Holiday Calendar
570 saved#89 of 6,224

National Gratitude Month

A wellness observance held throughout November encouraging daily gratitude practice and reflection on the positive parts of life.

Sunday
1–30
November 2026
Last updated February 26, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar Team
Have an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEAll of November
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYHealth
SUBCATEGORYSelf-Care
ORIGIN

Individual Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY
Stacey Grewal
FIRST OBSERVED
2015
“Author Stacey Grewal launched the November observance in 2015, paired with a free 30-day gratitude challenge.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A 'national' month one author put on the calendar.

Stacey Grewal, an author and gratitude coach in Toronto, advocated for November to be designated National Gratitude Month. The observance was announced for the USA and Canada in a press release dated October 30, 2015, alongside her free 30-Day Global Gratitude Challenge.

INTRO

The self-made holiday riding on real science

There is no act of Congress behind National Gratitude Month, and no presidential proclamation. The whole of November carries the title because one author in Toronto, Stacey Grewal, decided it should and put out a press release in 2015 saying so.

That modest origin is easy to dismiss until you look at what sits underneath it. The idea that writing down what you are thankful for can measurably change how you feel is not a slogan. It is a question psychologists have actually tested.

The most cited of those experiments asked people to list a few blessings once a week. The grateful group ended up exercising about an hour and a half more per week than a group asked to track their hassles. A month built on a hunch turned out to rest on a small but real body of evidence.

Advertisement
ORIGINS

Gratitude Month history

INTRODUCTION

Gratitude as a wellness practice has a longer paper trail than the holiday that promotes it. To understand why a whole month got handed to it, start with the lab work that gave the idea its credibility.

For most of the twentieth century, psychology studied what went wrong with people far more than what went right. Gratitude was a moral virtue, not a research subject. That changed slowly, then deliberately.

CHAPTER 01

The study that started a field

In 2003, psychologists Robert Emmons of UC Davis and Michael McCullough published a paper with a plain title: "Counting Blessings Versus Burdens." They split volunteers into groups and gave each a different weekly journaling task.

One group listed things they were grateful for. Another listed daily hassles. A third just recorded neutral events. The grateful group reported feeling better about their lives, and even moved their bodies more.

CHAPTER 02

From the clinic to the mainstream

A later part of the same project worked with 65 adults living with neuromuscular disease. Those who kept a short gratitude diary reported sleeping longer and more soundly than patients who did not. It was one of the first experimental links drawn between gratitude and sleep.

By 2011, the field had institutional backing. The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley launched a multi-year initiative with Emmons, eventually steering close to four million dollars toward gratitude research.

CHAPTER 03

A coach claims the calendar

The observance itself arrived later and from outside academia. Stacey Grewal, who wrote a goal-setting journal called Gratitude and Goals, pushed for November to carry the gratitude label and announced it in 2015.

She tied the month to a free 30-Day Global Gratitude Challenge, a daily email nudging people through one small exercise at a time. The science was already decades deep. Grewal gave it a date on the calendar.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Gratitude Month Matters

EVIDENCE

A holiday with footnotes, not just feelings.

Unlike many awareness months, this one points at real experiments rather than a vague feel-good idea. The foundational 2003 UC Davis study found grateful journalers reported greater life satisfaction and exercised more than a comparison group.

SLEEP

A documented link to how people rest

A 2009 study of 401 people, 40 percent of them with clinically impaired sleep, found that more grateful people tended to sleep better and fall asleep faster. The effect ran through calmer thoughts at bedtime rather than gratitude itself flipping a switch.

HONESTY

The benefits are real but modest

A 2023 review pooling 25 randomized trials found gratitude exercises improve wellbeing by a small, statistically real amount, not a dramatic one. The month is a reasonable nudge toward a healthy habit, not a cure for anything.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Gratitude Month by the Numbers

4.35 vs 3.01
Weekly exercise hours, gratitude vs hassles group
65
Neuromuscular patients in the 2003 sleep diary
401
People in the 2009 gratitude and sleep study
0.22
Pooled wellbeing effect size across 25 trials

TIMELINE

Timeline

The founding study appears

Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough publish "Counting Blessings Versus Burdens," the first major experiment on gratitude and wellbeing.

Gratitude science goes mainstream

Emmons's book Thanks! brings the research, and the often-quoted happiness claims, to a general audience.

A documented link to sleep

A study of 401 people in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research ties trait gratitude to better and longer sleep.

Institutional backing arrives

UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center launches a multi-year gratitude research initiative with Robert Emmons.

The month gets a name

Author Stacey Grewal advocates for National Gratitude Month and announces it alongside a free 30-day challenge.

The evidence is recalibrated

A review of 25 randomized trials finds gratitude's wellbeing benefit is small but statistically real.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Gratitude Month

No government ever proclaimed it

Despite the "national" label, the month carries no act of Congress or presidential proclamation. It was announced in a 2015 press release by a single author.

It is not the same as Thanksgiving

The fourth Thursday of November gets the feast, but the gratitude month covers all 30 days. One is a federal holiday; the other is an unofficial observance.

There is also a separate gratitude day in September

World Gratitude Day lands on September 21 and traces to a 1965 gathering in Hawaii. People routinely confuse it with the November month.

The research reached beyond healthy volunteers

The foundational gratitude experiments did not stop at undergraduates. One arm recruited adults living with neuromuscular disease, testing whether the practice held up under real hardship.

Canada got the month too

The founding announcement declared the observance for the USA and Canada, not the United States alone. It crossed a border on day one without any government on either side signing off.

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

Practicing gratitude is proven to make you dramatically happier.

The truth

Research supports a benefit, but a 2023 review of 25 trials found the effect on wellbeing is small, not dramatic. The popular "25 percent happier" figure comes from a researcher's book, not a clinical finding.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Gratitude Month

EDITOR'S PICK

Keep a short gratitude list

Once or twice a week, write down a few specific things you are thankful for. The original UC Davis study used roughly this format, listing five blessings, rather than daily entries.

WRITE

Write one overdue thank-you

Pick a person whose help you never properly acknowledged and tell them so, in a letter or a call. Naming what they did, and not just that you are grateful, gives the gesture weight.

TRY

Try a structured 30-day challenge

Follow a daily prompt instead of staring at a blank page, which is how the month was originally framed. A new small exercise each day keeps the habit from stalling on day three.

READ

Read the actual research

Spend an evening with a primary source instead of a listicle about the topic. The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley publishes the studies and plain-language summaries behind the practice.

MAKE

Make it a shared habit at the table

At a meal, have each person name one specific good thing from their week. Doing it out loud turns a private exercise into a small family or workplace ritual.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Gratitude Month?

1 / 9

Who is credited with establishing National Gratitude Month?

Answer

It runs through the entire month of November every year, all 30 days, not a single date.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

7sources
5primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
PR Newswire2015-10-30
November Officially Declared 'National Gratitude Month' for USA and Canada
The 2015 announcement naming Stacey Grewal and her 30-day gratitude challenge.
View source
Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley2003
Counting Blessings Versus Burdens (Emmons and McCullough, 2003)
The foundational experiments linking weekly gratitude lists to wellbeing, exercise, and sleep.
View source
Journal of Psychosomatic Research (via PubMed)2009
Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions
A 401-person study finding more grateful people sleep better, mediated by calmer pre-sleep thoughts.
View source
International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology (Springer)2023
The Effect of Expressed Gratitude Interventions on Psychological Wellbeing: A Meta-Analysis
A pooled analysis of 25 randomized trials showing gratitude's wellbeing benefit is small but real.
View source
Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley2011
Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude
The Templeton-funded initiative with Robert Emmons that distributed nearly four million dollars to gratitude research.
View source
Additional coverage
The Old Farmer's Almanac
Thanksgiving 2026: Dates and Traditions
Confirms Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, a single day inside the month.
View source
East-West Center
What is World Gratitude Day?
The separate September 21 observance and its 1965 origin at a Hawaii gathering.
View source
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Related holidays

MON
21
Sep 2026
World Gratitude Day
Health

World Gratitude Day

Give thanks and express your appreciation on World Gratitude Day - share your gratitude with family, friends, and loved ones!

171Read
JAN
01-31
Jan 2026
National Thank You Month
AwarenessMonth-long

National Thank You Month

It's time to spread gratitude and appreciation for all the amazing people in our lives - Happy National Thank You Month!

137Read
OCT
01-31
Oct 2026
Emotional Wellness Month
HealthMonth-long

Emotional Wellness Month

Take care of your mind, body, and soul this Emotional Wellness Month with self-care practices and activities that will boost your overall well-being!

23Read
MAR
01-31
Mar 2026
National Optimism Month
HealthMonth-long

National Optimism Month

An awareness observance in March promoting optimism and the benefits of positive thinking for mental and physical well-being.

319Read
FOR MARKETERS & CREATORS

Turn every day into a moment your audience actually shows up for.

8.4M
Monthly readers
5K+
Holidays tracked
Holiday Calendar for Brands Developer API