Our Family Photo Tree Thanksgiving Tradition

For 10 years, our shop in this little white house in Leesburg, VA was THE place to be on Thanksgiving night.

We hosted a post-Turkey-Dinner party at the shop, which became a fun Thanksgiving tradition for our customers and us.

This was back before all of the big box retailers opened their doors on Thanksgiving, back before our girls got married and had families of their own.

We always had a lot of fun!

A few years ago Dave and I decided it was time to be home for Thanksgiving, time to start some new Thanksgiving traditions our grandchildren will remember as they grow up. This is how our Family Photo Tree Thanksgiving Tradition was re-born after being dormant for many years.Back when our daughters, Courtney and Colleen were little, we started making Christmas ornaments featuring their photos every year. As they grew up, we had enough ornaments to fill an entire tree. (I really, really like Christmas trees! You can read more about that here.) For many years, we kicked off our Christmas season by decorating the Family Photo Tree every Thanksgiving night.

Our tradition waned after the girls grew up, but now that Claire, Carleigh, Joey and Shane are here … everything is new again! Dave and I revived the tradition by making ornaments with photos of each grandchild.

This year the kids are old enough to help make their own ornaments. We collected pictures of them all year. After dinner, we will set up all of the supplies and the kids can glue their favorite photos onto the wooden ornaments. Then we will hang them on the Family Photo Tree together.

I can’t wait!

We also bought some snowflake ornaments for the kids to decorate with Unicorn Spit, the non-toxic rainbow gel stain and glaze we sell at All Things New Again and here in our online store. The kids are old pros at using this creative juice after the project we did last summer. I know they will make beautiful snowflake ornaments to take home and hang on their own trees.

And when they are all grown up, I hope they unpack their snowflake ornaments after Thanksgiving dinner and say, “We always had a lot of fun at Grandma and Pop’s house!”

If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at your home this year or traveling to visit loved ones, we hope you have a lot of fun too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~ Cathy

All Things New Again is a family-owned furniture and paint boutique in Leesburg, Virginia, about an hour or so west of Washington, D.C. We sell hand-painted furniture, several lines of paint for your next DIY project and offer painting classes and workshops. Stop by the next time you are in town!