Thanksgiving Ideas for What to do Before and on Thanksgiving

If you have kids, you definitely need a few Thanksgiving ideas for what to do with your kids in the week before and the day of.

Sometimes it can just be so overwhelming to figure out what to do with your kids while you are trying to do the prep work for the holidays - clean the house, bake the dishes, decorate the table and get rooms ready for all the guests that you are going to be hosting.  Even if you aren’t going to be the hostess, you want your house cleaner and you have to prepare for attending the party. 

And then you have to think of the kids.  What can they do to stay out of trouble and not bother you?  What can you do with them to celebrate Thanksgiving?  How can you keep them occupied during the festivities?  All of these questions make you need to have a few Thanksgiving ideas for what to do with your kids.   

Thanksgiving Ideas for Family Gatherings

If you’re not too swamped the week or two or three before Thanksgiving, how about planning and hosting a pre-Thanksgiving Party?!  This can be a fun event for your children to plan and host.  Also, I’ve made it very easy for you by putting together a FREE kit for you to use. 

The pre-Thanksgiving Party kit contains an invitation template that you can print off and fill in.  This way you can hand out some festive invitations at very little cost to you.  The kit also contains numerous decorations that you can print off, make multiple copies of and hang around.  Psst… using double stick tape makes it easy to tape your decorations to the floor or the cupboards or pretty much wherever. 

You could also make this party to take place on the actual day of Thanksgiving.  Maybe you will be letting the children at your party, have their own separate room to celebrate in.  In this case, decorate that room and make up mini platters of all your food.  You could even hand out the invitations when your guests actually arrive to throw in a small surprise for the kids. 

Thanksgiving Ideas for the Actual Day

It’s always nice to be able to keep the kids occupied on a big holiday like Thanksgiving.  I like to have stations set up with different activities planned for the kids.  That way you can direct the kids to the stations, explain what they have to do.  It’s so nice because it keeps the kids busy and entertained at the same time. 

The following thanksgiving ideas are not that time consuming and are great ways to entertain the kids on turkey day. 

• Make Pilgrim and Indian Hats – this is a fun and very easy craft that kids can do.  You can set up a station with all of the materials – construction paper, scissors, pencils, the necessary templates.  Then they can make their hats and wear them in celebration of the big day!

• Make some Thanksgiving Bookmarks – this requires minimal preparation and is a very easy craft to host on Thanksgiving.  Also, if you aren’t going to be the actual Thanksgiving host, it’s an easy enough craft where you could take it wherever you’re going.  This Thanksgiving Idea is sure to be popular with the kids and it’s something that they can use in all those books that you read to them!

• Play some Thanksgiving Bingo – this is fun for all the kids and adults at your Thanksgiving party.  I have some awesome printables for you to download and play with.  Oh, and if you need more you can always ask… :)

• Have the children help you set the Thanksgiving Table – this is fun because everyone likes decorating and beautifying things, especially kids.  You can show them how to put out the Tablecloth, straighten the edges; then there’s the napkins and silverware.  Any wine glasses that you are going to set out, kids can help you with. 

• Poetry Recitation – have the kids memorize a few Thanksgiving poems.  Then, figure out an appropriate time for them to recite the poems for the guests. 

Alright, so there are a few Thanksgiving ideas for what to do with the kids during this fall holiday. 

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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