I saw these great Thanksgiving placemats in Martha Stewart Living; you can download the printables from the website here. I’m going to have the children decorate placemats for the kids’ table.
I found myself next to Office Depot as I came out of the grocery store yesterday (my 4th trip to the market in one day!), so I popped in to get a roll of craft paper. I cut sheets to 11×17 and sent them to work with my husband to make copies of the printables. If that doesn’t happen (I’m putting the odds in his favor, but you never know about those man vs. machine battles), the kids can still decorate the placemats without the printables. And you could totally just use regular white 8.5×11 paper for this.
Now that I have this great roll of craft paper, I’m also going to have the kids make a table runner for the big table. This will be a free-form activity — we’ll just roll out 8 ft or so of craft paper and let them go to town with markers & crayons. I’m also bringing some glue, so if it’s not raining, they can add leaves, acorns, and stuff from outside to make the runner.
My 6-year old is really into writing names lately, so we’ve been eating with place cards at our dining table for a few weeks (if only it actually kept everyone IN their seats.) So I’ve put him in charge of making place cards for the Thanksgiving table. I packed a few sheets of cardstock, but you can certainly use plain paper.
Leaf Place Card Holders(Ages 9-16)
Using a folding technique, create beautiful leaves to hold the place cards your kids make.
Thanksgiving Nature Centerpiece(Ages 3-11)
A great excuse to get outside for a while, get your kids engaged in making a small and simple nature centerpiece!
Glycerin Leaves(Ages 5-11)
Another great one for getting the kids outside, preserve leaves you find on a family nature walk with glycerin and water.
Last Minute Thanksgiving Table Decorations
We are leaving shortly for a trip up to the wilds of Northern California, where we will spend Thanksgiving weekend with some dear friends from college and their families. It is the perfect way to spend Thanksgiving — but I know that Thursday will be a crazy day, scrambling to get potatoes mashed, turkey basted, brussels cooked, popovers made and pies baked – all while entertaining seven kids under eight years old. Oh – and it’s supposed to rain up there for much of the weekend. Which means we need projects!!
My kids are always happiest when they’re feeling useful (don’t we all just want to feel needed??), so my plan is to keep them occupied tomorrow decorating the Thanksgiving table (bonus: cross one project off my to-do list!). Here are the three projects I have planned: