These pages go with Thanksgiving Day, where the Enough Echo is explained. Here you'll find a template for writing your family's own Echo, plus two short versions for the big meal. All three are optional.
An Echo is a list of gifts, said one at a time, with the same answer after each one: "That would have been enough to give thanks." A grown-up opens it, and everyone closes it together with "We have more than enough."
Who writes it. A grown-up can write the whole thing, or each person can write one line. Kids who can't write yet can say their line for a grown-up to write down.
When. Any time between Monday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week. Read it Thanksgiving morning in place of the ready-made Echo, later in the day, or at the feast.
The frame:
Grown-up: (an opening line, such as "Before we go to the tree, let's say what we were given.") After each line, everyone answers, "That would have been enough to give thanks."
Reader: (a gift) All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
(four to six lines like this)
Grown-up: Any one of these would have been enough. Together, they're more than enough. All: We have more than enough.
Questions to spark ideas:
What happened this year that nobody in the family planned or earned?
Who showed up for us when we needed them?
What's something ordinary we'd miss if it disappeared tomorrow?
Which leaf did you most enjoy writing this month?
What's one moment from this year you'd want to remember in ten years?
For kids: What made you happy this year? Who helped you?
For any table, including one where nobody else does Advent Overflow. About a minute.
Host: Before we eat, let's say thank you together. After each line, everyone answers, "That would have been enough to give thanks."
Reader: Someone grew this food, and someone cooked it. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
Reader: We all got here safely today. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
Reader: We have people who showed up for us all year. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
Reader: And we're all here, at this table, together. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
(If your family wrote its own Echo, read it here.)
Host: Any one of those would have been enough. Together, they're more than enough. All: We have more than enough.
This version pairs true moments from the 1621 harvest feast at Plymouth with your own year. About two minutes.
Host: In 1621, a small group of English settlers shared a harvest feast with their Wampanoag neighbors, the Native people of that coast, in what's now Massachusetts. Some of what they had to be thankful for sounds a lot like ours. After each line, everyone answers, "That would have been enough to give thanks."
Reader: After a very hard first winter, the settlers brought in a harvest. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
Reader: This year, there's food on our table too. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
Reader: A Wampanoag man named Tisquantum, who spoke English, showed them how to plant corn in that soil. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
Reader: This year, people taught us things too. (Name one, if you'd like.) All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
Reader: The Wampanoag leader Massasoit came with about ninety men. They stayed three days, and the Wampanoag brought five deer to share. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
Reader: This year, there's room at our table too, for everyone here. All: That would have been enough to give thanks.
(If your family wrote its own Echo, read it here.)
Host: They found plenty to give thanks for. So do we. All: We have more than enough.
For the grown-ups: the true story has hard parts that stay out of the spoken lines. About half the settlers died that first winter. Tisquantum knew English because he had been kidnapped years earlier and taken to Europe. The peace between the two peoples held for about fifty years, until King Philip's War began in 1675. A kid who asks about any of it deserves the true answer, told gently.
Goes with: Impairment Day 1 · Thanksgiving · Left Overs Day 3