Thanksgiving means we all get our fill of turkey and pie. And while the feast may be the main event, kids can get bored sitting at the table or waiting for you to finish cooking. We’ve got some activities that mean your younger guests—or the young at heart—can have a festively good time.
getting crafty
- To burn off energy before the meal, have kids forage for pretty leaves outside. They can be used to make a variety of art projects, whether it’s mounting them on construction paper or using googly eyes and pom poms to create cute critters like foxes.
- Make some turkey tracks. Create simple turkey feet by bending pipe cleaners. Dip them in paint and let the kids make footprints across a large piece of butcher paper or other paper. It’s simple, but sure to keep the little ones occupied for a while.
- Use felt to create leaf-shaped finger puppets. The kids will not only have fun decorating them with markers, googly eyes or beads, but they’ll have something to play with after they’ve finished the craft.
enjoying the feast
- To keep younger guests entertained during the meal, skip a tablecloth this year. Instead, put down butcher paper and leave crayons at each place sitting. Kiddos and adults alike will love being encouraged to draw on the table for once.
- Do you know which president made Thanksgiving a national holiday? Or what a baby turkey is called? Your family will enjoy learning! Try placing holiday trivia cards at each place setting. It’s a creative way to spark conversation or keep the kids occupied while adults are talking. (If you’re curious, the answers to the questions are Abraham Lincoln and a poult.)
- Activity pages are another great item to place at the kid’s table. These can be anything from a festive word search or scramble to turkey coloring sheets to gratitude activities. Plus, these print-outs can double as placemats.
showing gratitude
- Have all the guests write down what they are thankful for on a strip of paper and place it in a gratitude jar. You can have the kids read the slips out
loud during dessert to ensure the meal ends on an extra sweet note. - Ask the kids to sit down and write thank you notes to the people they were grateful for this year. They can give them to family members at the meal or deliver them to friends, teachers or neighbors after the holiday.
- Looking for a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table? Consider a gratitude tree. Use branches from your backyard to fashion a tabletop tree and have your family write what they are thankful for on paper leaves. The kids will enjoy getting to hang the leaves and seeing what everyone wrote. Don’t have room on your table? Paint a tree on a large piece of butcher paper and hang it from a wall.
- Making paper turkeys is a classic Thanksgiving activity. Put a grateful spin on it by having kids write what they are thankful for on each of the turkey’s tail feathers.