During the Thanksgiving holiday, adults have no shortage of things to do. Shopping must be done. Food has to be cooked. The house has to be cleaned.
While mom is busy with all of these activities, the children may have a hard time finding more to do than watching television or spending time online. Here are some ideas for keeping the kids busy on Thanksgiving while you do your busy work.
1. Cleaning
Children love to feel that they are being helpful. There are lots of ways that even the youngest child can help out with Thanksgiving preparations. Your children can help you get the house ready for guests.
Encourage your little ones by telling them how important it is to have a clean house when the guests arrive. Smaller children can clear toys and other items from the floor. Older children can help by vacuuming, dusting, or sweeping.
2. Making Thanksgiving Decorations with Kids
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to bring fall cheer and eco-friendly decor to your home.
By Thanksgiving, many begin to decorate their home from the porch. You can help your kid to decorate it with pumpkins, dried herb decorations, and wreaths, which are most often used. Hung them on the door and indoors. Also, you can put plants in pots with orange and brown foliage, which can beautifully decorate your yard or porch.
Thanksgiving decor must include fresh flowers and plants. Regardless of the time of year, flowers are a real treat. Intense reds, oranges, and yellows compliment your holiday décor to add a festive touch to your home. In decoration, you can use apples, pumpkins, and other symbolic fruits in abundance to create an original decoration that your loved ones and guests will definitely appreciate.
3.Serving a Festive Table
Another brilliant kid-friendly idea to do on Thanksgiving is serving a festive table. You can use fruits and vegetables as the centerpiece of the festive table. Colored corn on the cob, acorns, and candlesticks will make your holiday table bright and cozy at the same time.
Also, at the center of the table, you can use a basket or cornucopia and place the same pumpkins. They will look fun and unusual. In addition, using leaves with berries, braid, and wire is also one of the greatest kid-friendly ideas. Be sure your child will be thrilled with all these kid-friendly decorations ideas that create a unique Thanksgiving atmosphere.
4. Making Cornucopia
One of the best kid-friendly ideas for Thanksgiving is making a famous symbol of Thanksgiving, the cornucopia. The horn is often made in the form of wickerwork and placed on a table filled with fruits and vegetables.
Also, for fruits, you can carefully weave or put flowers into the cornucopia. Some Americans even bake large horn-shaped pies and fill them with meat and vegetables. So, following this kid-friendly idea for Thanksgiving brings a festive mood, as the cornucopia plays the role of the main decoration.
5.Cooking
Children can also be great at helping in the kitchen. You can let them help with desserts and simple meals. They can decorate cookies and cupcakes, wash vegetables, or mash potatoes and yams. It is one of the most favorite Thanksgiving cooking activities for toddlers.
If your children are old enough, you could put them in charge of preparing some meals on their own. Some easy kid-friendly Thanksgiving meals that your older children can be responsible for are brownies, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, or salad.
Allowing your children to help you with cooking Thanksgiving dinner is a unique opportunity for you to bond with them. It’s also a great way to teach your children about food and cooking. Make Thanksgiving cooking activities with your children a holiday tradition in your home.
6.Crafting
Children love crafts. They can spend hours creating masterpieces that you will cherish for years. There are many simple craft ideas for Thanksgiving. Print coloring pages from the Internet for your children.
The search phrase, “Thanksgiving coloring pages,” will provide hundreds of results. You can easily find many coloring pages that are suitable for all skill levels. When your children have finished coloring, display their art on the refrigerator or walls for Thanksgiving.
Help your children make Thanksgiving costumes. These can be simple Pilgrim hats and Indian headbands made from construction paper. Have your children make one for each guest to wear on Thanksgiving Day. This will add a fun twist to Thanksgiving dinner for everyone.
A fast, fun craft that can double as a snack or an appetizer is sugar cone cornucopias. You simply use an ice-cream cone as the cornucopia and then fill it with snacks like pretzels, crackers, Chex Mix, nuts, or candies. Let your children enjoy them right away, or place them on an appetizer try for your Thanksgiving guests.
7.Installing Gratitude in Children
Gratitude is the ability to appreciate what you have. Therefore, it is essential to install gratitude in our children. Therefore, Thanksgiving Day is a perfect reason to do this, following some excellent kid-friendly ideas.
The best way to do this is to get creative with it. For example, you can make a beautiful garland of autumn leaves. Then, ask kids to write something they are grateful for.
Another kid-friendly idea to install gratitude is filling a Gratitude Jar. To do this, ask children and all family members to share what they are grateful for by writing their thoughts on small slips of paper and tossing them into a jar. Then, after dinner, end the feast on a sweet note by having the children read the leaves aloud while dessert is served.
These popular kid-friendly ideas will help your family focus on gratitude and what they are grateful for this thanksgiving season.
8.Preparing Thanksgiving Gifts
Giving gifts is no less pleasant than receiving them. On Thanksgiving Day, gifts are given to relatives and close friends as an expression of gratitude for the fact that they have been there all year and for the love and warmth that beloved people bring to our lives. These gifts are a part of our soul, which will warm the hearts of parents and friends.
In addition, the gift should symbolize the coziness and warmth that close people share with each other. It is especially nice to receive gifts made by the hands of your children. Therefore, you can invite your child to help you make a gift. However, the most exciting part is gift wrapping, as they can choose the color of wrapping paper or ribbons, smooth tape, or wrapping gifts with bows or pretty stickers.
9.Teach Your Children About Thanksgiving
With all of the hustle and bustle, it’s sometimes easy to forget why you go through all of this fuss on Thanksgiving. Take a few minutes to sit down and talk to your children about why Thanksgiving is celebrated. After your discussion, have them use construction paper to make a Thanksgiving card. Let them decorate the outside of the card with a picture that reminds them of Thanksgiving.
On the inside of the card, have your children list the things for which they are thankful. These cards are sure to be heartwarming reminders of things that everyone should be thankful for. Display these cards on Thanksgiving Day. Grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, and uncles will all love reading them.
10. Volunteering
You can also teach your children about being thankful and giving to others by taking them to visit a shelter, food kitchen, or food bank. Take them with you to make a donation. Tell them why you donate to charitable causes.
Share with them why this is important to you, and how it makes you feel to help others. You may not realize it, but these actions will have a strong effect on the way your children think and feel about helping other people.
If your children are old enough, then take them with you to volunteer at a food kitchen. This will allow them to have a first-hand experience of how good it feels to give back to your community. Many children ask to be allowed to volunteer in food kitchens on Thanksgiving.
If your child is one of them, make sure that you encourage and support their request. It’s never too early to start helping others. Younger children can learn about the joys of helping others by visiting a nursing home.
You could let them help you make cookies as gifts for the elderly residents. Nursing homes are often lonely places. The residents will be very grateful for your visit. You and your children may even make some new friends whom you can visit throughout the year.
It isn’t hard to keep your children busy during the long Thanksgiving weekend. Let them feel like a part of the festivities by helping out. Encourage them to be creative with crafts.
Don’t forget to give them a lesson about the meaning of Thanksgiving. These activities will make Thanksgiving an even more special time for you and your children.
Below, we have compiled a list of the most interesting questions about kid-friendly Thanksgiving ideas:
What to do with kids on Thanksgiving?
However, if your child is not older, he may be glad to help you in the kitchen. Preparing salads or decorating desserts is the best kid-friendly idea for helping in the kitchen. Serving the table is one of the favorite activities for children before the holiday. Get them to help you with it, and be sure they will do it the best they can.
