On Thanksgiving day, you want to be fussing over your little ones – not what they could do to your Aunt’s fine china. Thankfully, No Fuss Fabulous has an easy solution: a kids-only table that kids want to sit at! Over the next week, we will be featuring three Thanksgiving kids-only table themes for your inspiration.
Our first No Fuss Fabulous kids’ table, Little Hands Color Thanksgiving, was inspired by the little hand prints we find everyday on our windows. Every parent will tell you that those little hands are one of their greatest blessings, no matter how many times per day they need to clean!
Pictured here: Napkin ties using your child’s favorite crayons. Simply tie your napkins with raffia or spare ribbon and insert one to three crayons. Make finding their seat a game! Have each child find their seat by searching for a napkin with their favorite crayon color tied to it!
Every mom knows that one or two crayons definitely do not cut it. Why use one color when Crayola has 120 to choose from? A mason jar filled with extra crayons makes the perfect addition to a kids’ table as well as an easy centerpiece. Your blessings will have plenty of colors to choose from without having to start a food fight over Brick Red or Apricot!
Another No Fuss Fabulous tip is butcher paper. A large piece of butcher paper makes an easy stain-proof kid’s tablecloth. Or for extra fun, order Oriental Trading’s Thanksgiving Coloring Table Mat. Either way your thankful artists will be able to draw all over the table while ignoring their green beans. Also check out Oriental Trading’s coordinating mini Thanksgiving coloring sets!
Pint-sized pumpkins make a perfect portrait canvas. Place a tiny pumpkin in a fun tumbler and let your child’s imagination take flight. You can encourage them to draw something they are grateful for or just leave it up to their own creative thought.
Pictured above: Our favorite No Fuss Fabulous placemats for kids. Sheets of felt make perfect inexpensive placemats. We used dark chocolate felt here. At only ten to thirty cents a sheet, it is definitely a kid-friendly No Fuss Fabulous staple.
Instead of loading up your child’s plate with all the fixins, keep your little ones’ meal simple and fun with homemade Turkey Pot Pies! Turkey Pot Pies are an excellent choice for small mouths on Thanksgiving. They are easy to prepare ahead of time…and well, just so No Fuss Fabulous. Try our No Fuss Fabulous easy as pie Turkey Pot Pie recipe here. (Don’t forget to use paper plates for easy clean up. Fine china is for the boring grown ups who don’t get crayons.)
While putting the finishing touches on your world famous pumpkin pie (or your preordered pie that you can find here), have the non-cooks of the house gather all the little pilgrims for this precious and fun craft which will remind them (and you) of your blessings.
Trace each child’s hand on autumn colored felt. Have older children or the adult non-cooks help trace and cut out the hands. Using crayons or markers, have each child write their name and what they are thankful for on their felt hand. Punch a hole with a paper punch and thread a ribbon or yarn through it.
Prior to your guests arriving, take a branch and place it in a pot of black beans. Cover beans with leaves and pine cones.
Once the chidren are finished writing their blessings and name on their hand “leaf”, let each child take a turn placing their “leaf” onto the tree creating a “Tree of Blessings”. You and your children will enjoy reading at the dinner table what each other wrote.
To create a tradition, save each hand “leaf” for next year. You will be grateful to read them in years to come and see how your little hands (and blessings) have grown year after year.
For an easy Thanksgiving kid menu, try our No Fuss Fabulous Turkey Pot Pie here.
To see more Thanksgiving Kids’ Table themes click here.
For more Thanksgiving food ideas click here.
