thanksgiving crafts - The Idea Room

Thankful Rolls

Want a fun, new tradition to add to your Thanksgiving festivities? How about making some “Thankful Rolls” a perfect twist for your Thanksgiving Rolls. These are kind of like fortune cookies…but for rolls…with personalized messages.

I wrote down some different questions on a strip of white paper. Questions about things that you are thankful for. So, if you know you are going to be making the rolls for this year’s Thanksgiving Dinner and you have a list of the guests who will be there, you can include them in the questions.

I made a question for everyone in our family…For example…”Why am I thankful for __(name)___?”

Then you can also make up different questions to go in any extra rolls you may have. 1 question per roll.

Then simply cut out the questions and fold them up as small as you can. Wrap them in a rectangle of tinfoil.

Then take your favorite rolls…homemade or frozen dough. I used frozen Rhodes dough for these to share with you here, but for our Thanksgiving dinner we always make my mom’s yummy dinner roll recipe!

Roll your dough into small balls. Then take two dough balls and put them together with a note in between them into a greased muffin tin pan. Let them raise the recommended time and bake them as your normally would according to your recipe directions.

Then serve them up. Your guests will be surprised and excited to find they have a fun little surprise awaiting them. Just make sure no one eats a note on accident :). I guarantee you will be able to spark a fun discussion that will help you remember why you are thankful for your friends and family.

You could also use this idea for someone’s birthday or other special occasion. Just change what is written on the little notes to customize it for a certain event!

Can anyone else believe that Thanksgiving is next week?? CRaZy!!

Thanksgiving Entertainment for Kids

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Need something fun for and entertaining for the kids while they wait for Thanksgiving dinner? Encourage them to play with their food on these fun food face plates.

image found here

I have seen these Food Face Plates around and have always thought it would be fun to make faces with your food. So instead of spending $9.95 on some, we made our own by drawing a face with Sharpies on paper plates.

We gathered up a variety of food to decorate them with. For example, noodles, dry pinto beans, kidney and black beans, split peas, pretzel sticks and cheerios. Then we let the kids design and decorate to their liking. I thought the older kids would get fairly bored, but they actually made a couple of different faces.

We used regular Elmer’s white school glue and it worked great to hold everything in place if the kids want to save their faces, or don’t glue them and let the kids experiment with different faces. When finished, they just slide the food pieces off and start over again.

Then we decided to trace the kids hands and they each made a turkey. Now I know this is not exactly a new and brilliant idea, but it might be something that you can use to entertain the kids when Thanksgiving rolls around.

Especially if you have a lot to get prepared for your Thanksgiving feast or a house to clean before company comes….Just don’t clean the kitchen floor until AFTER the kids are finished decorating their faces!

And in the spirit of giving, you can click here to download our Food Face to trace onto your own paper plates.

Food Face Plate Download

November 11, 2010 · Filed under: Thanksgiving Tagged with thanksgiving, thanksgiving craft, thanksgiving crafts, thanksgiving games, thanksgiving kids crafts

Thankful Bucket

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Do you have any special Thanksgiving traditions at your house? This is one Thanksgiving Craft we enjoy each year.

Each year my mom gives each of her children and their families a Thanksgiving Bucket. Then each family is supposed to fill the bucket with things that they are thankful for. Then after our Thanksgiving dinner, we sit around the fireplace, while are tummies are digesting our meal, and take turns sharing what we have written for our buckets.

It always invites a special feeling to our Thanksgiving Celebration. And though some of the kids (and adults…*ahem*) complain a bit, they always end up participating and enjoying the activity.

So this year I spiced up our bucket and have it on the kitchen table to remind of all month long to be thinking and adding things to the bucket that we are thankful for.

First, I added the word Thankful, then I simply took a rectangle piece of chipboard and decorated it with some scrap book paper. Glued some brown ribbon inbetween the paper and the chipboard and then tied it to the back of the bucket handles.

Then I added a small green leaf and some red berries that I snipped off the back of a wreath where you wouldn’t notice they were missing.

Then I whipped up some papers for the family to write down their blessings on. The kids are encouraged to write something each time they think of something they are grateful for and drop it in the bucket. It is a good reminder to us all of just how MANY blessings we enjoy and take for granted on a daily basis! It’s amazing how focusing on all the positives can change your outlook and give you some much needed perspective.

I love Thanksgiving for that very reason!

I have provided you with a free download of our “Thankful” cards. I simply printed them out on white paper and then glued them onto some colorful scrapbook paper. They aren’t very fancy, but if you would like to use them for your family, you can get them here.

What about you and your family? What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions that you enjoy?