Thanksgiving fun for the kids

Thanksgiving fun for the kids

Thanksgiving for kids a lot of times consists of mom or grand mom shooing them out of the kitchen or dining room, outside to play or just to get them out of the way while the fevered fury of meal making activities is going at full throttle.

However, let’s consider some activities for kids of all ages so they feel a part of the activities and not isolated from them.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for family and friends, let’s make it especially joyous for the children. The little ones can engage in projects like who can draw the best turkey, or cut out old paper bags into leaves and paste their own special pilgrim pictures. You can have them work on part of a dish, maybe they can add the last minute garnishing to the mashed potatoes or make cookies and help with the pies. Anything to get them involved.

The older children can help the younger ones make a dish, that one special dish that is uniquely theirs. Remember it’s only one dish, so if it’s less than perfect make sure it’s a small side dish, something everyone can taste, that means so much when you’re young. Imagine how special the kids will feel when they know they contributed to the Thanksgiving meal.

Rather than chasing them out of sight until it’s time to eat, keep them engaged in projects that consume a lot of time without your involvement, you’re busy enough.

The teens can hang around you, sharing the tasks and learning those time honored family meal traditions unique to your family. I know families can be difficult to deal with, especially around the Holidays, that’s why it’s so important to engage the young ones in activities to keep them engaged and having fun.

Our family had an old wooden turkey body that held toothpicks. You added things like olives and chunks of cheese to the toothpicks and inserted into the turkey body to fill it out. Every year it looked different and to a child something like that is magic. Have the children be in charge of arranging the hor dourves plate. They can feel connected without that task interfering with the major meal items.

One thing you don’t want to do is create more tension or drama when trying to involve the children. Make sure, especially for the young ones,that the tasks are evenly distributed amongst the group. You don’t want yelling, crying, screaming and food fights on Thanksgiving. Hopefully when the relatives come over and see the children busy and happily engaged in the meal preparation, their children will want to join in.

It can be a wonderful time for all, young and old. It will foster family and family traditions and build bonds and memories that hopefully will last a lifetime and be eagerly passed down throughout the generations to come. Make Thanksgiving unique and special, engage your kids.

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