Giving Thanks - Monday Edition

Kelli is hosting a "Giving Thanks" celebration on her blog this week. There will be lots of recipe, decorating, and cleaning/organizing ideas shared, and I am excited to participate. Be sure to visit her blog for lots of Thanksgiving inspiration.

Giving Thanks - Monday (Kids' Table Decoration Ideas)

Today I want to share a few fun and simple ideas for the kids' table. I am sharing photos from previous years. I got the idea for these pretzel snowmen from Family Fun. They made a darling centerpiece and the kids thought they were fun to eat too. Here are the elements I used to make them...

Pretzel rods dipped in melted white chocolate chips

Mini chocolate chips for eyes and buttons

Gummy rings and drops for a hat (I used more melted chocolate for "glue")

Tiny slivers of orange gumdrops for noses

Fruit by the Foot - cut into a strip for the scarf. I cut fringe on the bottom.

One year I made turkey cupcakes that were a big hit too. That idea also came from Family Fun. I used Keebler Sandies for the head and wings, candy corn for the tail, and black and white icing for the eyes. I think I cut the waddles out of red fruit leather.

One year for our homeschool feast I traced a Thanksgiving scene onto a large roll of craft paper. I put that on a table with lots of crayons for the kids to color. I brought it home and used it for our family Thanksgiving too. It was fun for the kids to have something to work on while the adults were busy preparing food in the kitchen. Then, I hung the mural by the kids' table for them to enjoy during the meal.

Another fun idea for a kid table centerpiece is a cookie bouquet. When my youngest son was in kindergarten, we found a hand print cookie cutter that we used to make turkey cookies. Skittles candies made the tails colorful. We used sugar cookie dough and placed sticks in the raw dough to make "cookie pops". We anchored the pops in some florist foam inserted into a flowerpot. Precious!

That same year, my son made a thankful tree at school. We used that tree on our Thanksgiving table that year. I made extra construction paper leaves and scattered them on the table. Everyone was encouraged to write things they were thankful for on the leaves, then tie them to the tree with yarn. The "tree" was a branch, again inserted into a flowerpot with florist foam. This is one of my all time favorite things. I saved some of the leaves to scrapbook with our photos from that year. I also saved the flowerpot he had hand painted and used it for a flower in the spring.

Thanks for visiting, and reading about kid table decorating ideas. I will be participating in Giving Thanks every day this week. Please come again!