What do you do on Thanksgiving?
We normally drive across the state and celebrate Thanksgiving at my sister's house. She and her daughters decorate the house and organize a Thanksgiving play for the kids to perform. Snow kept us in town this year, though, so we decided to indulge in the Thanksgiving buffet at our city's historic downtown hotel instead of cooking at home. We had a great time eating regular Thanksgiving dishes, as well as sushi, raw oysters and mussels (actually, I think the menu at the first Thanksgiving included a lot of shellfish, so maybe we were more traditional than we thought).
How do you make it fun for kids?
Our daughters are 3 and 5, so I wanted to make sure they had plenty to do at the table. I printed off Thanksgiving coloring pages and activities from various About.com sites, including the Guide to Homeschooling and the Guide to Family Crafts. We packed baggies of crayons, too. After the meal, we walked through the snow to our downtown movie theater and watched Tangled, which the girls have been wanting to see for months. (And, frankly, it was helpful to hang that over their heads a couple of times during dinner when they started to get cranky.) It would have been extra fun to stay the night in the downtown hotel where we ate dinner, but we drove home in the snow and snuggled up in our own beds and talked about getting the house ready for Christmas the next day.
Tips and Tricks
- Get the kids excited for Thanksgiving by talking it up at least a week in advance.
- Do Thanksgiving crafts to teach them about the holiday. We made pilgrim hats and bonnets a few days before Thanksgiving and I taught them the basics of who the pilgrims were, how the Native Americans helped them and why we celebrate the holiday.
- Whether you're going out to eat or having dinner at home, have table activities ready for the kids to help keep them occupied during dinner. Here are some ideas for Thanksgiving table games, too: http://kidsparties.about.com/od/thanksgiving/a/ThanksgivingGamesForKids.htm
