch art leaves, and more!

Making and decorating a gratitude tree is a fun Thanksgiving tradition that the whole family can enjoy.

As a bonus, gratitude trees make lovely autumn DIY home decor and make a meaningful centerpiece for the Thanksgiving table.

How to Use a Thankful Tree as a Thanksgiving Advent

If you would like to use your thankful tree as a Thanksgiving advent, put your gratitude tree craft up before Thanksgiving.

Write down what you are most thankful for onto one gratitude ornament each day, and hang it on your thankful tree. Invite your friends and family to join you!

How to Use a Thankful Tree an Interactive Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Make and decorate a thankful tree to cultivate an attitude of gratitude at the Thanksgiving table this year.

Invite dinner guests to write what they are most grateful for on thankful ornaments, and, decorate the thankful tree as they wait for Thanksgiving dinner to be served.

Use a gratitude tree as a conversation starter, and, a way to honor the true spirit of Thanksgiving. To give thanks for an abundant harvest and all of life’s blessings!

Related: Gratitude Books for Children that Inspire Thankfulness

Thankful tree with real fall leaves

Best Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree Ideas

The thankful tree tradition is a Thanksgiving craft and gratitude activity the whole family can enjoy.

Try this new Thanksgiving tradition this year with any of these creative Thanksgiving decor ideas. There are many ways to design and use a thankful tree craft for Thanksgiving.

Below you will find a few of our favorite examples, from creative and crafty, to kid-made. You can even make a thankful tree with real fall leaves!

Learn how to make a DIY thankful tree with any of these fun Thanksgiving ideas!

1.  Thankful Tree for Thanksgiving with Clay Gratitude Leaves

This thankful tree is made with bare branches and marbled clay gratitude leaves.

When we are grateful for what we have, we will be given more of what we are grateful for. Creating and decorating a tree with hand stamped marbled clay autumn leaves is a gratitude craft and activity that kids and adults can enjoy together. (Thankful tree with gratitude leaves.)

2.  Thanksgiving Thankful Trees Made with Real Fall Leaves

This thankful tree for Thanksgiving is made with real preserved fall leaves. Paper leaves can also be used to make this tree decor.

These great paint pens make it easy to write what you are grateful for on each leaf before attaching it to your thankful tree.

Creating and decorating a thankful tree with real autumn leaves is a gratitude craft and activity that both kids and adults will enjoy. Invite friends and family to write what they are most grateful for on preserved fall leaves and then place on them on the tree to decorate it. (How to make a thankful tree with real leaves.)

I Am Thankful Tree with Turkey Leaf Lanterns

3.  Thankful Trees for Thanksgiving with Chalk Ornaments | Simply Vintage Girl

Here’s a gorgeous thankful tree craft made with bare branches and wood pieces with chalkboard paint.

…it is beautiful to see people give thanks, counting how many ways God has blessed them. And for each and everyone of us living and breathing, that list is unending.

One way we display reminders to cultivate a thankful heart is with a thankful tree. This year instead of scrapbook paper we are using wooden chalkboard tags.(source)

4.  Make a Thankful Tree for Your Celebration Centerpiece | Lia Griffith

This gratitude tree uses willow branches painted gold and a free printable leaf pattern. You can also use a Thankful tree display for this fall home decor project.

For your Thanksgiving centerpiece this year, why not make it an interactive arrangement? That’s right, a Thankful Tree with leaves leaves printed, trimmed and ready for your guests to share their gratitude. Once they have added their sentiment they simply tie their leaf or leaves onto the centerpiece branches. (source)

5. Thankful Tree Thanksgiving Tradition

Here’s a simple thankful tree made with paper leaves and willow branches. Simple and lovely fall home decor filled with gratitude.

Give thanks in a new way this holiday season. Invite friends and family to share what they are most thankful for by creating a thankful tree that can take center stage throughout the Thanksgiving holiday. (source)

6.  Thankful Tree Printable | Craftionary

Here’s a thankful tree printable with paper leaves. This Thanksgiving tree includes a “Give Thanks” printable. You can also use this thankful tree poster pack!

A thanksgiving craft for family and kids to give thanks. This is a very easy project and involves only a few colorful papers and a pen. And you can start writing and displaying what you are thankful for! (source)

7.  How to Make a Thankful Tree | The Happy Housewife

Use bare branches with lights and paper maple leaves cut using a large paper punch to make this easy DIY fall decor.

There is so much to be thankful for, and there is something about writing it down and looking at it every day that makes it that much more real. Not to mention the cuteness it brings to the room! I love the idea of keeping our leaves from each year in a little box so we can look back at different years, remembering what we were thankful for at that time. Source

8.  Thanksgiving Thankful Tree Tutorial | One Creative Mommy

A thankful tree that uses brown packing paper for the tree and paper maple leaves. Another fun idea is to use a Thanksgiving door kit!

For the last few years, we’ve spent Thanksgiving morning writing things we’re thankful for on simple Fall shapes. This year, I decided to turn it into a month-long tradition. Instead of listing what we’re thankful for all at once, we’ll add them to our tree all month long! (source)

9.  Our November Thankful Tree | Simply Rebekah

This tree uses brown paper for the tree and laminated construction paper for the leaves. You can also use a large tree wall decal with leaf-shaped sticky notes!

Everyday in November, ask your kids what they are thankful for.  Write it on a leaf. Place the leaf on the branches at the top of the tree. At the end of the month you’ll have a tree full of thankful thoughts! (source)

10.  How to Make a Thankful Tree for Thanksgiving | Our Goodwin Journey

This simple wall tree uses construction paper to create a gratitude tree. Trace handprint to make gratitude leaves to write upon.

You can also use a thankful tree poster pack or this bulletin board tree with animals with handprints made out of construction paper!

I wanted our girls to have a way to express the things they are thankful for… BIG and small. Fun things. Silly things. Real things. (source)

Related: Fall Books for Children

The Best Thankful Tree Kits

If you don’t feel like making your own thankful tree craft, you can purchase one of these thankful tree kits instead! If you click to purchase, Rhythms of Play will earn a small commission at no cost to you.

A few of the thankful tree ideas below come complete with everything you need, while others you can use in combination with any of the ideas above or the thankful tree ornament ideas below.

You may also like Rhythms of Play’s FREE I am Grateful Gratitude Worksheet for Kids and Adults!

• Thanksgiving Tree Craft Kit
• Tree of Thanks Craft Kit
• Easy Thanksgiving Thankful Craft Kit
• Tree of Thanks Craft Kit
• Felt Tree of Thanks Craft Kit
• Standing Tree of Thanks Kit
• Felt Thankful Tree Kit
• Fall Thanksgiving Party Thanksgiving Door Kit

Readymade Thankful or Gratitude Tree Options

If you don’t want to make your own gratitude tree, try any of the thankful ideas below!

• Thankful Tree Photo Display
• Artbox Large Black Tree Wall Decal
• Bulletin Board Tree with Animals
• Bare Branch Tree with Lights

Thankful and Gratitude Tree Ornament Ideas

Use any of these easy thankful ornaments for your thankful tree this year! If you need help coming up with words of gratitude to write on your leaves, try these gratitude prompts.

• Clay Gratitude Leaves Craft
• Scratch Art Thankful Leaves
• Colorful Magic Color Scratch Fall Leaves
• Wood Slice Ornaments
• Fall Sticky Note Leaves
• Colorful Sticky Note Leaves
• Paper fall leaf Ornaments
• Colorful Magic Scratch Leaves for Thanksgiving
• Preserved Fall Leaves

Related: Fall Leaf Art with Free Printable Templates

Give Thanks this Thanksgiving with the Thankful Tree Tradition

Remind your family and friends about the true meaning of Thanksgiving with a thankful tree. Try this new Thanksgiving tradition in your home, office or classroom this year.

Create a thankful tree for a Thanksgiving advent or Centerpiece for your guests to decorate. They are also a wonderful addition to a fall nature table.

Use any of these easy Thanksgiving tree ideas or be inspired to create your own thankful tree tradition!

You may also enjoy 20 Thanksgiving traditions and fun things to do for Thanksgiving.

More DIY Bare Branch Tree Ideas

My daughter loves to decorate trees so we make one every season. We decorate an Easter tree in the spring, a butterfly tree in the summer, a thankful tree in the autumn, and of course a Christmas tree in the Winter filled with handmade ornaments.

Making and decorating seasonal trees is an activity the whole family can enjoy. You may also like our fall bucket list of fun fall activities.

Learn more about Rhythms of Play HERE!

Related: Fun Gratitude Activities

More Fun Thanksgiving Ideas

• Turkey Leaf Lanterns
• 40 Thanksgiving Gratitude Activities and Crafts
• Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
• I am Grateful Gratitude Journal Printable
• Gratitude Journal Prompts Printable
• Thanksgiving Gratitude Activities
• Turkey Craft Ideas
• Thanksgiving Traditions and Fun Things to Do