Go beyond the family traditional Thanksgiving dinner this Fall and make memories with beautiful traditions. Here is a list of the best thanksgiving traditions for families!

Dinner isn’t the only special time at Thanksgiving.

Whether your extended family comes from miles away or you spend Thanksgiving with just your immediate family, there are many special Thanksgiving traditions to start together.

But how to start a Thanksgiving tradition that your family will enjoy and cherish the memories forever?

Here is a list with some of the best Thanksgiving day traditions for you to get inspired.

10 Fun Thanksgiving Traditions for Families

Make a Thankful Tree Tradition

Thankful trees are beautiful thanksgiving traditions for kids that emphasizes the true spirit of this holiday – to take the moment to acknowledge all the things you are thankful for.

Bring a tree branch indoors and place it in a vase. Hang leaf shaped notes on the smaller branches that say what each family member is thankful for this year.

Decorate the tree with glitter and paint, or leave it natural. The important thing is to be together and practice the give thanks attitude.

Autumn Walk Family Tradition for Thanksgiving

Looking for thanksgiving tradition ideas that you get your family moving and burning those extra calories? Then this one is for you.

If you serve an early dinner, walk some of the food off in the crisp fall air.

If the kids are too small, just get your Stroller and go for a leisure walk in nature. Start them around nature young!

Seeing trees full of colorful leaves and animals preparing for winter also makes a calming start to a busy day. it is one of our favorite free family activities.

Start a Baking Tradition

Food does bring people together around the table and it is the the tradition of thanksgiving. But it can also start in the kitchen.

Dinner around the table is a very special time on Thanksgiving day but it’s only possible with what can be hours of prep work, cooking, chopping and baking.

Bring family members together a day before Thanksgiving dinner to bake pies and help prep the dinner food for the next day as a new family tradition ideas. It is a perfect time to encourage kids to cook too.

Serve the pies at the larger family gathering on Thanksgiving day for compliments and fond memories. Kids will have years of memories in the kitchen.

Use the Fine China

Do you have wedding china sitting in a cabinet? What can be more special than having your loving family around the table?

Make your fine China part of Thanksgiving day traditions in America and use it each year for a special meal (just so as the thanksgiving tablecloth tradition).

The kids will feel quite fancy as they toast their stemmed glasses full of sparkling apple cider.

Glitter Pinecones Thanksgiving Holiday Traditions

Looking for thanksgiving family traditions ideas for the creative hearts? Making glitter pine cones are the perfect creative thanksgiving traditions.

Gather and prepare pine cones for decorating. Cover them with a light coat of glue and roll in glitter. Use the pine cones for place settings or in a bowl as a table decoration.

This tradition is especially good for young children because it’s not difficult to make a beautiful glitter pinecone. You can also use to decorate the house all the way to Christmas.

Start a Gratitude Quilt

One of the most unique thanksgiving traditions with rewarding results but this will require one committed family member to put the quilt together (or many!).

Cut squares of fabric and set them flat on a table. Each family member can use fabric markers, stamps, and paint to tell what they’re thankful for on the fabric.

Sew the squares together into a quilt. As the years go by the quilt will grow larger into a blanket and you’ll all enjoy looking back at what you’ve been grateful for over time.

Leaf Garland Making Tradition

It is the time of the year when the leaves are the prettiest so why not make a Garland with those yellow and red leaves found around your area? Something everyone in the family will enjoy doing, from young to old.

So go gather some leaves and string them up as decoration and make fun thanksgiving traditions memories.

Your family can make a tradition of gathering the most colorful leaves from the yard, stringing the leaves together, or both!

Decorate for Winter or Christmas

With everyone gathered in the same room this is a perfect time to get people involved in winter and Christmas decoration.

As Thanksgiving evening winds down, get together to string some lights and change out the fall decor with winter.

This is definitely one of the coziest thanksgiving tradition ideas because you know another joyful holiday is coming in December ad you have so much to look forward to.

Wishbone Tradition With a Twist

You might be used to breaking the Turkey’s wishbone for good luck; a thousand years old tradition dating back to ancient Romans.

But this tradition can lead to some arguments because often there isn’t enough wishbone for everyone to break.

So, if looking for good luck on a holiday where we give thanks for what we have sounds a bit greedy to you, you can twist it into new thanksgiving traditions.

For instance, you could leave it intact and make a science experiment with the wishbone where everyone is involved.

But if you really want the breaking wishbone tradition around you could make chocolate wishbones so everyone can play the game (and have a second chance for good luck).

Ditch the Traditional Food

Not a fan of spending hours in the kitchen just to eat cranberry sauce and turkey?

Don’t be afraid to try different thanksgiving traditions!

You can make the cooking very simple, just a normal quick family favorite week meal. The important thing is to spend the day with your loved ones.

But also more and more families are opting to ditch dinner prep completely and instead go to a restaurant for their Thanksgiving dinner.

Everyone gets to enjoy a cooked meal and there’s no clean up! End the evening with a homemade pie you’ve baked ahead of time for a traditional close to the day.

I hope you have enjoyed this round up of Thanksgiving day traditions for families.

What ideas for Thanksgiving traditions for children do you have?

Thanksgiving should be a time when family and friends get together to express gratitude. It’s also a time to share good food and conversation. I wish you and your family a November full of new and old traditions!