As parents, at Thanksgiving we are busy trying to decide who is hosting the dinner and worrying about what dish we should contribute. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that your kids may need to be reminded about the story of the Pilgrims and be told the meaning behind the celebration. Depending on your child’s age, a year is a long time to remember something. Don’t assume that they remember the story of Thanksgiving or even that the ship was named The Mayflower. Yes, we eat turkey, watch the parade and football on TV and we even find time to check out the store flyers for our Black Friday Shopping trip but let’s take the time to honor the reason we call it Thanksgiving.

An effective way to teach your children about holiday traditions is by making crafts with them. Conversation will naturally occur while you are sitting and working together. Start with some simple questions like – Do you know who the pilgrims are? Have you ever heard of the Mayflower? Allow your children to ask all the questions that they want. If you don’t know the answers, you can find out later-together! As you answer their questions, weave in more parts of the story.

Some Simple Craft Ideas

Thankful Collage

Trace your child’s hand on yellow, orange, red and brown construction paper, cut out and write something that your child is thankful for on each hand cut out. Depending on your child’s age, they might be able to do the craft with minimal assistance. An older child may also want more than just four hand cut outs. Glue the completed cut outs onto a page of card stock. If you have more than one child, each child could make their own collage or you could make one big family collage.

Thankful Tree

You can buy craft foam leaf shapes or cut out your own. Use brown paper to cut out a tree with bare branches. Have everyone in the family pick out a few leaves and on each leaf, write one thing that they are Thankful for. Shop your local craft store for ideas. A lot of the time you can find holiday theme sticker sheets or a color your own pilgrim and Mayflower set.

Traditional Hand Turkey

There are many variations to this traditional craft. You could have your child place their hand in paint or on an ink stamp pad and then place their hand on cardstock. You could also trace your child’s hand on paper or craft foam and cut it out. You can then decorate it with craft feathers or cut paper or foam feathers and glue them to the turkey hand. No matter how you choose to make this craft, it has the added benefit of being a keepsake handprint. You can start a tradition and make a handprint turkey every year. You can then display them as a holiday decoration and compare how much each child has grown since the previous Thanksgiving.