Thanksgiving Activities for Kids: Before Dinner, at the Table and After

Good Thanksgiving activities for kids fit the part of the day they're in: small kitchen jobs and crafts while the turkey cooks, placemats and drawing games at the kids table, and a few active games once the plates are cleared. Toddlers need short, hands-on tasks; kids from about 6 can manage games with rules and a bit of reading. Paper, crayons, tape and one die cover most of the ideas below.

Each idea lists the ages it suits and roughly how long it lasts. Two or three are plenty for one day.

While the turkey cooks

The hours before dinner are the longest stretch for kids, and the kitchen is the busiest room in the house. These Thanksgiving activities for kids give them a job or a project somewhere nearby.

1Kitchen jobs by age

• Good forages 2 to 12
• Time10 to 30 minutes

A kid who mashed the potatoes will make sure everyone tries them. Match the job to the age:

• 2 to 3: wash potatoes in a bowl of water, tear bread for the stuffing, put rolls in a basket.
• 4 to 6: stir cold mixtures, pour measured ingredients, press a fork pattern into pie crust edges.
• 7 to 9: measure, crack eggs, mash potatoes, whip cream with a hand whisk.
• 10 and up: peel vegetables, follow a simple recipe card for one side, like a fruit salad.

Keep younger kids away from the stove and sharp knives, and give them their own bowl so the spilling happens there.

2Make the place cards

• Good forages 5 and up
• Time20 to 30 minutes

Give a child the guest list, a stack of folded cards and some markers, and they'll make a name card for every seat. Kids who can't write yet can decorate cards a grown-up has lettered. It keeps them busy for a good while, and at dinner they get to show people where to sit.

If you'd rather have printed cards at the grown-up table, our Thanksgiving menu and place card set prints a place card for each guest from your list. Kids can still add a drawing on the back.

3Handprint and leaf crafts

• Good forages 2 to 7
• Time15 to 20 minutes, plus drying

Trace a child's hand on paper, and the thumb becomes a turkey's head and the fingers become feathers. Kids color the feathers or glue on real leaves. Older kids can make leaf rubbings instead: put a leaf under thin paper and rub over it with the side of a peeled crayon.

Set the crafts out on a separate table with newspaper underneath. Wet glue takes a while to dry, so start this one early in the day.

4Thankful chain

• Good forages 4 and up
• Time10 minutes to start, then all day

Cut strips of colored paper and leave them by the door with a pen. Everyone who comes in writes one thing they're thankful for on a strip, and a child loops it into a paper chain with tape. By dinner the chain can go across the kids table or over a doorway.

Younger kids can draw instead of writing, or tell a grown-up what to write for them.

5Turkey feather hunt

• Good forages 3 to 9
• Time15 to 20 minutes

Cut feathers out of colored paper and hide them around one room or the yard. Kids collect them and tape them onto a big paper turkey body. For mixed ages, give each child a color to find, so the fastest one doesn't find everything. Keep the hunt away from the kitchen and anywhere breakable.

6Outdoor relay

• Good forages 5 to 12
• Time20 to 30 minutes

Kids with energy to burn do better with a run before a long meal. Set up a simple relay in the yard: carry a small gourd or potato on a spoon, waddle like a turkey to a cone and back, then tag the next runner. Mix ages on each team so the little ones don't always lose. A short walk to collect leaves for the table works for a smaller group.

At the kids table

A kids table goes well when every seat has something on it before the kids sit down. Set it up before you start carving.

7Activity placemats

• Good forages 4 to 10
• Timethe wait before dinner and the meal itself

Paper placemats with a maze, a word search and a turkey to color keep kids at their seats while the food gets passed around. Put a cup of crayons in the middle of the table, not one box per child, so there's less to knock over.

Our Thanksgiving kids placemats come as 8 activity pages with a picture crossword, dots and boxes, scrambled words and a big coloring scene, plus 6 fold-over place cards and answer keys. Younger kids go for the coloring and mazes, older kids for the word games. For a wipe-clean placemat, slip a page into a sheet protector and use dry-erase markers.

8Roll a turkey

• Good forages 4 to 9, two players
• Time10 to 15 minutes

Each number on a die stands for one part of a turkey: the body, the head, a feather, the legs, the beak, an eye. Players take turns rolling and draw the part that matches the roll. Once you've drawn the body, rolling it again means you skip your turn. The first player with a whole turkey wins.

It needs only one die and paper, and it keeps two kids busy at the table. One of the eight pages in the placemat set is a ready-made Roll a Turkey sheet.

9Draw your plate

• Good forages 4 to 10
• Time10 minutes

Before they eat, kids draw what's on their plate: turkey, potatoes, the green bean dish they're not sure about. After dinner they give each food one to five stars. A kid who refuses a dish may still taste it just to give it a rating. Read the ratings out to the cooks, who usually find it very funny.

10Question cards for kids

• Good forages 5 and up
• Timethrough the meal

Kids talk more when the question is small and specific. Write a few on cards and leave them on the table: What would you put on a pie if you could pick anything? What's something you learned this year? If a turkey could talk, what would it say? Which grown-up at this table would win a race?

A tablecloth of plain paper works too. Kids draw their answers on it with crayons during the meal.

After dinner

After a big meal, most kids want to run around and most grown-ups want to sit. These games suit both.

11One-minute challenges

• Good forages 6 and up, kids and adults
• Time20 to 30 minutes

Each game lasts one minute and uses things you already have. Stack plastic cups into a pyramid and back down. Move candy corn from one bowl to another by sucking through a straw. Toss a table tennis ball so it bounces into a cup. Give each player one try per game and keep a tally on paper. Grandparents can keep time from the sofa.

12Thanksgiving charades or drawing game

• Good forages 5 and up, mixed teams
• Time20 minutes

Write words on slips: turkey, pie, carving, parade, napping on the couch, football, pilgrim hat. Kids who can't read yet whisper with a grown-up partner. One player acts out or draws the word while their team guesses. Put one child and one adult on each pair, and the adults end up playing too.

For more games that work with grown-ups at the same table, see our Friendsgiving games and activities. Our Thanksgiving games bundle has a dinner table bingo with 16 different cards, where guests mark things that happen during the meal; older kids can play it with the adults.

13Thankful turkey

• Good forages 4 to 12
• Time10 to 15 minutes

Draw a turkey body on a sheet of paper with empty feathers around it. Each child fills one feather per person they're thankful for, or one thing that made them happy this year. Hang the finished turkeys on the fridge, or read them out while the pie gets sliced.

This one also works as a calm activity when kids get tired and cranky late in the day.

Thanksgiving activities for kids by age

• Toddlers (2 to 3): washing potatoes, handprint turkeys, feather hunt in one room, coloring with chunky crayons. Keep each activity to 10 minutes or so.
• Preschoolers (4 to 5): thankful chain with drawings, mazes and coloring placemats, roll a turkey with help counting the dots.
• Ages 6 to 9: place cards, word searches, question cards, relays and charades.
• Ages 10 to 12: real kitchen jobs, running the feather hunt for the younger ones, one-minute challenges, trivia with the adults.

Older kids often like being in charge more than being in the kids group. Ask a 10- or 11-year-old to host the kids table or keep score, and they'll take it seriously.

How to plan Thanksgiving activities for kids through the day

Split the day into four parts, and have the supplies ready the night before:

1. Morning: one kitchen job each and one craft, like handprint turkeys or place cards.
2. Before dinner: the feather hunt or an outdoor relay, so kids sit down ready to stay put.
3. At the table: placemats and crayons at every seat, question cards in the middle.
4. After dinner: one active game for everyone, then the thankful turkey as things wind down.

Print everything the day before. For printing tips, like which paper holds up under plates, see how to print printables.