Thanksgiving Decorations Kids Can Make
Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday! What a spiritual
renewal to take a day to reflect over the past year about
just how good God has been to you and your family, to give
you harvest and shelter, health and hope. To get the most
out of this joyous occasion, make some holiday crafts with
your children. These days, Thanksgiving often gets squeezed
out by Halloween's spooky decorations and the lights and
gala of Christmas. With the following holiday crafts, your
home can be decorated for this quieter but important
celebration.
Turkeys are a natural choice for decorations. A familiar
project at this time of year is for a child to trace around
her hand and make the resulting drawing into a turkey. The
thumb is the head and the fingers are the tail feathers all
displayed. While many of the turkeys that are raised for
food are now the domestic white variety, the turkeys eaten
by the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving were the wild
brown ones. The tail feathers on a wild turkey are brown,
but they are iridescent. catching light and appearing to be
multi-colored. This is why children color the tail feathers
in bright colors.
The turkey's head has a wattle under the beak. This is a
vertical flap of loose skin that is red colored. Be sure to
draw this in order to make the hand turkey look like a
turkey. Add skinny legs and bird feet. When done, the
children can cut out the turkeys and hang them on the wall.
It's really cute to make a whole flock of these turkeys in
the sizes of all the hands in the family. The little hand
shapes are particularly sweet.
Another nice turkey decoration to make when making
Thanksgiving holiday crafts is a turkey door decoration.
Make a brown construction paper body and head of a turkey.
Now make a large number of colored feather shapes. Each
family member writes on a feather something he or she is
thankful for before attaching as part of the turkey's tail.
Repeat until all the feathers are used, and hang the turkey
on the front door to greet visitors with a message of
gratitude. Make a sign to accompany the turkey that says
"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good!" or simply "Be
thankful!" or "We're thankful for you!" or whatever you
like.
Children love making construction paper chains. To further
decorate the house for Thanksgiving, let them make a paper
chain in fall colors as one of their holiday crafts. Using 9
by 12 inch construction paper, cut the paper in half across
the long side and cut the halves into one inch thick six
inch long strips. Use a stapler to attach the ends of the
strip into a circle. Loop the next strip into the circle and
staple it. Continue the process alternating colors of brown,
red, yellow, and orange. When the chains are long, you can
drap them along the ceiling or stair rail. If you don't make
the door turkey, the children can write something they're
thankful for on each strip of paper before adding it to the
chain.
Thanksgiving is too nice a holiday to let the other more
commercial holidays crowd it out. By making holiday crafts
to decorate the home for Thanksgiving, you can keep this day
special, too. The extended family, aunts, uncles,
grandparents, etc., will be pleased to see the holiday
crafts the young ones have made to decorate the house and
make it cheerful for their visit.
|