Frugal Thanksgiving Craft Ideas
from our Readers
Nature Walk:
Go on a nature walk with your kids and collect items like colored leaves, acorns, and pine cones. Place in a basket and use as a centerpiece or a table decoration.
Thanksgiving Mobile:
Collect birch sticks and then have cut outs ready with
holes punched in them so the kids can string them, we did corn cobs, pilgrims, Indians, canoe, leaf, turkey, etc.....the cutouts are just construction paper or you could use die - cuts too.....this was neat for our 3-5 yr old preschoolers.
Corn Cob Pictures:
Kids can decorate a printed picture of a corn cob by
gluing real popcorn kernels unto the page, just paste it on a thicker type paper, why not try "popped" corn too...., then add some "silk" with whatever you have lying around such as old embroidery thread
Turkey Feet:
Paint the bottom of child's foot with fall colors,
individual colors on toes; let them print it on paper, viola, after you draw on an eye, feet, and gobbler you have a footprinted turkey keepsake!
Tortilla Teepee:
Cut large flour tortilla in half and let kids paint and
decorate with food colored water and brushes, stand and shape into teepee,add some stick pretzels at the top with some spread peanut butter on the inside to hold them on..
Turkey:
I just had this idea for turkeys that the girls and I are going to do for crafts this month. We haven't tried it yet, but I think they'll turn out really cute. I'm going to the craft store to get some styrofoam balls (a big one for the body, a smaller one for the head), different sized colored feathers, red felt, googley eyes, and raffia. We're going to paint the balls brown, then glue the head to the body (cutting off a bit before painting so part of the balls are flat so they fit together). Then we'll glue the googley eyes on, and cut out some red felt for the wattle (or maybe red pom-poms would look good). I thought for the beak, a couple of pistachio shells would be perfect! Then we'll poke in the feathers for the tail and wings, and set the turkey down on a raffia "nest." My husband gets paid next week, and I can't wait to get started on it! I just drew a sketch, it looks more like a turkey when the head ball is 1/3 the size of the body, and placed close to the top of the body. -- Kristin
Pineapple Turkey:
One of my fondest Thanksgiving memories from when I was a child was the centerpiece my grandma used to always have. Grandma had 8 kids and so she was always into simplicity and stuff you could make ahead. Her
centerpiece which was quite large but could be adjusted to fit your table.
She had a turkey head she made out of red felt, it was stuffed with cotton and had a sturdy wooden stick up through the middle of it that extended from the bottom a few inches. She had taken golden felt to fashion a beak and white and black to make eyes that were glued to each side. It was nothing fancy but I'm sure you could make it more elaborate if that is your style.
Using the stick she would insert the stuffed turkey head into the end of a fresh pineapple that she laid on it's side on a big platter. The pineapple made the body and the leaves made the turkey tail. She would surround the Pineapple Turkey with red and green grapes that she had "frosted" by dipping them in a sugar mixture. (does anyone have a recipe for this type of thing?)
It was always lovely and very dramatic, but especially appealing to kids. It was fun to eat the sugar coated grapes while waiting anxiously for dinner to be served.
One year she made special turkey napkin rings to match. She used felt, little pompons and wiggly eyes to makes little turkeys that were glued to a ring of felt that a napkin could be inserted into. It was a fun project for the kids and gave us a souvenir to take home. -- Amy from TX
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