Thanksgiving Day Kids Crafts and Activities

Thanksgiving for us is all about bringing family together, great food, being thankful for the blessings in our lives and creating memories with the ones we love. So, as you might imagine, I don’t want anyone to be bored or hungry at our Thanksgiving dinner!

Since the Thanksgiving dinner baton hasn’t passed completely from my mom to me just yet, I usually spend my time on a few Thanksgiving desserts and the craft planning. One big responsibility is to keep the smaller guests entertained with seasonal, kid-friendly crafts while the turkey browns.

When planning crafts for Thanksgiving in particular, I try to keep them easy, but time consuming on the crafter. Basically I don’t want the kids to whip through the craft quickly since Thanksgiving at our house is an all day event!

With that in mind, this year I’ll be asking the kids to participate in several activities: a hue hunt, leaf rubbings, a thankful tree, and Rice Krispies Treats turkey decorating.

Starting with the hue hunt, ask the family to bring any paint swatches they may have lying around the house or visit your local hardware store and ask if you can have a few in fall colors. Give a few to each child and let them go into the yard and search of their colors. If there is an older kid that can host, this part of the craft could take 30 minutes to an hour to complete! The more fun you make it the longer they will stay at it!

TIP: Make the most important finds for the hue hunt items the kids will need in their other activities.  For example, small branches  are needed for the Thankful Tree and leaves of all shapes are needed for the leaf rubbing activity.

Let's get crafty! Have paper, crayons and scissors waiting at the Thanksgiving kids table when they return. Have the children place their leaves on the table, cover them with regular printer paper and rub the crayon back and forth at an angle to pick up all the leaf details. Once they’ve rubbed all of their leaves have them cut them out.

For this part of the craft you’ll need mini pumpkins. I’ve arranged mine in a little pumpkin patch to get the kids excited! You’ll also need tape or glue, self-adhesive craft eyes and some of the leaf rubbings.

Keeping the crayons close, have each child think about what they are most thankful for this Thanksgiving and ask them to write it on the remaining leaf rubbings. Once done, attach the leaves to the branches the children collected on their hue hunt with a touch of glue.

Add your new thankful tree to the Thanksgiving kids table as a lovely and woodsy centerpiece.

The last craft on my list is to allow the kids to make their own Thanksgiving dessert, Tom the Rice Krispies Treat™ Turkey! And the best part: there is no baking or kitchen necessary, which is perfect on a holiday where the kitchen will be bustling.

You’ll need:

• Rice Krispies Treats bars, individually packaged
• Peanut butter cup candies
• Black sprinkles
• Fruit leather
• Icing, white and some tinted yellow
• Lollipop sticks

And here are the super simple steps:

• Insert a lollipop stick in your Rice Krispies Treats,
• Attach your turkey’s face (peanut butter cup candy) with a dot of icing
• Add two dots of icing and two black sprinkle dots for the eyes
• Pipe on a triangle for the beak and little feet (use a resealable plastic bag with a corner snipped out for piping)
• Attach the fruit leather feathers (consider cutting them out with a small leaf cookie cutter)
• Twist a small piece of the leftover fruit leather to make the turkey’s gobbler

Just remember, no craft or fun snack has to be perfect as long as it’s fun! For more inspiration, check out our other Thanksgiving recipes and ideas. Happy crafting and Happy Thanksgiving from Snackpicks!