Thanksgiving Activities for Kids: Crafts, Games, Projects, and Fun Ideas
Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful time for families to pause, reflect on gratitude, and enjoy a feast together. However, keeping the kids busy and entertained—especially while the whole family is gathering and the main dinner preparations are underway—often requires a well-stocked arsenal of fun, engaging, and age-appropriate activities. This comprehensive guide is your ultimate resource for ensuring a joyful and low-stress holiday for all.
We’ve gathered a complete collection of Thanksgiving-themed activities for kids, spanning delightful Thanksgiving crafts for kids, engaging Thanksgiving games, enriching learning opportunities, festive decoration projects, and meaningful gratitude exercises. Whether you need quiet, easy Thanksgiving crafts for the little ones (preschoolers and up) at the kids table or high-energy family games to entertain kids of all ages, we cover skill levels from quick, fun, and easy setups to projects that require more hands-on time. Our focus is on accessible, budget-friendly materials like paper plates, paper rolls and pine cones to help you keep the kids entertained and make lasting holiday memories.
Easy Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids
Simple craft projects are fantastic for keeping children happily occupied while fostering creativity and fine motor skills. These easy crafts use everyday items, offer quick setup, and allow children to create something beautiful to decorate the home or dinner table.
Pumpkin Turkey Crafts
Turning a pumpkin into a turkey is a festive and fun project. You can use mini foam or real pumpkin varieties. This is a brilliant way to merge two key elements of autumn and Thanksgiving.
Materials: Mini pumpkin (real or foam), construction paper (brown, red, yellow, orange), feather boa or craft feathers, googly eyes, craft glue, and pipe cleaners for legs.
Instructions:
- Glue the googly eyes onto the pumpkin’s front.
- Cut a small diamond shape from yellow paper for the beak and a wavy red piece for the wattle. Glue them on.
- Glue the feathers or feather boa to the back of the pumpkin, fanning them out like a turkey’s tail.
- Variation for little ones: Use pre-cut foam shapes and stickers to make it even easier.
Leaf Decor Pumpkin Projects
Collecting leaves is a quintessential fall activity, and turning them into decorations adds a wonderful, natural touch to your holiday decor.
| Age Group | Leaf-Collecting Tip | Decoration Method |
| Preschoolers | Focus on large, easy-to-handle leaves. | Crayon rubbing: Place leaves under paper and rub with a crayon to transfer the texture. Cut out the shape and glue onto the pumpkin. |
| Kids of all ages | Gather colorful, flat, and dry leaves. | Mod Podge Method: Apply a layer of Mod Podge (or watered-down craft glue) onto the pumpkin, place the leaves on top, and seal with a final layer. |
Mini Pumpkin Painting for Kids
Painting small pumpkins is a delightful activity that can result in charming, hand-painted centerpiece decorations.
- Techniques: Use acrylic paint or non-toxic washable paints. Stencils or painter’s tape can help create clean lines for stripes or geometric patterns.
- Themes: Focus on simple thanksgiving-themed designs: polka dots, stripes, or drawing small acorn shapes, corn, or tiny turkeys.
- Tip: Placing the pumpkin on a paper plate or a piece of cardboard makes for easy cleanup and a safe drying station.
Thanksgiving Flower Wreath for Kids
A simple, lightweight wreath is a lovely project for kids to create a festive decoration for the front door or a bedroom.
- Process: Use a plain cardboard or foam ring as the base. Have children glue or tie (using twine or ribbon) faux flowers, small acorn caps, pieces of burlap, and colorful paper leaf cutouts onto the ring.
- Expert Insight: This activity is excellent for promoting spatial reasoning as children arrange the elements to create balance and visual appeal.
Pine Cone Turkey Decorations
Nature provides the perfect base for these charming, quick-to-make turkeys—they are one of the best thanksgiving decorations for the table.
- Steps: Gather leaves and pine cones on an outdoor walk. Kids can glue googly eyes, a small felt wattle, and a beak onto the wider end of the pine cone. Glue small paper or felt feathers to the back for the tail. A drop of hot glue (applied by an adult) helps secure the base.
Thanksgiving Paper Crafts and DIY Decorations
Paper is readily available, inexpensive, and incredibly versatile for holiday art activities. These paper-based projects are accessible, fun, and provide excellent opportunities for cutting, folding, and coloring.
Paper Roll Turkey Craft
Repurposing materials like paper rolls (toilet paper or paper towel tubes) into a friendly turkey is a popular, eco-friendly fun thanksgiving craft.
- How-to: Paint the paper roll brown and let it dry. Cut colorful paper (or use real feathers) for the tail. Glue the feathers to the inside back of the roll. Add googly eyes, a beak, and a wattle to the front. You can also use brown paper bags for a similar effect.
Handprint Leaf Turkey Art
This creates a personalized handprint keepsake families will treasure for years.
Instructions:
- Have the child trace and cut out several handprints from different colored construction paper (red, orange, yellow).
- Glue these handprint cutouts onto a piece of paper in a fan shape to form the turkey’s tail feathers.
- Draw or cut out a turkey body shape and glue it over the base of the “tail.” Add legs and eyes.
- Educational Note: Discussing how overlapping colors blend can introduce basic color theory.
Glittery Book Page Leaves
A beautiful and unique decoration that adds a rustic, vintage touch. This is perfect for an elegant thanksgiving wreath or garland.
- Process: Tear pages from an old, discarded book. Trace a leaf stencil (or a real leaf) onto the page and cut it out. Brush the edges lightly with craft glue and sprinkle with gold or copper glitter. Once dry, string them onto twine to create a stunning garland to hang over the mantle or dinner table.
Gratitude-Themed Thanksgiving Activities for Kids
The true spirit of the holiday lies in thankfulness. Integrating gratitude activities helps children focus on what they are truly grateful for and fosters positive emotional development.
Family Thankful Jar Activity
This simple yet powerful activity shifts the focus from the feast to the feelings.
- Setup: Decorate a simple glass or mason jar. Place it near the kitchen or living room with slips of paper and pencils or crayons.
- Activity: Throughout November or on thanksgiving day, encourage every member of the whole family to write down or draw things you’re grateful for and place the notes in the jar.
- Sharing: Read the notes aloud before or after dinner. This is a meaningful way to encourage communication around the table.
Gratefulness Chains and Gratitude Tree
These create festive, visible reminders of thankfulness that double as seasonal decoration.
- Chains: Cut construction paper into strips. Write or draw one thing they are grateful for on each strip. Loop the strips together and secure with glue or tape to create a decorative chain.
- Gratitude Tree: Draw a simple tree trunk outline on brown paper or use a dry branch as the base. Cut out small paper leaves. As kids share what they are thankful for, they write it on a leaf and glue it to the branch.
Thankful Turkey Craft
This is a personalized turkey craft that directly links the act of crafting with the concept of thankfulness.
- Steps: Create a simple turkey body (cut from felt or paper). Instead of plain decorative feathers, have the child cut out five to ten paper feathers. Write one thing they are grateful for on each feather before gluing them onto the turkey’s back. This works well for preschoolers who can dictate their thoughts to an adult.
Gratitude Activity Pages
Printable activity sheets are the perfect low-prep activity for the kids table or a quiet moment.
- Ideas: Include printable thanksgiving pages with coloring sections, “I am Thankful For…” writing prompts, or simple drawing activities focused on appreciation for family, friends, and food.
Thanksgiving Games for Kids
Games are essential for burning off energy before the big meal and keeping the atmosphere light and playful.
Thanksgiving Bingo and Matching Games
These are classic, quiet games that are easy to manage for large groups or the kids table.
- How-to: Find printable bingo cards with thanksgiving-themed icons (turkey, pumpkin pie, corn, acorn, pilgrim hat, etc.). Use corn kernels or mini marshmallows as markers.
Thanksgiving Pictionary and Charades
These active games require no materials other than paper and a pencil and are great for kids of all ages and the whole family.
Word List: Prepare a simple list of themed words suitable for children, such as “eating stuffing,” “a cornucopia,” “pumpkin pie,” “gobble,” “football game,” or “a feast.”
Thanksgiving Minute-to-Win Games
Short, high-energy challenges are perfect for quick bursts of fun before dinner.
- Feather Float: Give each child a cotton ball or a small craft feather. They must use only their breath to keep the “feather” floating in the air for one minute.
- Pumpkin Stack: Challenge kids to stack mini pumpkins or canned goods into a pyramid within 60 seconds.
Thanksgiving Trivia and Word Games
A fun way to engage older children and adults in a casual challenge.
- Trivia: Focus on fun facts about Thanksgiving history, traditional foods (stuffing, dessert), or fall holidays.
- Word Search and word scrambles: Offer themed word search puzzles as a quiet tabletop activity.
Thanksgiving Kids Table Activities
The kids table needs its own atmosphere and set of activities to keep the kids happy and engaged while the adults enjoy their conversation.
Butcher Paper Tablecloth Scribbles
Replace a cloth tablecloth with a roll of brown paper (butcher paper). This transforms the entire table into a canvas.
- Setup: Cover the kids table with butcher paper. Provide crayons, markers, and colored pencils.
- Activity: Encourage drawing, doodling, word search puzzles, writing notes to one another, or creating a collaborative family mural. This simple setup is one of the best ways to entertain little ones.
Turkey-Tail Napkin Rings
A simple craft that also serves as a charming place setting decoration.
Steps: Use cardboard rings or cut sections from paper rolls. Decorate them with small strips of paper, felt, or pony beads and pipe cleaners to look like a turkey’s feather tail.
Word Search and Coloring Sheets
Have a stack of printable word search puzzles and thanksgiving-themed coloring sheets ready to go. You can even create a simple “I Spy” list based on the items on the dinner table.
Outdoor Thanksgiving Activities for Kids
If the weather permits, take advantage of the beautiful autumn air with some nature-inspired play. Physical activity helps keep the kids from getting restless indoors.
Leaf Collecting and Nature Crafts
- Activity: Go on a “Nature Scavenger Hunt.” Create a list of items to find: a specific type of pine cone, a perfectly shaped acorn, a red leaf, a smooth stone.
- Later Crafts: Use the collected items for art projects like creating a nature mandala or the pine cone turkey decorations mentioned earlier.
Acorn and Stick Tic-Tac-Toe
Use nature’s own materials to create a family game.
- Setup: Draw a large tic-tac-toe grid in the dirt or on a flat piece of sidewalk using chalk or a stick.
- Pieces: Use small sticks (five pieces) and acorn caps (five pieces) as the game tokens.
Outdoor Gratitude Walk
This is a beautiful, reflective family activity. As you walk, encourage each person to call out three things they appreciate in nature—the sound of the wind, the colors of the leaves, or the warmth of the sun. This reinforces the core value of gratitude.
Thanksgiving Food Activities for Kids
Getting children involved in preparing the feast is a wonderful way to build excitement and teach practical skills. Remember to prioritize safety and supervision, especially with younger children.
Caramel Apples and Fall Treats
Kids can help decorate pre-dipped or cooled caramel apples with sprinkles, crushed nuts, or mini pumpkin candies.
Kid-Friendly Thanksgiving Recipes
Simple, safe tasks in the kitchen can make kids feel like they are truly contributing to the holiday meal.
| Recipe Task | Age Group | Skill Focus |
| Mashing cooked potatoes | Preschoolers and up | Motor skills, sensory exploration. |
| Making a simple fruit or vegetable platter (cornucopia shape) | Kids of all ages | Arrangement, healthy eating. |
| Mixing the dry ingredients for pumpkin pie or cookies | Kids of all ages | Measuring, following instructions. |
| Stuffing bread crumbs into a loaf pan | Older children | Following recipes, precision. |
Thanksgiving Home Decorations Kids Can Make
Kids love seeing their creations on display. These projects add a personal, homey touch to your holiday decor.
Jar Leaf Lanterns
These glowing lanterns create a warm, cozy ambiance and are a popular art project.
How-to: Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the outside of a clean glass jar. Press colorful leaves (real or paper) onto the glue. Seal with another coat. Once dry, place a battery-operated tea light inside.
Autumn Leaf Suncatchers
Process: Cut two pieces of clear contact paper. Lay one piece sticky-side up and arrange flat, colorful leaves onto it. Carefully place the second piece of contact paper on top, sealing the leaves inside. Trim the edges and hang them in a sunny window for a beautiful stained-glass effect.
Thanksgiving Party Ideas for Families
Extend the celebration beyond the traditional dinner with a focus on family fun and bonding.
DIY Theatre Show or Puppet Play
Encourage kids to create turkey puppets using paper rolls or brown paper bags. Give them conversation prompts or a simple Thanksgiving story to act out for the adults after dinner.
Board Games for Fall Evenings
Have a selection of age-appropriate, classic board games ready for a post-dinner activity that includes the whole family.
Thanksgiving Recipes and Entertaining Ideas
Creating a welcoming feast environment is just as important as the food itself.
Table Decorating Projects for Kids
- Place Setting Cards: Have children design unique, hand-drawn name cards for each guest, incorporating drawings of acorns, corn, or little pumpkins.
- Centerpiece Contributions: Use the pumpkin-turkey crafts or the jar-leaf lanterns the kids made as the primary decoration for the dinner table.
By integrating these varied, engaging, and meaningful Thanksgiving activities for kids, you can ensure that your holiday is not just about the food, but a cherished celebration of family, creativity, and gratitude for everyone involved.