I like having stuff for kids to do while they wait for Thanksgiving dinner. Ours help make different side dishes and desserts, and they have a great time. But there’s still a long wait between everything going into the oven, and the big meal at the end. So I like to have an activity to fill up the downtime.
Thanksgiving crafts are also great when you’re headed to a home that’s not kid-friendly. And they’re a good way to get kids interacting with family they haven’t seen in a while. Kids aren’t good at small talk, but if you have them work with Grandma or older cousins on a project, they warm up a lot quicker.
The supplies are simple. One large and one small brown felt circle, some feathers, a little red teardrop for the wattle, an orange triangle for the beak, and two feet (I just cut half moons out of felt and them made little triangle cuts in them.) And google eyes. You can use normal google eyes, but I was at the craft store and discovered these — google eyes with eyelashes. And if you can have a turkey with luscious lashes, of course you must (that’s a lot of italics. I feel very strongly about turkey eyelashes.)
And then just glue everything together. The small circle goes in the middle of the larger, and then glue the eyes, wattle, and beak on. Glue the feet at the bottom. And glue the feathers on the back. I think the feathers look best layered — I started with three yellow feathers, evenly spaced, then added the orange and red behind that.
When your turkey is assembled, glue two small ribbons across the back (or one wider one.) Wrap the ribbons around your napkin, tie in a bow in the back and voila! Your turkey napkin holder.
If you have a lot of children coming for Thanksgiving, delegate the shape-cutting to an older child so you have your supplies ready ahead of time. And, as with most kids’ crafts, the results aren’t going to be perfect. The point is to have fun, and as a bonus, everyone gets to take home a keepsake from their Thanksgiving dinner!
Do you and your kids have special Thanksgiving traditions? What are they?
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