5 different ways to celebrate Thanksgiving in the workplace

Thanksgiving is a holiday that encourages us to be grateful for all the good in our lives. Embracing this concept in the workplace will help you show gratitude to your employees, who go above and beyond all year long for your business. This promotes a culture of appreciation that upholds teamwork and mutual respect. If you are looking to celebrate Thanksgiving in the workplace, here are some creative ways to bring your employees together:

• Create a Thanksgiving-inspired atmosphere

As you gear up for this time of year, it's good to set up your workplace in a way that reflects the Thanksgiving spirit. Encourage your teams to decorate their desks with fun Thanksgiving centerpieces, wreaths, candles, fall flowers, and other decorative items. You could also provide autumn-themed office supplies and hang up posters with gratitude quotes—anything to set the tone and keep your employees motivated.

• Create a gratitude wall

As the day of Thanksgiving nears, set up a wall where all of your employees can share little notes of appreciation and gratitude for their teammates, colleagues, and friends at work. Choose a central location that all employees can easily access. Have a poster beside the wall to encourage your employees to leave positive messages for others, and leave some pens and sticky notes nearby. Send out announcements both online and offline to encourage more participation. You can also encourage your employees to share gratitude emails with their peers, where they can elaborate on the qualities and actions they appreciate the most and how it has impacted them.

• Host a Thanksgiving lunch

What's Thanksgiving without delicious food? Organize a lunch for your employees that includes all the Thanksgiving staples including turkey, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. If you have a large number of employees, you could also consider organizing team-specific potlucks. This way, all of your employees can get together with their teams and enjoy a variety of Thanksgiving dishes.

• Look out for volunteering options

Giving back to society as a team during Thanksgiving can build better workplace relationships. You could partner with a local non-profit organization and dedicate a half or full day to volunteering there. It's good to make sure that the values of the charity that you partner with and the cause that they support are consistent with your organization's values. Give employees a variety of volunteering work that they can select from based on their skills and interests. If volunteering isn't possible, consider organizing a charity drive that encourages employees to donate food, clothing, and other necessary supplies to a cause.

• Organize fun team-building activities

Conducting team-building activities during Thanksgiving is a fun way to bring employees together. For instance, you could conduct a gratitude circle, where employees share what they appreciate about each other in person. Scavenger hunts, cooking contests, turkey trots, Thanksgiving bingo or trivia, and similar activities could also break the ice and make your workplace Thanksgiving fun employees.

Wrapping up

Celebrating Thanksgiving is an impactful way to build a culture of appreciation at your organization and keep up morale toward the end of the year. We hope this blog post gave you some good ideas for Thanksgiving activities that you can bring to your team!

Also read: 5 easy ways to celebrate a virtual Thanksgiving