10 Ways to Keep the Kids Busy on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is all about family, but sometimes the kids get lost in the shuffle. Here are a few ways to keep the kids busy so you can get busy in the kitchen and later, sit and enjoy your meal.

1. Get them ready to dress the part.
Have tables ready with construction paper, glue and scissors and let the kids make fun pilgrim or turkey hats. Precut feather for them to glue together or buy kits that are ready at Michaels or on Amazon like the Native American Headband Kit or felt Pilgrim hats to decorate with fabric markers.

Country Living

2. Painting Stones
Line a table with a plastic tablecloth and use bright Acrylic Paint Pens to make painted stones. Kids can write one word they’re grateful for or line up several small ones to create table decor. You can b uy some craft rocks at Michaels or order Craft Rocks on Amazon.

3. Movie Time
Set up a cozy corner with pillows and blankets and have a few holiday movies set up and ready to go.

4. Games, Games, Games!
Set up an area for kids to play board games. Check out our favorite family games.

5. Pretend Corner
Set up a corner of the room with their play kitchen where they can pretend to make their own Thanksgiving play food dinner. Leave paper and markers so they can make their own menus.

6. Crayola Wonder
Buy a few sets of Color Wonder Mess-Free Sets; they make marker and paints that ONLY work on the Wonder paper. I can’t say enough about this GENIUS invention. Kids can write on a wall or a white couch and the markers don’t show up. They have generic sets and also books with themes from movies like Frozen and Despicable Me.

7. Let them play a few rounds of MAD LIBS with a special
Thanksgiving Mad Libs, $4.99. Or here are some cute printable games you can have ready.

8. Let them entertain each other and you with a few Thanksgiving Jokes and Riddles book.

9. Set up a reading corner with Thanksgiving books from the library. Or purchase a few and save them for next year. Here are a few fun ones:
Over the River and Through the Wood • Thanksgiving in the Woods • How to Catch a Turkey
Today I Am Grateful