Thanksgiving Traditions, Food & Activities for Kids

Being a wife and mother is the most important "work" I could possibly do and oh my how blessed I am do be able to do both. I love being with and tending to the works of the home and the people in my home. I also love creating memories and traditions for our family. They bring me so much joy, not only to put together, but to see the pure joy on my children's faces is something I can't even describe. They look forward to our traditions year after year and I pray that they take the traditions we have in our home with them into their homes when they have families of their own. 

Favorite Thanksgiving Tradition

By far my most favorite tradition we do as a family is our Turkey outfits. When my son was born, I started making both of my kids these outfits and it's my absolute favorite. We are able to get several years out of each outfit. I use HTV and my cricut to create the design and then iron them onto the blank shirts/dresses. We take a yearly picture and then I make a collage to see all the years together. I am hoping my kids allow me to put them in these when they are adults because I love it so much. 

Thanksgiving Themed Food Ideas

We have never been big fans of turkey, so making a big Thanksgiving dinner was never top of our list to do, nor do we have big get togethers with family for Thanksgiving so one of the things I started early on was to find ways to turn our normal everyday foods into fun themed foods for the kids. It takes some extra time, but oh my how they absolutely LOVE and eat up (pun intended) the food when I make them look like fun themed things. My favorite part is being creative by using things we already have on hand and making them look like turkeys. Here is a peek at some of the foods we have had over the years. 

 

Thanksgiving Themed Activity Ideas for Kids

I always love putting together either a Thanksgiving Activity Mat for the Kids or series of fun activities that we can do together on Thanksgiving morning. The kids LOVE to wait for us all to go downstairs together to see what I set up each year. I look forward to surprising them each year. We have completed so many fun activities over the years with some including: painting a cardboard turkey, creating turkeys from cardboard and misc. craft supplies, coffee filter and teeny footprint turkeys (you can never have too many keepsake crafts), sticky paper turkey feathers, activity mats, misc. carfts, and turkey target practicing with our favorite nerf guns. Here is a look at some of the things we have done over the years.

READ HERE: WHAT ARE ACTIVITY MATS? 

Thanksgiving Movie Night Ideas

We also love to watch a family movie together. In the past we have watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but in recent years we tend to finish off our day watching Free Birds. You can find a full movie content review at the site Illuminating Shadows to make sure that the movie is appropriate for your family and aligns with your values. 

We have so much fun together and each year we make memories that will last a lifetime. I am truly so thankful for the time spent with my family and look forward to many more memories made. I hope you can find some inspiration for starting and expanding your Thanksgiving Family Traditions.