Decorating: The Children's Table

I love having a children's table at Thanksgiving. This year we will have seven little darlings around ours. The trick is making the kids table a fun place but not so boisterous that the adults are constantly having to monitor them. Before the big meal make sure there is an activity to keep the kids occupied (more specifically away from all adults who could use a break and a drink). Here are some great kids activities that can easily turn into their own personal table decorations.

1. Make their own place mats. For younger children you can have pre-printed turkeys to color and glue on construction paper. For the older kids, send them out to collect leaves and do crayon rubbings through the paper or my personal favorite weaving two different fall colors of construction paper together.


2. Make their own centerpiece. An easy one is pine cone turkeys, because besides the pine cones really all you need is a few fake feathers or leaves to use as feathers,a little bit of construction paper, and some stick on googly eyes. If you want to add a pipe cleaner waddle or feet, that can be quite cute too.


3. If you still have children in need of more items to decorate their table with then go with the ever popular paper chains. Take several strips of autumn colored construction paper, and let the kids write or draw what (or who) they are thankful for on each strip, and then connect the strips and see how long it grows.