Our "Giving Tree".

We have already gotten into the holiday spirit in our family! We are planning a really nice Thanksgiving and we always focus on a less-commercially focused Christ-mas in our family.

We have been reading the wonderful, classic book "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein and we decided to make our own giving tree. 

Now, our concept is a bit different. We have chosen to "shop" for various items in our home and at stores that we would like to give or donate to others. The girls are having a lot of fun looking around our house for items to donate. Elle is going to write down each item on a leaf and when we give it away, we will remove the leaf from our tree. We are hoping our tree branches will be bare before Christmas and we will have a lot of opportunities for sharing the love of God with others. 

We plan to donate baked goods, canned goods, clothes, toys and more!

 Here we are making our tree from branches we got from our yard. We used an empty plant pot and poured some rocks and glass shapes in the bottom around the branches. Then, we simply cut some leaf shapes from construction paper, hole punched them and hung the leaves on the branches--pretty easy!!

 Elle is spelling out FROG and writing it on a leaf.

So, here is our "Giving Tree." We are proud of our girls for picking some really nice things to give away, too;-)  We are really trying to instill a giving spirit in our children and teach them that it truly is "better to give than receive."

What is your family tradition for the holidays?

Blessings,

Aria;)