Thanksgiving Ideas for All Ages

Thinking about Thanksgiving? Wondering about ways to worship with all ages? Hoping to encourage an attitude of gratitude that lingers long after the service ends? Check out one of the things for which I’m thankful — the Worshipping with Children blog. Author Carolyn Brown regularly updates it with excellent ideas for including children in worship and she recently posted a series of ideas for Thanksgiving. Three of my favorites from the list:

• Learning to say “thank you” in several different languages and then ending a time of prayer by saying each one.  
• A Youtube link to an intergenerational, multicultural video featuring people expressing thankfulness.
• A worship art project in which each person is given a small empty notebook and colored pens or pencils in which they are invited to add drawings or words about the things for which they are thankful. Brown suggests that worshipers be invited “to add to it as they sing and pray their ways through the service.” Everyone can bring the books home and continue to add to them in the days following Thanksgiving. Who knows? Such gratitude journals might become habit forming!

Visit her post for many more ideas, including song suggestions, visual word sheets for songs, children’s books and more. Share some of your own great ideas below!