Below are five simple, no (or low) prep ways to cultivate gratitude around your Thanksgiving table this year.

A Thanksgiving Table Blessing — adapted from the Book of Common Prayer
Gratitude Beads
Coloring Sheet
Gratitude Guessing Game
Gratitude Guest Book

Thanksgiving Table Blessing

Before we begin our meal, let us give thanks to the Lord:

Gracious God, We give you thanks for the food set before us, the hands that harvested and prepared it, and the ground from which it came from. Make us faithful stewards of all you have given us, looking not just to our own needs, but to the needs of others. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Psalm 100

The Psalm may be read by one person, or responsively by half verse (breaking at the asterisk)

1 Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; *
       serve the Lord with gladness
       and come before his presence with a song.
2 Know this: The Lord himself is God; *
       he himself has made us, and we are his;
       we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
3 Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise; *
       give thanks to him and call upon his Name.
4 For the Lord is good;
his mercy is everlasting; *
       and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

A Litany of Thanksgiving

Let us give thanks to God our Father for all his gifts so
freely bestowed upon us.

For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and
sky and sea.
We thank you, Lord.

For all that is gracious in the lives of men and women,
revealing the image of Christ,
We thank you, Lord.

For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and
our friends,
We thank you, Lord.

For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve,
We thank you, Lord.

For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play,
We thank you, Lord.

For the brave and courageous, who are patient in suffering
and faithful in adversity,
We thank you, Lord.

For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice,
We thank you, Lord.

For the communion of saints, in all times and places,
We thank you, Lord.

Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and
promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord;
To him be praise and glory, with you, O Father, and the
Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

Each person is invited to share what they are grateful for. Alternatively, this can be done over the meal.

The Doxology

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
Praise Him, all creatures here below
Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost

Blessing

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Amen. - Colossians 3:15

Gratitude Beads

Gratitude beads serve as a reminder to stop and thank God for the blessings in your life. Holding a bead in between your fingers, say a prayer of thanks, going through the strand until you’ve finished. Beads can be selected to remind you of a particular person or thing—for example, two blue beads to remind me of my two blue-eyed daughters. Or you can simply select beads at random, and use them each day to pray for whatever you are grateful for in that moment. The beads can be made into a bracelet or a key chain.

All you’ll need is beads from any craft store and twine or string!

Coloring Sheet

For restless children—or adults who need to destress from the conversation about politics and parenting ;) Just print a bunch of these babies out, and have them ready for anyone who needs a moment of calm. It would be so lovely to laminate them and use as a placemat for future Thanksgivings.

Gratitude Guessing Game

Each person receives three slips of paper and writes something they are grateful for on each one. All slips of paper are collected and put in a bowl.
The person sitting at the head of the table draws a slip of paper, reads it aloud and tries to guess who wrote it. If they guess correctly, they get a point. They should hold on to that slip of paper to tally up points at the end.
If they get it wrong, the person sitting to their right gets a turn and so on.
Once the correct person has been identified, the person sitting next to the head gets to read a new slip. The bowl rotates around the table until no paper is left.
The person who guessed the most correctly in the end wins bragging rights or a nap on the couch.

Gratitude Guest Book

On one piece of paper, each guest traces their hand, makes a turkey out of it, and inside writes their name and what they are grateful for. Alternatively, adults could simply trace their hand, write inside, and leave it to the kids to turn it into a turkey.

Make sure to write the year at the top! How neat would it be to do this each year and look back on how little hands grew and gratitude changed over the years. Not to mention, it’s a great guest book to look back on!