Planning a Thanksgiving bash that works for everyone can be a challenge. Luckily, the kids are easy to please with a little planning.
Here are a few tricks to keep the kiddos happy and make cleanup easier on everyone.
Simple Bites
Keep the kiddie menu simple and satisfying with comfort foods like mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, cut apples and rolls. Leave any sauces as optional additions for the kids’ dishes and have sandwich supplies on hand just in case. Thanksgiving is an exciting time, and some kids might not feel ready to experiment with a new food or flavor. What’s important is that they’re here and that they’re fed.
Tidy Tools
Disposable Tablecloth
The good tablecloth is one elbow away from a cranberry-colored catastrophe. Save yourself the heartache and opt for a quick cleanup with a tablecloth you can toss, stains and all. Alternatively, use a transparent tablecloth protector for a relatively quick wipe-down.
Nearby Trashcan
Having an accessible and visible trashcan nearby greatly increases the chance that kids will toss their trash without prompting rather than stash their gravy-scented napkins in the cushions.
Hand Sanitizing Wipes
Keep little hands from spreading big messes by adding hand sanitizing wipes to your kid-centric tablescape.
Craft Corner
You don’t need to lay out instructions for kids to have fun creating. The greatest of turkey crafts can be made with only a few basic supplies like construction paper, safety scissors, glue sticks, feathers and washable markers.
Air-dry clay, printed coloring sheets, crayons and washable paints are also superb additions to any children’s craft bin.
However, when picking out what supplies you need for your craft corner, you should consider the ages of the kids in attendance. If there are children ages 3 and younger toddling around, you’ll want to skip any small stickers, rhinestones or buttons, as these can be a choking hazard.
Gobble Games
Feather Turkey
For this game, print or draw the body of a turkey, blindfold the kids and let them take turns trying to tape craft or paper feathers to the turkey. Your turkey does not need to be fancy. A brown oval with googly eyes will do the trick just as well as a proper portrait.
Thanks Word Challenge
Have all the participants sit or stand in a circle, facing inward. Start with the person who has the birthday closest to Thanksgiving and have them say one thing they’re thankful for.
Remember the letter that word ends with. Next, move to the person to their right and have them say something they’re thankful for that starts with the letter the last person’s word ended with. Repeat until you make it the whole way around the circle.
For example, if the starting person says “my cat,” the second person would have to name something that starts with “T,” like “tablet” or “turtle.”
Turkey Twists
Remember, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. All the games kids know and love work just fine for Thanksgiving. You can always make them festive with a little tweaking. Duck-duck-goose can become duck-duck-turkey. You can draw turkey faces on eggs for an egg-and-spoon race or you can set up a scavenger hunt with pumpkins, turkeys, acorns, squash and leaves.
