20 Websites to Plan Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids

Thanksgiving is a time for family, celebration, being thankful for all of our blessings.  With this time also comes the need to create family activities, family traditions (it is never too late to start a tradition), show gratitude for the blessings we have and knowing how others in the world share/celebrate a Thanksgiving type celebration as well.  Whatever and however you and your family, friends or just you celebrate - Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours and know that we are thankful for each and every one of you and wish you all the best.

By Michele Thymmons

Of note: I am an Amazon Associate and as such will get a small commission at no cost to you, should you chose to click through one of the Amazon links and purchase something. I do not recommend items or companies that I have not or would not buy and I have and will continue to buy things from Amazon. :)

1 - http://www.parents.com/holiday/thanksgiving/grateful-for-fun/ is a site full of articles on family Thanksgiving crafts, games, and activities to include gobbler place cards, coloring book tablecloth, adorable acorns as napkin ties and table decorations, glimmering gratitude mobile, itsy-bitsy pilgrim hat, gourd-genus photo display, shipshape dessert, the gang’s here for Thanksgiving - moving activities, game and group crafts, and many other crafts, games, and activities for all age groups.  

2 - http://www.familyeducation.com/fun/thanksgiving-activities-traditions/11-awesome-family-activities-thanksgiving-day is specifically looking at 11 family activities that could turn into traditions to include watching the parade, taking part in a ‘turkey trot’ run or walk, playing touch football or other games as a family, having a mini pumpkin hunt, research the family tree, volunteering at a soup kitchen, having a board game tournament, video-chat with faraway relatives, various crafts and other activities and games as well as other ideas to give thanks in your own way.

3 - http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/11/20-fun-things-you-can-do-with-family-on.html is all about 20 fun things to do with the family on Thanksgiving.  Some of these ideas such as taking a walk or playing a number of games outside are more active while others such as memory sharing, sharing thanks, and a family Thanksgiving journal are meant to bring everyone in the family into memories and create long lasting meaningful traditions that the children may one day pass on to their children.

4 - https://www.pinterest.com/explore/thanksgiving-traditions/ this is full of various pins focused on traditions for Thanksgiving and other activities straight from those that have started the traditions or done the activities with their families.  I’ll be seeking to pin more of these and others on my boards throughout the year, so stop by and see which ones you want to use for next year or this year.   

5 - http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/holidays/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-traditions is one article in a series about Thanksgiving.  This one is specific to Thanksgiving traditions to include ideas such as starting a breakfast club, creating a tree of thanks or a tablecloth of memories, volunteering in various locations (church, food pantry, etc), or creating breads of blessing (bread with notes or Bible verses inside).  Other articles in the Thanksgiving series focus on Thanksgiving gratitude, giving thanks, handling holiday conflict and Seven People at Your Thanksgiving Table.  

6 - http://www.womansday.com/relationships/family-friends/g1683/thanksgiving-games/? is focused on 15 Thanksgiving Games for kids of all ages.  These can include Turkey bowling (not using real turkeys although that would be an interesting idea), pumpkin twister, Thanksgiving Mad Libs, Turkey Marionettes, Turkey Feather Hunt, Thanksgiving Bingo, Thanksgiving Cootie Catcher and that is only half of the ideas in this article.  

7 - https://www.google.com/amp/www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/846197/5-fun-family-traditions-to-start-for-thanksgiving/amp?client=safari is focused on 5 fun family traditions recommended and includes planning a volunteer project, creating a Thanksgiving gratitude tablecloth, Thanksgiving football, creating a memory video, and a day after Thanksgiving brunch complete with recipes (reading these makes me hungry).  Other articles attached at the bottom include affordable Thanksgiving activities, Thanksgiving gifts for the family and family activities for Thanksgiving morning.  

8 - http://www.familieswithpurpose.com/family-activities-and-traditions-for-celebrating-thanksgiving/ This article has a number of great ideas for Thanksgiving traditions to include creating a tree of thanks, giving Thanksgiving dinner to those less fortunate, spending the day volunteering, sharing thanks with family, creating a blessings book, creating a family cookbook, sharing quotes and words of inspiration, making Thanksgiving Dinner together, sharing and reading stores, a twist on dictionary, creating a tablecloth of thanks, creating a “mixed up family” jigsaw puzzle then putting it back together is a unique twist as its a great way to keep those relatives not able to attend still there in spirit.  

9 - http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/thanksgiving-15-ideas-for-making-it-fun-and-meaningful-for-the-whole-family-161544  is all about making Thanksgiving fun for the whole family besides watching TV to include taking a family photo, holding your own Turkey Trot, having your own Thanksgiving parade, playing parlor games, interviewing older relatives, letting the kids help with the meal (who knows what type of games/i.e. food fights will take place in the kitchen and create a whole new set of memories!), a variety of activities for the kids to include a scavenger hunt, making table decor or pumpkin-scented play dough, and of course definitely not last or least - nap/rest time.  Two other articles linked to this one include ideas for celebrating Thanksgiving with far away family without buying a plane ticket and last minute ideas for family crafts, games and decor.

10 - http://www.parenting.com/gallery/thanksgiving-crafts-ideas focuses on 20 Thanksgiving Crafts and activities for kids of all ages.  All of these crafts are utilizing items you will probably already have somewhere in the house or can be purchased cheaply and found in almost any store (no need to spend tons of money on hard to find items).  Several of these crafts and activities include a Mod Mayflower, tabletop turkey, native necklace, darlin’ dixie garland, cup on the cob, thankful string, feather place mats, easy turkey centerpiece, hunt for turkey feathers, mini maracas nature, easy nature notecards for kids, and many more.

11 - https://www.parentmap.com/article/15-meaningful-holiday-traditions-and-fun-family-activities is all about how to create various holiday traditions for the family.  This article is more about various holiday traditions and not just for Thanksgiving.  Some of the traditions recommended specifically for Thanksgiving include volunteering as a family, creating leaves of gratitude, running with the turkeys, holiday readings, giving back as a family, and celebrating a season of light.  The key here as with any tradition is the make it something the entire family can take part in and enjoy.

12 - http://grandparentsplus.com/grandparentsplus-comthanksgiving-games-html/ is all about 15+ Thanksgiving games for family fun.  Some of these include turkey feather toss, pin the wattle or feather on the turkey, corn pitching, corn/turkey hunt, odds or evens, where is the silly turkey, Thanksgiving basket upset, pumpkin roll, what’s missing, spoons, Thanksgiving scattergories, and the website has a variety of printables as well as other links for group games and activities. 

13 - http://www.parenting.com/article/holiday-traditions has a collection of 9 essays on various ways parents of writers, bloggers, and Facebook fans have celebrated a holiday.  One of the Thanksgiving essays is about the passing down of carving the turkey from one man to the next and another essay is about the Turkey olympics or rather ways to “earn” those calories you eat for the Thanksgiving meal with some type of physical activity in the morning.  

14 - http://genealogy.about.com/od/holidays/tp/thanksgiving.htm focuses on five traditions that are popular for American families each Thanksgiving.  These traditions include turkey and trimmings, time out for the pigskin, parading around (parades - watching or joining), making a wish on the turkey wishbone, and finally giving thanks especially for having everyone together. 

15 - http://www.thedatingdivas.com/80-thanksgiving-traditions/ is a massive amount (80+!!) of Thanksgiving traditions.  The article focuses on a roundup of the very best traditions that have been integrated into Thanksgiving celebrations worldwide.  These include separating those 80+ into four different categories - 15 traditions for couples, 23 traditions for families, 14 traditions for kids, and 33 traditions on Thanksgiving Day.  Some of the traditions for families include taking photos with props, thankful certificates or pumpkins or garland or boxes or tree or book or bank, doing random acts of kindness, or a Thanksgiving devotional.  We might be checking out a number of these to see about adding them into our family as well!  At the bottom of the article are several other links to articles with a Thanksgiving theme and one has more than 101 more Thanksgiving traditions, 27 days of gratitude challenge, 50 fun Thanksgiving food ideas, pie night tradition, and an attitude of gratitude. 

Around the world:

16 - http://www.thedailymeal.com/holidays/10-thanksgiving-celebrations-around-world-slideshow is a slide show of 10 Thanksgiving celebrations around the world to include China’s Chung Chiu Moon Festival, Vietnam’s Tet-Trung-Thu Festival, South India’s Pongal (the Harvest Festival), the United Kingdom’s Harvest Festival, Germany’s Erntedankfest, Brazil’s day of Thanksgivings, Ghana’s Homowo or Yam Festival, Canada’s Canadian Thanksgiving, Barbados’s crop over festival, and Malaysia’s Kadazan Harvest Celebration.

17 - http://www.thanksgiving.org.uk/around-the-world.html describes the many days around the world where thanksgiving celebrations take place, where the main reason behind each of them is the same - to that God for a huge fruitful harvest.  The four this article concentrates on are in China, Rome, Brazil, and Korea.

18 - http://www.travelchannel.com/interests/holidays/photos/giving-thanks-around-the-world describes in a slideshow of pictures how several countries - Israel, Canada, Korea, Vietnam, UK, Germany,  China, India, Barbados, and Ghana - give thanks with huge festivals to commemorate a great harvest and year. 

19 - http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays-other/thanksgiving1.htm specifically delves into Thanksgiving customs in other cultures as well as describing how several U.S. Thanksgiving traditions (for example the cornucopia - from Greeks and Romans) come from other cultures and were assimilated into ours.  This article is a longer one and also discusses the origins/history of Thanksgiving, the Thanksgiving turkey, other modern day traditions, and several links to other articles about Thanksgiving - specific history, more about the turkey, and how the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade works.    

20 - http://www.theholidayspot.com/thanksgiving/around_the_world/ is all about harvest festivals around the world as has a plethora of information about Thanksgiving similar festivals in a large number of countries from Africa, to Austria to Balinese to Egyptian to Lithuanian and Scottish and Zambian as well as many more.

Thank you for joining us on this round up of Thanksgiving Crafts for kids and how it is celebrated around the world. If you have any recommendations on additions to this or other holidays you would like to see made into articles, either comment below or send me an email at vamicreations17@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!