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The SITS Girls

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DIY 30-Minute Thanksgiving Tree

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Sandwiched in-between the mystery of Halloween and the magic of Christmas lies the most humble holiday of them all – Thanksgiving. Get your family in a thankful mood by creating our 30-Minute Thanksgiving Tree! 

We know that Christmas decorations, music, and movies are all already out this year, and it seems like the whole country has decided that Christmas can start early this year. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t also celebrate Thanksgiving. By counting our blessings, we can give gratitude for everything that we have and start the Christmas season with our thankful hearts in the right place. A grateful heart is a happy heart!

Thanksgiving Tree | This is an easy DIY project that only takes 30 minutes to make - a great way to help your family celebrate Thanksgiving.

DIY 30-Minute Thanksgiving Tree

Teaching our children to have a truly thankful heart can be difficult, but by creating this Thanksgiving Tree together, you can give them a visual to help them realize how very blessed they are. Everyone needs a reminder of gratitude, not just children! That’s especially true this year. Passing your very own Thanksgiving Tree throughout the day will keep those things in your mind which are most important, and help you to carry the true spirit of Thanksgiving always.

Thanksgiving Tree Supplies
Thanksgiving Tree Materials

  • Cut tree branches
  • Large glass vase
  • Thin wood squares
  • Vinyl chalkboard sticker labels
  • Rocks (or other vase filler)
  • Ribbon

How To Make A Thanksgiving Tree

To begin, place your vinyl chalkboard stickers on top of your wood squares. You could paint your squares beforehand, but I loved the look of the natural wood. I centered my sticker and placed it slightly lower on my wood to leave room for drilling the holes.

Vinyl chalkboard stickers on wood squares.
Next, take your wood squares outside and using a 5/32 size drill bit, drill two holes, one on each side of the top of your wood square. I pre-measured to make sure my holes would be straight and even. (I measured ½ inch over, and ¼ inch down.)
Drilling holes in wood squares

Important Tip For Measuring

They say to work smarter, not harder. So, instead of measuring and marking each individual square for holes, I just placed the one square that I had measured and drilled and placed it on top of each of my other squares and marked the inside of the holes with a pencil. This made drilling the holes in my squares so easy and quick!

Mark drilling locations with a pencil.
Next, take your squares back inside lace the ribbon through the holes. You can knot the ribbon on either side of the square, I choose to make my knots on the front for a bit more whimsy.

Add ribbon for a bit of whimsy.
Set your small chalkboard signs aside while you work on the tree!

Add ribbon to the wooden squares so they can hang on the tree.
To create your tree, place your branches inside your vase and adjust to find the right place for each one. I tied my branches together, so they wouldn’t move around.

Arrange your cut branches so they look like a tree.
Place your rocks (or other vase filler) inside your vase and arrange so that they fill all of the gaps. If your filler is sturdy (like rocks) you can untie your branches and they should stay in place.

Place rocks in the vase to secure the tree branches
To complete your DIY Thanksgiving Tree, write what you are thankful for on each sign and hang the signs on the branches of your tree. This is the perfect opportunity to get your kids involved and get creative.

Kids will love coming up with things to write and place on the tree!

Write your thankful things on the mini chalkboards and place them on the tree.
Place your DIY Thanksgiving Tree in a busy location of your house, so you can see it often and be reminded of all that you should be grateful for!

We are thankful for family! This DIY 30-Minute Thanksgiving Tree is a great way to help your family focus on their blessings.
Let’s all have an attitude of gratitude this Thanksgiving season!

About Tracie Nall

Tracie lives in Arizona with her husband, teen daughter, and more books than her shelves will hold. She spends her days writing and editing. Many of her words end up on her blog, From Tracie. Find Tracie on Twitter @FromTracie and on Instagram where she takes pictures of things that are yellow.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  10. Lauren Beasley says

    Love this idea! Anyone have a good idea to make the craft a little smaller? I’m thinking about doing this with a group of friends but I know doing a big tree for everyone would get a little cluttered.

  11. Jhanis says

    I made something similar for my daughters first birthday! We used it to hang wishes and dedications from the guests instead of a guestbook.

  12. Lapaka K says

    Great idea, we don’t have thanksgiving holiday where I live so will definitely do this for Christmas. I am sure my little nieces will enjoy putting it together.

  18. Christina says

    I am totally doing this tree for our HUGE family Thanksgiving get together. I am Thankful for you and for the SITs Girls for leading me to this project!

  22. Julie says

    I love the thankful for tree idea, we don’t have Thanksgiving here in the Uk but it would be nice to have any time of the year. A great way to focus on the good stuff.