Wondering how to keep them occupied while you’re whipping up Aunt Marge’s sweet potato casserole? Set up a small table in an adjacent room, grab a few minimal-mess supplies, and try out a few of these timely strategies. Have them …
- Craft “I’m thankful for you!” cards. Have an example ready.
- Collect the most colorful leaves they can find outside, wipe their feet, then string them into a garland with a pre-tied needle and thread.
- Act as assistant to elderly relatives.
- Toss a football—even in flag football, supervised by a willing family member.
- Have children interview family members, then create a paper chain of all the things your family is thankful for!
- Create placemats or place cards for the feast.
- Color a Happy Thanksgiving banner for display, allowing every family member to write what they’re thankful for this year.
- Act as honorary sous-chefs for a pre-written list of activities: arranging crudités, stirring gravy, spreading whipped cream, loading mashed potatoes into a bowl.
- Complete printed, easy Thanksgiving activity books, sweetening the deal with a small reward for completed activity books.
- Get creative at a small, plastic-covered cookie-decorating table (think icing with decorating tips or in small bowls, with a few sprinkles). Ask a kind teenager or young adult—or an unoccupied aunt—to supervise.
- Put together their own Thanksgiving skit or play.
- Construct, with the help of a few examples and sample patterns, construction paper Pilgrim/Native American hats.
- Indulge a bit with the pre-recorded parade, or A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
- Engage in a friendly tournament of board games.
- Create a table of kid-friendly nibbles.
- Serve as waiters: folding napkins, wiping down surfaces, putting together a centerpiece of pomegranates and red grapes, or mini-gourds and “Indian” corn; setting the table; taking drink orders.
- Enjoy low-mess activities, like watercolor or playdough.
- Read Thanksgiving books borrowed from the library or your own collection.
- Author and illustrate books from stapled sheets of paper on the Thanksgiving story.
- Look up Bible verses from a written list of references on gratitude, choosing their favorite to read at the meal.
