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Craft ideas with a Thanksgiving theme
By Bill Hankins
The Paris News
Published November 26, 2009
Just as it is the center attraction of food on Thanksgiving, the turkey also is the main focus of decorations, crafts and centerpieces for the holiday.
Outside and inside, Thanksgiving is a leading holiday for crafters, who lean on decades of decorating experience all the way back to the pilgrim thanksgiving.
That first Thanksgiving brought out the best in table decorations and displays with shocks of cornstalks, pumpkins and carved wooden turkeys.
Today, homes are decorated for the feast, with centerpieces featuring the bountiful harvest.
One addition in decorations since that first Thanksgiving is the pilgrims themselves.
Today’s holiday crafts often feature images of the pilgrims in window displays and door hangers, and some organizations dress in pilgrim attire when serving Thanksgiving meals.
The turkey still is the most common image in decorations, and often the food is prepared and served decorated with an item depicting the Thanksgiving theme.
It is a fun holiday for crafters, who continuously come up with cute and unusual designs for everything from drink cups to table napkins to turkey fridge magnets.
Some hostesses keep the youngsters busy creating designs for the holiday, including paper cup turkeys for place cards at the table.
There is never a shortage of colorful leaves during the fall holiday season, and leaves are forever finding their way into Thanksgiving craft designs, as are pine cones and various nuts that help to create a feeling of warmth.
Fruits and vegetables are big items to decorate a Thanksgiving meal, since those are part of the holiday tradition of serving items native to America.
Following is some of the more common craft items that will be found in homes this Thanksgiving.
Dress up dolls or paper dolls as turkeys, pilgrims, Indians or other things to place around the room for guests to see.
Another neat design is a fan-tail turkey. Just open up the fan, paint stripes of yellow, orange and red on the fan and let it dry. Print turkey parts on card stock. Cut out pieces. You won’t need the large oval used for feathers. Glue the other pieces together. Glue the turkey to the fan. Make a small loop out of red satin cord and glue to the top, back of the fan for hanging.
A turkey centerpiece can be made easily with an old glove or a disposable glove.
Stuff a disposable glove with crumpled tissue paper. Use a rubber band to close up the bottom. Poke a hole in the Styrofoam and push the rubber banded bottom of glove into the hole. Glue feathers onto both sides of the fingers and palm of the stuffed glove. Cut out eyes, waddle, and beak from craft foam. Glue onto thumb. Cover the Styrofoam base with pieces of raffia.
Turkey doorhangers are simple to make and fun for youngsters to put together.
Assemble the turkey on the door hanger beginning with the tail feathers. Write a neat saying on the door hanger using a permanent black marker. Add leaves and glue them to the door hanger around lettering and turkey.
A pilgrim hat for youngsters is easy to make. Cut out a flat design of a pilgrim hat with black paper, glue a brown band and yellow buckle to the front of the hat, then glue a band that will fit on a youngster’s head.
It doesn’t take much imagination for a youngster to take fallen leaves and create designs with them by gluing them to cardboard pieces.
Designs can be created of turkeys, Native Americans, cornucopias, football projects and more. Other items can be colorful and decorative and entertain as well as excite guests, especially the children.
Do place cards, place mats or a Thanksgiving guest book with colorful leaves or turkey designs.
The ideas for Thanksgiving can go as far as the imagination takes you.
Just remember the reason for the season and work some craft items around being thankful for why we have theme.
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