Enjoy instilling more memorable traditions into your home by searching my activities and Thanksgiving tradition posts.
As we pour out gratitude, our soul feeds joy.
It’s that time of the year, when we focus on feeding our tummies, yet what’s more important than feeding the hearts of our children with one of the most important character qualities - a heart of thankfulness.
These Gratitude Rolls put a fun “foodie” twist to expressing our gratefulness in a unique and creative way that will impact your children for years to come. This Thanksgiving tradition is similar in purpose to my Leaves of Thanks tradition, which I shared earlier, yet these Thanksgiving traditions shouldn’t be saved for only special occasions, you can enjoy this encouragement any time of the year.
Today we made these Gratitude Rolls “Just because,” but I envision using this during a birthday celebration and have everyone write something they love about the special birthday “blessing.”
Gratitude Rolls – This simple tradition is a fun way for your family to express what they are grateful for during your Thanksgiving dinner.
As guests arrive have each person write a few things that they are grateful for on small sheets of paper. If you want to spend extra time making homemade butter horn rolls each Thanksgiving like we do, you’ll love them, but purchasing one or more packages of Store bought Crescent Rolls works well without the extra work (which is what I used for these pictures.)
Remember, it’s not about having the perfect meal, it’s about celebrating life together.
Place your gratitude paper slips on the dough wedges, roll them up into the crescent shape and follow the baking directions. When the rolls are served, pass them around and enjoy savoring the moment as each guest tears into their hot roll and then shares the written gratitude statement. If you want to add a fun twist, keep the notes anonymous and have everyone try to guess who wrote what.
Lessons learned: Since my daughters did the rolling, they wrapped the dough so tightly and made them only bite size. To avoid the paper sticking to the roll, wrap them looser. Also, if you are using a homemade roll recipe that doesn’t have a higher fat content, I might suggest spraying the area with just a bit of butter or oil spray where you are going to lay the paper, or another option would be to wrap the notes in tin foil before baking. That way you may use any roll recipe you desire. Place the notes anywhere in the dough.
If children are helping, they will be so excited to take the rolls out of the oven before it’s time. If you do this, the dough will stick a bit to the paper, as witnessed above. They’re still edible and readable, but just a lesson learned.
Enjoy this fun new tradition, while reaffirming the importance of showing gratitude in our every day lives.
“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.” (Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis
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This is an awesome idea! I am definitely borrowing it for our Thanksgiving this year!
Toni
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What an awesome idea. Love it and I’m going to use it. Thanks for sharing
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What a great idea. We make homemade crescent rolls every year and this would be a great addition to the lineup!
Christi @ A Southern Life
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Marvelous idea!! I’m so excited to try it!
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Jen, I love this idea! I think my boys would love it, too! Thank you so much!
So, the paper/ pen don’t get into the rolls? Did you use pencil/ pen or anything special? I’m sure I’d take a big bite or someone’s “health” if I wasn’t paying attention… which I’m usually not if I’m eating rolls! ha!
Love the idea and I’m excited to link up this week!
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Jens Reply:
November 16th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
You’d definitely want to break open the rolls and take out the paper.
You could designate one bread basket at the “grateful” rolls, so that you’d only have to be careful with those. 
We just used a regular ball point pen and it worked fine. I think my youngest used a pencil, and it didn’t bleed at all into the dough.
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Love this idea! I’m with Toni, definately stealing it this year!
Thanks for hosting!
~Liz
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Love it Jen! What a great idea. I can’t wait to do this with my kiddos. It will be a perfect family project. Thanks!
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What a neat idea! Very clever and fun!
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great idea! Going to try this!
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What a neat idea! I would love to incorporate this into our Thanksgiving.
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what a great idea Jen!!
I’m having a Love the Pie party if you have a pie recipe come link it up!! (there are prizes too)
~TidyMom
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What a wonderful idea!
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I LOVE those rolls!
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Beautiful idea and a sweet teaching moment!
Robin
All Things Heart and HOme
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I’m new and didn’t know how to put what my recipe is by my name. I hope you will forgive me. I will read more today on the proper way to do it. I love your thankful note idea. I will try to make those for Thanksgiving. Doylene
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Jen, what a great idea!! I love this!
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I love this idea! I am going to suggest we try this at our Thanksgiving this year. It seems like a fun way to bring the real spirit of Thanksgiving into the holiday. Thanks!
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One word comes to mind (ok, 2…): FUN! And Fortune Cookie, Pilgrim style.
Will definitely see these in my kitchen. Thanks for hosting after your busy week.
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What a fun idea! Love this.
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What an awesome idea! My girls will love it. I think I am going to incorporate this in my Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks so much!!
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This is such a sweet idea! I bet everyone has a lot of fun with this as well!
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What a sweet tradition! Love it!
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what a great idea!
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I love it! My boys will love it, too. I’m making these rolls this weekend!
Thank you!
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Is there any particular paper or writing instrument that needs to be used? It doesn’t look like it in the photo, but I just want to be sure:) I am definitely doing this with all my kids, and 8 little grandchildren coming this year! Thanks for the wonderfully fun and meaningful idea!
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What did you use to write with that is not harmful? I love this idea and would love to do it for Thanksgiving. Blessings to you.
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What a wonderful way to share thankfulness! I hope you will link this post to my Thanksgiving Traditions link up in the traditions section!
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I love this idea, and never would have thought of it. Thanks so much for sharing it; I linked to it over on my page.
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I live this idea! One problem: I tested it last night and the pieces of paper were stuck in the rools. The bread had to be picked off the rolls before reading them. Any suggestions?
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Jen Reply:
November 22nd, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Hmmm – ok, it only happens just a tad when I did it. Did you use the crescent rolls? Maybe if there’s a recipe with not enough grease, it might happen.
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Jen Reply:
November 22nd, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Ok, I also thought of two reasons why this may have happened…did you roll them too tightly? Also, if neither of those things were done, then I would just say put a tiny bit of spray oil on the spot on the roll where you lay the paper.
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This is such a cute and easy way to show what you’re thankful for….I’ve been trying to think up different ways for something fun like this and this is the answer! thanks!!!
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