Thanksgiving Arts and Crafts for Kids

Thanksgiving Centerpiece Crafts

Thanksgiving arts and crafts for kids are a great way to prepare for Thanksgiving and spend some time as a family thinking about what we are truly thankful for.

The following Thanksgiving kids craft are suitable for all pre-school age groups but will require supervision and guidance from mom or dad. Older kids will able to run with their own ideas once you give them some starting materials.

Thanksgiving Tree

Thanksgiving centerpiece crafts - simple paper crafts for kids

The Thanksgiving Tree craft is a great tradition to start with your family, and will be an easy Thanksgiving craft that the kids will really enjoy doing no matter what their age and it is lovely to hear some of quirky things that the children are thankful for!

You’ll Need

– a sheet of thick white cardboard (or you can take the kids out to find some branches to recreate a tree in a vase which is an hour of fun in itself!)
– pencil
– paint, markers or crayons
– construction/craft paper in Autumn colors

– bag of nuts in their shell to fill your vase – keep these as some of them make great starters for some handmade Christmas decorations

– markers
– scissors
– glue or tape
– glitter glue, sparkly pens or sequins (optional)

The making of the Thanksgiving Tree can be an activity that you do with your children in the lead-up to Thanksgiving or it can be done on the day, with your Thanksgiving guests. If you are doing it on Thanksgiving, be sure to prepare the trunk and leaves beforehand so that your guests simply need to write their Thanksgiving message and stick their leaf onto the tree.

Sketch a tree trunk with plenty of branches onto the cardboard, leaving plenty of room for all of your leaves to be stuck on later. Use brown construction paper, crayons or markers to fill in the trunk of the tree. Cut out various colored leaves, big enough for people to write a message on. Depending on the number of people participating you might like to give each person 2-3 leaves.

Each child writes one thing that they are thankful for on their leaves (parents can write for the littlies or just let them draw away merrily ). The leaves can then be decorated with glitter glue, sparkly pens or sequins. Once dry the leaves can be taped/glued onto branches.

If you are using real branches you can use a hole punch on the leaves and tie them up with string.

After the Thanksgiving dinner the kids can present their tree to the family with each child proudly saying what they are thankful for and why. 

Thanksgiving Nature Table

The Nature Table is a simple kids craft activity for Thanksgiving (or any time of year) to make children more aware of the world around them. Spend an afternoon walking around your neighborhood collecting leaves, pods, pinecones, seeds and any interesting natural objects that you come upon.

To make the Nature Table, find a simple wooden plate to display your treasures on, which can also act as a Thanksgiving centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table. Otherwise you can place a colored piece of cheesecloth over a side table or hall stand and display your found objects here. They can be accompanied by a candle which can be lit at the start of the evening meal.

Having a Steiner/Waldorf influence in our family we do a blessing before every evening meal. 

Here is one that is perfect for the Thanskgiving dinner.

Earth who gives us all this food
Sun who makes it ripe and good.
Dearest Earth, and dearest Sun,
We will not forget what you have done.
Blessings on our meal.

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More Ways to Celebrate Thanksgiving with Your Family