Haven’t heard of that one? If you are familiar with the 12 Days of Christmas, you’ll know those 12 days technically begin on Christmas and go into the new year (although most are quite annoyed by the song well before the actual gift-giving period begins). The 12 Days of Thanksgiving function in the same way. You can start your 12 days on Thanksgiving and continue through the end of the first week of December of thereabouts. The game is quite simple, but you may need some tips and tricks along the way.
On Thanksgiving, maybe at the dinner table, ask everyone to share one thing for which they are thankful. No problem. This may already be a part of your family tradition. Leave it at that and have a second helping of something. That’s a tradition too.
But on the day after Thanksgiving, break out the exercise again. This time I suggest starting with a sheet of paper. Have your students write down what they were thankful for yesterday and challenge them to add two additional items for a total of three things on their “grateful for” list. You could post them to the refrigerator. May I also suggest that you start your own private list for later use?
Now it’s Saturday. The third day of The 12 Days of Thanksgiving. This may be the day they catch on so you may as well go ahead and let the cat out of the bag. Introduce The 12 Days of Thanksgiving. Congratulate everyone for successfully creating their list of 3 items already and add the challenge of adding 3 additional items to their list for a total of 6. Likely the brains will still be on cruise mode and it’s ok if they are knocking out some standard stuff here like food and a home, friends and pets.
Sunday gives you a chance to create a top 10. With 6 on the list and day four on the calendar, it’s a good way to set the challenge. Ask everyone to look at their list and see if anything is missing from the top 10 things they are most thankful for these days. Again, kudos to everyone. That’s a pretty good list.
It’s now the 5th day of Thanksgiving. The challenge of the activity will become real, but still a list of 15 is not unreasonable. Let the ideas flow freely as you encourage and praise the efforts. If they get stuck, ask them to consider good advice or opportunities they are thankful to have received.
On the 6th day of Thanksgiving consider focusing on some of those things we don’t always feel so grateful for but are essential to a life of purpose. School may not have made the list of 15 but it should. One might add extra-curricular activities, chores, jobs, even discipline.
On the 7th day of Thanksgiving focus go ahead and break out that list you have been working on privately. Share your list with them. There are likely lots of similarities, but I suspect you’ve come up with some things they have not and those will serve as good food for thought as they try to grow their list to 28.
It’s the 8th day of Thanksgiving. Here’s a good opportunity to identify a whole category your kids may be missing. Having done similar exercises in the past, people often fail to recognize themselves – things like our senses, organs or their limbs. Not everyone has the ability to walk or see. Not everyone has both kidneys or a normally functioning immune system. Certainly, one of the key points of the 12 days of Thanksgiving is to recognize the extensive list of things we should be appreciating on a more regular basis.
On the 9th day of Thanksgiving turn everyone’s attention to people whom you may not have listed. Could be your kids have been focused elsewhere and going through family tree will quickly add to the list. There are plenty of folks in our communities to be thankful for from police officers to the guy stocking the shelves at the grocery to the plumber who bails us out from time to time (sometimes literally). I’m thankful the garbage truck comes by every Friday. Without the leadership of representatives or organizations, we might be without some things we take for granted.
On the 10th day of Thanksgiving the effort is undoubtedly getting more challenging. While people are fresh on the mind, consider things others do for us. Mom or dad makes dinner is an easy one, but there are plenty of ways other people serve us in meaningful, even essential ways. That list could quickly grow to 10 and bring your total list to 55.
It’s the 11th day of Thanksgiving. You’ve either created an endurance race at this point or you have awakened some clarity on the extensive list of things we have in our lives we should be appreciating on a more regular basis. Either way there’s still 23 slots to fill. Turn to the natural world today. The balance of the ecosystem, even the solar system makes the most simple aspects of our life possible. Be thankful for fall color, silhouetted mountains, sunrises, bees, your vegetable garden, tides and rain.
On the 12th day of Thanksgiving you’ll end up completing a list of 78 things you are thankful for and that is probably worth some kind of celebration. Make it a team effort to finish up by sharing from your lists or brainstorming together then have a party or go out for a small treat. Bring in a family member who hasn’t been participating to get their perspective and impress them with your work. If all else fails, you could think about memories they are thankful to have made. Hey, the ability to celebrate is another thing to be thankful for. Maybe we should do the 13 days of Thanksgiving…
You may have better ideas for categories and you can certainly switch them around based on what you know about your kids, but turning the 12 Days of Thanksgiving into a family tradition might be just the precursor to the Christmas season everyone needs.
Nathan Manley is a certified teacher and coach with a masters degree in education. He has taught multiple subjects, every age group and from Jamaica to California. Between his three children, his family has experience with public school, private school, charter schools, hybrid programs and full time homeschool. He believes music and film produced after 1989 is “meh.”