Read Isaiah 12 as a thanksgiving song, also read 2 Samuel 22:1-18, which contains the same thought. Psalms 92, 100, and 136 are called thanksgiving songs. Ask some boy or girl to read these lessons.
Read Luke 17:11-19, the story of a good thanksgiving example. Read this lesson at the close of the meeting. Display on the table some fruits, also some large vegetables, all showing how good God is in his wonderful gifts at harvest-time.
Tell the story of the early settlers, and why the first Thanksgiving proclamation was made.
Thanksgiving Day is Old Home Day. The separated family come together in one glad reunion, and the young folks go bounding to see grandma and grandpa, and all have a good time.
Now tell the children we will all consider ourselves one big family, and so prepare for a good time. Pass around a number of candles, and when each has received one, ask the children to eat them. The candles are made out of apples; the wick is made of a bit of almond, which on being lit will blaze for a minute. After this suspend a hoop in the doorway and make snowballs of tissue-paper by crushing them into round shapes. Give each scholar four balls, and standing them a given number of feet away, see how many of the balls each can put through the hoop at the first trial. Give the child who can do this a bag of peanuts as a reward.
If you wish an exclusive religious service for that day, secure a small-sized tree and place it on the platform, Distribute small paper hearts, and ask the children to write on them the reason they are thankful, and at the proper time ask them to bring the heart to the platform. After you have read them to the children, pin them on the tree and call the tree the Thanksgiving Tree. It should grow all the year around in everybody's home.
Christmas Eve. December 24
Ask the children to keep their eyes on the door. Turn down the lights of the room until only a dim light is seen. Tell them the Christmas Eve story. Long ago the people had a kind of Christmas fancy that the Child Jesus came to earth again each Christmas Eve and wandered about the streets looking for some one to recognize him and take him into their house.
Through the winter night he tramps on, cold and homeless, so the story goes, peeping in at the windows where evergreen wreaths and warm fires make all who live in that house comfortable and happy. At last some one is sure to see the dim face outside the window, and will fling wide open the door and bid him come in, and give the little stranger loving welcome to all their comforts. Here recite the text Revelation 3:20: "Behold I stand at the door and knock." Open the door of the heart, for the real Christ is there tonight and every other night also. Did you ever notice that the paneling of the door resembles a cross, so it is true of the door of the heart, we must take up his cross in our heart first, and then the door will open wide to let Jesus in. Open the door of the heart to Jesus on Christmas Eve, and that will make every day a Merry Christmas.
It is a good plan to read by candle-light a Christmas story. Place a lighted candle on the table, extinguish all other lights, and say, "Now listen to a Christmas Eve story," and then read Luke's account of the Nativity.