Go Ask Mom

4 ways for families to express gratitude during this unusual holiday season

Gratitude for everything we have and can still do is the best way to combat any "holiday blues."

Posted Updated
Thankful, Thanksgiving, grateful
By
Azure Cutter
and
Miel Binford

This holiday season is going to look different for most of us. As adults, we are trying to manage our disappointment and difficulty adjusting to the change.

Our children, however, will also feel this change. The best way that we can help them is to acknowledge that some things may be different this year and we may miss some things, but we can still have a wonderful season. Emphasizing all that we have to be grateful for can help. Gratitude for everything we have and can still do is the best way to combat any “holiday blues."

Here are four ideas to foster connection, increase gratitude, and add some fun to your holiday season.

Gratitude Chain: With your child, think of a person (or people) you love and miss. Cut a pice of paper into strips. Write something that you are thankful to that person for on each strip. Form the first strip into a circle and staple it. Then loop the next strip through and staple into a circle. Continue in that pattern until you have used all the strips. Mail or take the chain to the person, and they can remove one strip a day and read it!
Gratitude Game: Figure out a cue to take the time to share something that you are grateful for out loud every day. Suggestions: before a meal, before you leave the house (put a reminder on the door handle), while you brush your teeth (put a reminder on the mirror), at stop lights or signs while you are driving.
Virtual Gratitude Circle: Get together with family or friends on Zoom or Google hangouts or FaceTime and go around just like you would at the Thanksgiving table. Each person saying one thing you are grateful for.
Thank You Game: Spend an entire day with you and your children thanking everything and everyone you come into contact with. For example, at a meal say, “Thank you spoon, thank you bowl, thank you cereal, thank you milk, thank you table, thank you chair" and so on. It’s silly, but it will remind you of everything that you have to be thankful for!
Azure and Miel are local moms, occupational therapists and authors of Pandemic Play, which offers ways to keep kids safe and socialized during the pandemic. It includes a new expansion of 10 more indoor activities that will be released on Black Friday.

 Credits 

Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.