Thanksgiving is held every year on the fourth Thursday of November. It’s a day when many families come together to eat turkey, watch the parade, and spend quality time with each other. With our Thanksgiving Party Ideas, you can throw a festive party for all your little turkeys that will also help you fill those days off of school. It’s time to give thanks!

• Indian Corn
• Gourds and Mini Pumpkins
• Pilgrim Hats and Bonnets
• A Thanksgiving-Themed Movie Such as “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” or “Winnie the Pooh – Seasons of Giving”

• Cut a pilgrim hat out of black construction paper, and add a buckle cut out of yellow construction paper. Write your party details on the top portion of the hat in gold pen.
• Make a traditional hand-print turkey your invitation! Have your child trace the outline of their hand on brown construction paper and cut it out. The palm is the turkey’s body, the thumb is the head, and the fingers are the feathers. Draw a face and wattle on the thumb to complete the look and write your party details on the body.
• Cut the shape of a pumpkin out of orange construction paper. Add a stem and vines to the top with green paper or ribbon. Print your party details in green or brown marker.
• Make a ship-shaped invitation by cutting a half-moon shape of out black construction paper and attaching long poles with sails. For more sturdy invitations, glue the ship you create onto another piece of paper and add clouds and seagulls to the top.
• Fold a piece of cardstock in half and decorate the front with Thanksgiving stickers and stamps, such as turkeys, pilgrims, fruit, gourds, and fall leaves. Include creative wording for your party details inside, such as:
  
  Gobble, gobble! It’s [child’s name]’s Thanksgiving bash,
  There will be games, and prizes to match!
  With food and treats as far as you can see,
  Don’t be a turkey – remember to RSVP!

• Set out groups of gourds and mini pumpkins around the party space – in corners and on tables.
• Make paper turkeys to post on the walls around the party area. Cut large teardrop shapes out of different colored construction paper and paste these on a circle of cardboard (these are the feathers). In the middle, paste a brown paper circle for the turkey’s head. Add a yellow beak and a red wattle. Yellow pipe cleaners as legs complete the look!
• Balloons are a must-have at any party. Tie groups of brown, yellow, and orange balloons to the back of chairs, float them up from tables, or use them to mark doorways. Add a turkey-shaped Mylar balloon for a special touch.
• Cover tables with orange or yellow tablecloths.
• Give each guest a pilgrim hat or a bonnet to wear as they enter the party.
• Twist yellow, orange or brown streamers together and drape them along the ceiling.
• Find more Thanksgiving decorations from our partner, Celebrations.com.

• Ice Cream Cone Pilgrim Hats - Wrap a length of red fruit leather around the middle of a regular ice cream cone, right under the lip of the cone. Make sure you press the overlapped edges of the fruit leather together so they stick. Place a small rectangle of yellow fruit leather to the top of the red band to form the “buckle.” You can serve these plain, or fill the cones with M&Ms or Skittles before serving.
• Turkey Cut-Outs - Use turkey-shaped cookie cutters to cut out sandwiches, rice cereal treats, sugar cookies, and cheese squares.
• Cranberry Snack Mix - Mix together dried cranberries, raisons, sunflower seeds, and peanuts, and serve in shallow paper cups.
• Edible Teepees - Frost sugar cones in white frosting and pipe on the details, such as the door opening and zigzag decorations, in chocolate decorator icing.
• Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats - Use a dab of frosting to attach a marshmallow to a round cookie. Frost the entire thing in chocolate frosting. Pipe the hat’s buckle on the bottom of the marshmallow with yellow decorator icing.
• Find more Thanksgiving recipes from our partner, Celebrations.com.