Category: Thanksgiving

A Month for Giving Thanks

Some of us may already have holiday plans in place. Others may be planning the Thanksgiving meal of the century and looking forward to playing host this year with friends and family coming over to celebrate.

Convey Appreciation and Gratitude With Free Ecards and Printable Cards

As you know, free ecards can help you say, among other things, “Thank you!” which is great since Thanksgiving is a few weeks away.

Some of us may already have holiday plans in place. Others may be planning the Thanksgiving meal of the century and looking forward to playing host this year with friends and family coming over to celebrate.

Giving Thanks…Beyond Family and Friends

Even as the majority of us make holiday plans, there are those of us who have to work until the holiday eve or perhaps through the Thanksgiving break. This includes doctors, nurses, firefighters and other professionals providing emergency services as well as retail workers who will be busy prepping stores for the mad Black Friday rush and barely have enough down time to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families.

Sometimes, the mere nature of one’s profession demands his or her time and presence even on Thanksgiving. People have to show up at work in hospitals, fire departments, airports and other places just so the rest of us can enjoy the holiday.

It’s surprising we don’t pause more often and thank the people who make a difference in our lives everyday without us even realizing it. Our lives would come to a standstill without them showing up for work day after day like clockwork, and yet, we barely know their names or faces. This includes the mailman, the school bus driver, the garbage collector, maintenance personnel, public transport drivers, cops and many others.

Then there are those who simply can’t afford to take a break to celebrate, for whom, Thanksgiving is yet another two-shift work day.

For them, Thanksgiving isn’t a long weekend of celebration but just another day of trying to make ends meet, getting up and going to work to put food on the table.

The Thanksgiving Month

What if we could turn this November into a month of gratitude? How wonderful it would be if each of us could express thanks not just to our friends and family but to those whose names we may not know, but who matter all the same?

Free Printable Cards and Ecards are a great way to send your gratitude, appreciation and best wishes to people who touch your lives but who may not be at your holiday dinner. Here’s your chance to thank them and wish them a happy season nevertheless.

Take some time this November to send free Thanksgiving ecards or perhaps to send printable Thanksgiving cards to people beyond your immediate circle of family and friends. When you see your child’s school bus driver or the mailman making the rounds, greet them not just with a ‘Hello’ but with a Printable Thanksgiving Card.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanskgiving
Thanskgiving

What are turkeys thankful for? Will you be celebrating Thanksgiving away from your sweetie? Are you reminded of the very first Thanksgiving celebration and traditions? No matter what Thanksgiving means to you, there’s a free ecard here you’re sure to love. From quirky to contemplative, our free thanksgiving ecards section has something for everyone. Take a moment to send your personalized Thanksgiving wishes to your loved ones.

How to have a stress free Thanksgiving (or any holiday for that matter!)

With Thanksgiving about a week away, how are your preparations coming along? If you’re one of those meticulous planners, you probably have everything under control already. But, if like many of us, you still haven’t started, here’s a list that will help you plan a great Thanksgiving.

  1. Guests. Make a gust list. How many people are you expecting for the meal? How many children and adults? Call them ahead to find out who is definitely coming and if they’re bringing additional guests. Ask if they have any specific diet restrictions or preferences. (Remember, vegetarianism and veganism are in! You don’t want to end up spending hours fussing over a meal only to discover many of your guests won’t eat meat.)
  2. Menu. How many and what dishes are you planning to make?  How many side dishes? Will you be preparing all of them or is it possible to get someone else to pitch in? Some guests may be glad to bring a side dish or dessert. It might actually make them happy and reduce your work load – so everyone wins. When deciding your menu, pick the dishes that you are comfortable with. Don’t worry about outdoing someone else’s Thanksgiving. Stick with what you’re good at. And of course, a few traditional dishes.
  3. Shopping What are the things you need to buy? Check your pantry and cupboards and make a list of items you need to buy. Make a note of the quantity you will need based on your guest list. Write your note clearly and indicate which stores you plan to buy each item from, the quantities and the brand name, if you have a preference. This way, someone else can do the shopping for you, while you get something else done. It’s better to get shopping out of the way a couple of days ahead if you want to avoid the holiday rush in stores and on the road. See if you can get a couple of hours off from work in the morning when stores are least crowded.
  4. Decorations. Home made or store bought? How elaborate? Once you have decided, you can probably enlist the help of teenagers or older kids in your family. It will keep them occupied while freeing you up to prepare the meal and is also a great way to encourage participation from kids. Once you have given them the directions, don’t micromanage. When you aren’t looking over their shoulders, kids tend to do a good job.
  5. Entertainment. Think of ways to keep guests entertained during their stay. Plan for a family board game or movie. Ask your kids to bring out some of their toys, books, puzzles and games so visiting kids will have something to do. Have coloring sheets, crayons, a white board and markers handy to keep young kids engaged. For the grown ups who aren’t into watching sports, plan an activity like a stroll around your neighborhood or a card game. Don’t forget conversation. Be sure to spend some time catching up with each of your guests. Remember to take pictures of and with all your guests.
  6. Cleaning before and after. Enlist the help of all family members for getting the house in order before Thanksgiving. Allocate an area of the house or a certain chore to every member. Kids could clean up their rooms, pick up toys around the house and maybe help with wiping small surfaces like end tables and chairs. Rearrange furniture if you have to, so you can seat everybody and create conversation areas in every room. Move items you won’t be using for a couple of days like bicycles and exercise equipment away from the main entertainment space, to create more room. For after-Thanksgiving clean up, don’t hesitate to accept your guests’ offer of help. It will give you a chance to catch up and make them feel like they contributed.
  7. Miscellaneous. If you have to pick up out of town guests from the airport, see if you can get someone else to do it while you prepare the meal. If not, plan to leave work a little early, so you can get some preparation out of the way before heading out to the airport. Plan and prepare for traffic delays. Keep a watch on your local traffic beat. Keep your refrigerator stocked with extra milk, juices, vegetables and other items so you don’t have to go looking for a gas station or store that is open on Turkey Day.
  8. Send ecards. Don’t forget to send free Thanksgiving ecards to everyone – including the people who won’t be making it to your dinner. Schedule free ecards a few days ahead so you don’t have to worry about it the week of Thanksgiving. You could also print out a few Free Printable Thanksgiving cards for kids to color in.

Above all, relax and enjoy. Simply celebrate every aspect of the holiday, even if a few details happen to go wrong. Don’t sweat the little stuff. Who cares if your house isn’t spotless or if the napkins aren’t arranged like doves or if you’re one side-dish short? What’s important is that you and your loved ones have come together on Thanksgiving to think about all the things you are thankful for. Keep that in mind, and your Thanksgiving checklist won’t feel that overwhelming any more.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Ten Facts about Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is popularly thought of as commemorating the birth of what has become the United States of America.  According to the slightly-fudged history, Pilgrims, who had traveled to America to escape religious persecution, wanted to give thanks to the Native Americans after surviving a brutal winter.  Still, though, Thanksgiving is popular throughout the world, and there are many facts about the holiday that you probably aren’t aware of.  Here are ten of them:

  • Even though the Pilgrims were thanking the Native Americans for helping them survive their first winter in America, over half of the Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower had already died from cold, hunger and other ailments.
  • Today Americans eat turkey and pumpkin pie, but in the first years of the Thanksgiving celebration, the main course was simply any bird that could be successfully hunted.  And as for pumpkin pie, a lack of ovens made that impossible, though there was boiled pumpkin for dessert.
  • The first American Thanksgiving took place in St. Augustine, Florida, which is also the first American city.
  • Today we think of Thanksgiving as a very special holiday, but back in the time of the Pilgrims, it was simply one feast day among many others.  Indeed, both English and Native American colonies had long been holding regular harvest festivals.  Thanksgiving is simply the one that endures today.
  • For many years after the first Thanksgiving, the holiday was only periodically observed.  After fruitful harvests, there usually was a large feast.  After bad harvests, fasting was instead  how the season was observed.
  • Today we think of Thanksgiving as a feast day, and, thus, it is mostly seen as a non-religious holiday.  The Pilgrims in Plymouth, though, put more emphasis on giving thanks to their God.  So Thanksgiving was originally a very religious holiday.
  • In modern times, Thanksgiving has become a once-annual celebration.  In the time of the American Revolutionary War, though, the Continental Congress regularly declared more than one Thanksgiving day in any given year.
  • America’s National Football League has hosted a game on Thanksgiving Day every year since the inception of the league.  Until the mid 1990s, the Thanksgiving Day game was the only game played on day other than Sunday and Monday.
  • The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday.  It is the heaviest shopping day of the year in America, and gets its name from the fact that many companies go from the “red” (losing money) to the “black” (turning a profit) because of day-after-Thanksgiving sales.
  • Perhaps the oddest tradition to arise from Thanksgiving is turkey bowling: a frozen turkey is thrown at a group of plastic soda bottles, with the object being to knock down as many of the bottles as possible.

So, as you can see, Thanksgiving is about more than just sitting down with your family and eating turkey.

Free Thanksgiving Ecards – making the holidays easier on you

If you’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year or if you’re planning to travel some distance to spend the holiday with your family, there’s bound to be a lot on your mind. Planning, budgeting, shopping, booking tickets, packing and what not. At least, there’s one thing that you can do pretty much effortlessly – send free Thanksgiving ecards to your friends and family. That’s right. It won’t take a minute. And if you follow our advice, you can be sure that all your loved ones will receive a free ecard from you on Thanksgiving. So you can eliminate at least one last minute task from your ‘to do’ list.

Choose from a variety of Thanksgiving themes

Have you ever thought about Thanksgiving from a Turkey’s point of view? Or what the perfect Thanksgiving card for your husband (or wife) might say?  How about a Thanksgiving card for the shopaholic who can’t wait to start Christmas shopping on black Friday?  If your friends and family are a diverse bunch like mine, it’s always a challenge find the perfect wish and greeting card for everybody. You may have to spend hours browsing through cards, locating the ones with the right words and sentiments that convey your message. Why spend hours in the greeting card aisle when you can spend just a few minutes at your desk (or bed or couch?) sending beautifully animated Thanksgiving ecards?

Simply spend a few minutes browsing our selection to see what I mean. Whether you prefer a traditional, pilgrim themed ecard or a more humorous one, you’ll see that we have an ecard just for you. Our free Thanksgiving ecards section includes cards that children can send parents or grandparents and vice versa, ecards for spouses, friends and relatives.

Free, Convenient, Assured, On-time Delivery!

The best part of it all is not just that it’s free. It’s that you can send as many ecards at your convenience, any time you want, to as many people as you want, as many times as you want. And you can forget worrying about your card getting lost in the mail or being delivered late.

As for us – all we have to say is – we owe it all to you! Thanks for choosing Gotfreecards.com to send free ecards for every special occasion in your life

Thanksgiving Activity for Kids – Printable Thanksgiving Cards

Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is coming right around the corner, and that means it’s almost time for us to reconnect with family members we very rarely get to see.  Thanksgiving is also a time for grandparents to get hugs and kisses from grandchildren who live so far away from them.  How great would it be if this Thanksgiving you could help your son or daughter with a fun little project…something they could show to Grandma or Grandpa on Thanksgiving Day?  Well, here’s how you can do it!

With all the great free animated ecards available at Got-Free-Ecards.com, there are also a ton of “do-it-yourself” card projects, perfect for young children to do (with a little help, of course!).  With just a few easy steps, you can help your son or daughter make Grandma and Grandpa fun little printable cards.

First, go to the Free Printable Thanksgiving Cards page.  Once you’re there, you’ll see all kinds of different designs to choose from, in thumbnail form.  You and your son or daughter just pick your favorite one, and click on it. Oh, if you just roll over the thumbnail images with your mouse, you’ll get to see a larger preview of the image, too.

If you pick one of the coloring cards, all you have to do is click on your design, and when the larger image appears on the next page, click “Print.”  Then, you and your child can color in the picture together.  With these coloring cards, you can add your own text and photos, too; but they’re also perfect just the way they are, too.

If you don’t want to do a coloring card, though, just pick your favorite design among the others, and click on it to go to the design page.  The first thing to notice are the two tabs at the top of the page: “Cover” and “Inside.”  Clicking on each tab will show you a preview of the corresponding parts of the card, and you can edit both the cover and inside to your heart’s content.  For now, let’s start with the default: the cover.

A default image is displayed.  You have a couple choices here.  You can leave the image as is, delete the image (by clicking the X at the top left hand side of the image) and upload your own, or add your own photo over top of the existing image, repositioning it as you see fit.  If you want to add your own photo in any event, click the button to the right of the image that says, “Add Photo.”  You’ll be taken to an explorer window, where you and your child can look through all the pictures on your personal computer.  Find the one you want to use, and click “Open.”

After the picture loads, if you decide you really don’t want to use it, click the new X that appears.  Otherwise, by clicking and dragging anywhere on the image, you can move it around the screen.  You can also, if you position the cursor at any edge of the picture and then click and drag, resize the picture.  There’s also a little curved arrow at the top right of the image, too.  By clicking and dragging that, you can tilt the picture to different angles.  (All of these features, by the way, can be utilized with the default image, as well.)  Once you have your image just the way you like it, it’s time to move on to text.

Click the “Add Text” button, to the right of the card, and a text box appears inside the card.  After you type your message, you can maneuver it around the screen, in exactly the same way you did with your image.  Now, to the right of the card, you’ll see a bunch of font options.  Here, you can change the font, the color, style and alignment.

Now that we’re done with the cover, click the “Inside” tab at the top of the card, and design the interior any way you like—exactly the same way you did the outside!

All that’s left to do now is print.  If you just want the whole card on a single side of the page, which you can fold yourself later, click “Print 1 sided.”  If you want to print your card on the front and back sides of the page, click, “Print Front & Back.”

It’s a relatively easy process, as you can see, and a fun activity you can do with your son and daughter.  And don’t forget Grandma and Grandpa—they’ll love the Thanksgiving card you and your child made together!