Giving Thanks - A Thanksgiving Kids' Table

Growing up, Thanksgiving dinner with the extended family always meant being banished to the dreaded “kid’s table.” From a kid’s point of view, all the fun stuff went on at the well dressed adult’s table and that’s where I always wanted to be!

So when I started thinking about Thanksgiving this year, I thought about my little ones and how I would likely be putting them at their own tiny table to eat their Thanksgiving meal. After talking to a few other moms about Thankgiving, I also thought about how those hours spent cooking are the hardest for the parents to keep the kids out from underfoot. And taking all that into consideration, I designed a crafty little Thanksgiving table to occupy the children and make them excited to have their own little place to eat.

An old tablecloth was put on the table and covered with a length of brown craft paper. I fringed the ends of the craft paper ala Martha Stewart, then drew rectangles on for placemats. The kids were later able to color the placemats themselves…and keep them busy for a few moments.

The first project I did with the kids is make the napkins. This was an ahead of time project. We used a stencil, so they were able to dab paint on with a little supervision.

Each child had a special place card made with their name on it to make them feel a little more important!

Each place setting got a votive filled with crayons and a little matchbook-style pack of papers to draw on. I banded them with napkin rings to make them pretty.

My daughter actually sat at this table coloring the tiny papers and playing with everything on it for about 45 minutes after I stopped taking her picture – I knew then it was a hit!

Another favorite was the turkey finger puppet I quickly stitched together ahead of time out of felt. You can see the tutorial and download the templates here.

This paper craft “Tree of Thanks” is included in my thanksgiving printable set. After you cut everything out and slide the two tree pieces together, the kids can write what they are thankful for on each leaf and hang it on the tree. It doubles as a kid-friendly centerpiece!

Aside from the fun things to play with on the table, I also made kid-size pies with 5-inch pie pans. My daughter’s eyes did light up a bit when she thought she was going to get to eat the whole pie…and even though she didn’t have that opportunity, she really loved that dessert was just her size.

Custom labels also made wrapping up the tiny pies to send home with our little guests extra pretty.

It was really great to see the table as a whole was so entertaining. I have tutorials for the projects seen on the table written and ready to post this week, so follow along for some great kid-oriented crafts to get ready for turkey day!