Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away, and I am in full holiday mode decorating the house. It reminds me of all the fun holiday activities we did at the beginning of quarantine. In case you missed it or you are new here, to keep our kids entertained while at home, we celebrated a different holiday each week. We went all out for each holiday and it definitely was the highlight of our year!
I wanted to compile all the kid-friendly crafts we did to decorate the house as well as books and movies we read and watched to get in that holiday spirit!
This post is full of crafts, books, movies, and tv shows- but to see all things Thanksgiving food related including my Thanksgiving timeline, shopping lists, and favorite recipes, click here!
Crafts:
Thankful Pumpkins
This craft is super easy to do and a fun way to get your kids thinking about all the things they are grateful for.
Tools you will need: Construction paper, sharpie, scissors, ruler, pencil, scotch tape, or glue stick
Directions:
- Take a piece of construction paper and lay flat.
- Lay ruler flat on the construction paper verticle. Lightly outline the edge of the ruler to create 2 in. lines across the paper.
- Once outlined, cut along the line into strips.
- Have your kids write out what they have been thankful for this year in sharpie, or assist them.
- Then gather the strips into a pumpkin shape and secure with glue or tape.
- Once assembled you can add decorative leaves and a curly stem. We wrapped strips of green paper around a pencil tightly and then uncoiled it.
Handprint Turkeys
This classic craft never gets old! It is a fun way for your kids to express their creativity while giving your home some fun and festive decorations!
Tools you will need: construction paper, scissors, glue or scotch tape, googly eyes
Directions:
- Take a large piece of construction paper and lay flat on the table.
- Have your kids place their hand flat on the paper and either help them outline their hand or if they are old enough have them outline it themself.
- Cut around the trace of the hands and set the pieces to the side. repeat 2-3 more times. Be careful when cutting and use child-safe scissors if kids are younger.
- Glue the bottom of the hands together to form the body. Line up your cutouts so that your hands overlap each other, but so that the hands of your cutout go out at a 30-degree angle. You can use liquid glue, a glue stick, or tape
- Cut out the shape of the turkey's body. We did a circle and an oval shape- but let your kids get creative here! Then cut out an orange beak and red wattle for your turkey's face and yellow feet. You can either create an outline for these features and then cut them out, or you can just cut out a triangle and round teardrop free hand. Glue on your googly eyes or if you don't have eyes you can draw them on. Enjoy your fun little turkeys by displaying them on your refrigerator!
Paper Plate Pilgrims
This craft will seem like it has too many steps, but I promise it's not that bad! It is a great craft to do alongside your kids and let their creativity shine!
Tools you will need: paper plates, construction paper, scissors, colored pencils, crayons or paint, glue or glue stick
Directions:
- Color or paint a paper plate the skin color of your choice and put aside
- Cut out a brown rectangle from construction paper, the length of the dessert plate, to resemble the pilgrim mans’ hair. With a glue stick, glue on top of the man's pilgrim plate.
- Cut out 2 pieces of yellow construction paper in the shape of large petals. With a glue stick, glue on the top of the lady pilgrim plate to resemble her hair.
- Take the white paper plates and cut the inside circles out, leaving just the scalloped rim in place.
- Cut out 2 triangles from the black construction paper, with the base of the triangle at least 3 inches long. Set aside the remaining black paper for the man’s pilgrim hat.
- Cut off 1/4 of the scalloped rim from each paper plate. These will be the pilgrim collars. Glue each black triangle onto the middle of each collar.
- Glue each collar (with the black triangle attached) to the bottom of each face/plate.
- The remaining 3/4 piece of one of the scalloped rims will be the lady pilgrims hat. Glue this piece (upside down in a U shape) on top of her head.
- Take the other remaining piece of paper plate rim and cut 1/3 of it off and glue it on top of the lady’s hat to resemble a bonnet. Discard the remaining rim piece.
- For the man pilgrim hat – cut out a large square and rectangle from the black construction paper. Glue the rectangle at the base of the square.
- Cut out a long rectangle from the white construction paper. Its length should equal the length of the black square piece of the hat. Glue on the hat.
- Using a sheet of gold construction paper, cut out a square for the buckle on the hat. Cut out the inside of the square. Glue the gold buckle over the white strip on the hat.
- Glue the googly eyes or draw them onto each Pilgrim's face.
- Enjoy this fun activity and display it on your refrigerator or use them as a place setting for the kids' table!
Thanksgiving Books:
The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks
Where to buy: Barnes and Noble, Amazon
Just a Special Thanksgiving
Where to buy: Amazon
The Berenstain Bears
Thanksgiving Blessings
Where to buy: Amazon
Thanksgiving Movies:
7 Brides for 7 Brothers
this one isn't exactly a Thanksgiving movie, but it has been my tradition for as long as I can remember to have it on while I decorate the house for the fall. My kids love the singing and dancing, and it goes down as one of my all-time favorite musicals.
Where to Watch: Prime or Apple
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Where to Watch: Prime, Netflix, Apple TV
Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving
Where to Watch: Prime or stream in 6 parts on youtube 🙂
Dora the Explorer Thanksgiving Parade
Where to watch: Prime, DailyMotion
Care Bears: Gram Bear's Thanksgiving
Where to Watch: Peacock App or stream in 2 parts on youtube 🙂
Garfield's Thanksgiving
Where to watch: Prime or Youtube
my kids think this one is weird (HA!), but I grew up watching it and it's nostalgic for me so I insist!
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
We watched the 2018 parade, mostly because the 2019 one was too windy for a bunch of the floats, but pick whatever year you want! You can find them all on youtube!
Just a warning – the ones on Youtube have some things cut out here and there because of copyright issues, but it was still fun to watch during our quarantine Thanksgiving back in April!
Alvin and the Chipmunks – Alvin's Thanksgiving Celebration
Where to watch: Prime, Youtube