I was chatting with my friend, Sarah, about being thankful, and she told me about this really cool thing they did last Advent in their family:
They each wrote a thank you note to every other member of the family. The notes were short and simple, thanking them for something specific.
The then folded the notes up and put the in a jar and took out one each day during Advent and read it out loud.
She said it was a fab way to express thanks and appreciation to each other, and to develop a habit of thinking about each other in that way.
My 10yo daughter heard this and said she’d like us to do it too, and I thought maybe other families would like to too!
So to help you, I’ve created a download with thank you note prompts, in case you need some help coming up with ideas.
There’s 10 on the sheet, so you need to print it three times to have 24 prompts for December 1-24th.
Obviously, you could do this in any month of the year – you just need to have enough prompts for one a day. For example, if you do this in October, print three copies of the prompt sheet and discard five of them to give you 31 prompts.
How to do it
1 Decide how many days you want to be able to read out thanks notes.
2 Cut up pieces of paper for thanks notes or print the Family Thanks sheet as many times as you need then cut that out.
3 Split the paper or prompts among your family, giving the same number to each person (if you end up with a few extra, some people will have extra!).
4 Go away and secretly write your thanks notes over a few days. Make sure to remind everyone to use the person’s name they are thanking in their note, and do at least one for each person in your family (apart from themselves!).
5 Get everyone to fold their notes up and put them in a jar / box / sweetie tin.
6 Decide a time of day to read one thanks note a day – breakfast or dinner might work.
7 Enjoy being affirmed, thanked and appreciated! Notice if this helps build a more appreciative, thankful spirit in your home.
Download your Family Thanks Note Prompts here