It’s Gobbling Time! Enjoy These Terrific Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids
For many, Thanksgiving is all about sharing the perfect feast with friends, family, and loved ones. But there’s much fun to be had in the days and weeks prior as your family prepares for the big day together. That includes creating Turkey Day decor! These easy Thanksgiving crafts for kids are wonderful activities for kids to lend a creative helping hand and usher in the holiday spirit with a personal touch.
Thanksgiving Family Crafts
Join your kids in a Thanksgiving day project this year to make them feel like an important part of the celebration. With so many exciting fall themes to choose from, there are plenty of crafts to tickle their feathers.
Gratitude Turkeys
This is an easy Thanksgiving turkey craft for kids of all ages that will inspire them to think about what they’re grateful for this holiday season. The turkeys also make beautiful keepsakes to use year after year.
MATERIALS
- Cardboard toilet paper rolls
- Small paper plates
- Small paper cups
- Water-based paint in orange, black, and brown
- Nontoxic glue
- Child-safe scissors
- Googly eyes
- Construction paper in assorted colors
- Black marker or crayon
DIRECTIONS
- Set each child up with a toilet paper roll, paper cup, and paper plate. Have the kids paint the roll brown, the cup black, and the plate orange. Set them aside to dry.
- Help your children glue the brown tube to the back of the paper plate to form a turkey. Allow the glue to set.
- Trim an inch from the opening of the black paper cup to make it shorter and discard the excess paper. Then cut a circle 2 inches (approximately 5 centimeters) in diameter from black construction paper and glue that to the opening of the cup to create a hat with a brim. Help kids attach the hat to the top of the turkey’s head.
- Create the turkey’s face by adding googly eyes and a yellow beak and red wattle made from construction paper to the brown paper roll.
- Cut 8 to 12 feathers from different colors of construction paper for each turkey.
- Sit down as a family (feel free to invite guests to join) and list all the things you’re grateful for this year. Help your kids write each item down on a feather.
- Have kids glue the turkey feathers to the back of the turkey’s paper plate body, with the words facing outward. Once you’re finished, place your paper plate turkeys on the table to create a gratitude centerpiece for your Thanksgiving meal.
Candy Cornucopia Place Cards
Turkey Day looks great with a horn of plenty to adorn the table. This craft lets your kids create a treat-filled DIY version for each Thanksgiving dinner guest, complete with place cards to help them find their seats.
MATERIALS
- Medium-size paper cones (approximately 10 inches or 25 centimeters in length)
- Brown paper streamers or tissue paper
- Kitchen shears
- Nontoxic glue
- Cardstock
- Colorful markers
- An assortment of fall-themed or brown, red, orange, and yellow candy (such as candy corn, gummy bears, candy pumpkins, and lollipops)
DIRECTIONS
Young children will enjoy assembling, gluing, and filling the horns, but since sharp scissors are necessary, an adult should do the cutting.
- Create a length of fringe using the crepe paper streamers and your kitchen shears. Each cornucopia will need about seven feet of crepe paper (a little more than two meters).
- Help kids glue the fringe to the outside of the cone, starting with the mouth and wrapping the streamer tightly as you go. Once the cone is completely covered in fringe, adults can help bend the end of the cone (ever so slightly!) to create the horn’s curl.
- Write each guest’s name onto a 3-inch-by-1-inch (approximately 7-cm-by-3-cm) piece of cardstock and glue it to the cornucopia’s curl. Let it dry completely.
- Once the glue has set, fill each cornucopia with the harvest candies and place one on each guest’s place setting.
Pinecone Turkeys
This Thanksgiving craft requires a trip outdoors! Take your kids out to the yard or the park to gather supplies. If you don’t have pine trees near your house, you can find cones at your local craft supply store.
MATERIALS
- An assortment of fall leaves
- Pine cones
- Orange and red cardstock
- Child-safe scissors
- Googly eyes
- Nontoxic glue
DIRECTIONS
- Have your kids cut out an orange triangle and red teardrop shape from the cardstock to form the turkey’s beak and wattle.
- Instruct them to lay the pinecone on its side and glue the googly eyes, beak, and wattle to the narrow end to form a turkey face.
- Help your crafters glue their collection of leaves to the flat bottom of the cone, fanning them out and layering them to form the turkey’s tail.
VARIATIONS
Instead of using fallen leaves, you can use different sizes of paper doilies to create a lacy tail. Help your kids paint three doilies, the small one brown, the medium one red, and the large one orange. Once dried, attach the brown doily to the pinecone, followed by the red and orange doilies, to create a layered effect. You can also bend some pipe cleaners into teardrop shapes and attach them in a fan shape before adding the doilies to give your tail more dimension.
Thanksgiving with a Twist
Want to add global flavors to your Thanksgiving meal? Try one of these six fantastic suggestions from around the world or offer your family some Brazilian brigadeiros as part of their dessert course. Or broaden your kids’ worldview by incorporating a fall tradition from around the world into the day’s festivities.
Are your children fascinated by new countries and cultures? They’re bound to enjoy our World Edition subscription box. Every month, they’ll receive stories, games, and hands-on activities that will take them on a journey to meet new people and explore far-off places, piquing their curiosity and encouraging them to discover more about the world around them.