Since moving to Atlanta, and being further from our family and closer to our friends, we have been hosting our Thanksgiving meal. I guess it’s safe to say, I’m an expert at roasting a turkey. Or, not really, but I fake it.
One thing I think I’ve gotten pretty good at is making sure that the kids have stuff to do, healthy food to eat and keeping them entertained through the day. Because most of the time, they aren’t interested in the fact that Thanksgiving dinner takes several hours to cook and that there are football games on TV.
It’s so important for the kids to have some good food to snack on while dinner is being made as well as fun things to keep them entertained. So, I thought it would be great to put a Thanksgiving basket together for them with a couple simple things.
1. Small fruits and snacks
Thanksgiving is generally a day filled with a lot of snacking and food. Make sure you have healthy and easy to eat snacks around for littler kids, too. It depends on their ages what foods might work well for them. My girls are all about little clementine oranges, so I had to put them in the basket. Blueberries, strawberries, carrots and many other fruits and veggies would also work- think mess-free healthy snacks like what you’d pack to travel.
2. Beech-Nut’s Coldpurée pouches
We really don’t need an occasion for Beech-Nut’s Coldpurée pouches because our family loves them at all times of year, but this is definitely one of them. Not only does the packaging make it convenient to cart around if you are sharing your holidays away from home, Beech-Nut’s varieties are delicious and nutritious. Because Beech-Nut is a company dedicated to infant nutrition, you know you are only getting what is listed on the pouch in it’s natural form with no preservatives.
With flavors like Organic™ pear, pumpkin & cranberry, it is easy to serve little ones on Thanksgiving because the variety fits right in with what’s on the dinner table for the whole family. Even the colors are festive.
3. Small and easy craft
Those little clementine oranges serve two purposes. This would really work with any round fruit, some felt or foam paper, wiggly eyes and glue dots. I just cut out the appropriate pieces (or left solid pieces for older kids) and then let them assemble their fruit turkey, just like the little gobbler seen in the picture.
For older kids, have them work on a thankful turkey Thanksgiving centerpiece.
4. Thanksgiving printables
Within the basket, I also designed and printed out several different Thanksgiving printables as well as some crayons, markers, pencils or watercolors. My girls love coloring, so this is the perfect fit.
All of my girls, too. So, I figured it was important to make some that all of them ages 10-2 would enjoy. So, I’ve added these five in addition to the one that says “Happy Thanksgiving.”
My 8 year old decided she wanted to color the turkey as soon as she saw it.
She’s definitely one of the faster colorers in the family.
If you click the link below, you will be taken to the PDF download of all six of the printouts. Or, if there is only one of them that you want, just have your printer print only that page.
<<<<——DOWNLOAD ALL SIX THANKSGIVING PRINTABLES IN PDF FORM——>>>>>
We’ve got our Thanksgiving table all set with a basket perfect for the kids.
Check out these other entertaining Thanksgiving kids table ideas?
Krystyn has been blogging since 2005. She is a sarcasm-loving, straight-shooting, jeans and t-shirts wearing, wife and mom of four girls (ages 12, 10, 6 and 4). She blogs about life as a mom and wife and includes anecdotes, funny stories (both mommy and other), family travel and more. She currently resides in the Atlanta, Georgia suburbs.
Such great ideas.
These re great tips and ideas. I always make sure to have kid friendly snacks too!
All the printables. I need some activities because I’m hosting this year!