Thanksgiving-themed Craft Projects You Can Do As a Family

Written by Milan Jara on 28th Oct 2014

Thanksgiving themed Craft Projects

Photo by Martin Cathrae (Flickr)

Thanksgiving is the start of the winter holidays, and it is a time of the year when families feel closer together. One of the great ways to capitalize on that warm holiday feeling is to take on some family-oriented Thanksgiving craft projects that everyone can enjoy. There are plenty of projects that have a part that everyone can play and go a long way toward bringing joy and happiness to your home this holiday season.

Decorate for Thanksgiving

Some families spend a day or two working on a centerpiece for the Thanksgiving table, and that is always a fun project for everyone to get involved with. But you can take that a step further and do something different by decorating the whole house for Thanksgiving.

Get streamers in various shades of brown and orange and line the ceiling and walls with them. These days, you will find plenty of pre-made Thanksgiving decorations that the whole family can buy and put up around the house. After you are done, you can crown your Thanksgiving house with the family-made centerpiece for the table. Perfect!

Thanksgiving Place Mats

My wife and I like to consider ourselves artists in the classical sense. In other words, we can do more than just create great ceilings. We can also hand-paint some impressive place mats. This craft is easy, but it is a lot of fun. Go out and buy large pieces of glossy poster paper, craft paints, glue, glitter, and whatever else you can think of, and then have each family member make their own Thanksgiving place mats. In order to get Dad interested, just let everyone know that there are no rules at all as to what can be put on the mats. So if Dad wants to glue pictures of his favorite football players to his Thanksgiving placements, then that is just fine.

Thanksgiving Lights

This one takes a little work, but it can be worth it when it is done. Buy a strand of LED Christmas lights that have no special coverings on the lights. Be sure they are LED, and yes, the Christmas lights are already on store shelves. Then, take some ping-pong balls and use a steak knife to poke a small hole in each of the balls.

Take paint, glue, and construction paper and turn each ping-pong ball into a turkey. It is actually not that difficult when you get started and if you take the time to be creative. Put a ping-pong ball on each LED light, and then plug in the string. You will need the whole family on this one because it can take some time to make all of those ping-pong-ball turkeys. But, like I said, it is so worth it when you plug in those lights.

Thanksgiving Memories

Collages always seem to have a place at family functions such as reunions and weddings, and Thanksgiving should be no different. Take out all of the family pictures from past Thanksgivings, get color copies made, and then have the whole family arrange the copies on a big piece of poster paper.

If you don’t have enough pictures, then have everyone draw some Thanksgiving pictures, write a Thanksgiving poem, or just find some way to add to the Thanksgiving theme of the collage.

My wife and I appreciate the power that art has to bring a family together. That is why we hope that you take our Thanksgiving family-oriented craft ideas and use them to have a very happy holiday!