Guest Author - Deborah L. Kompare
With Thanksgiving coming upon us, it would be fun to add some decorations for what I refer to as the forgotten holiday. It seems we jump right from Halloween to Christmas and Thanksgiving is nothing more than a big meal to cook. What a shame that it is such an overlooked holiday! Let’s take some time to celebrate all that we have to be thankful for this year and beyond.
Turkeys are such an integral part of this holiday celebration and can be some very cute decorations. One tradition my sister-in-law has is a centerpiece made from a pineapple. She has a small turkey head made from felt that is pinned in place on the bottom of the pineapple. The pineapple is laid on it’s side and the tail of the pineapple is the top green part. This can be enhanced with construction paper feathers and you can write down the things you are most grateful for on the feathers. If you like, add some wings to the side of the turkey to add a more realistic touch. If you would want to add feet to your turkey, why not use some old forks? We purchased a fabric turkey decoration that used small forks for the feet and it is absolutely adorable. An additional touch would be to surround the turkey with fruits and vegetables that can be eaten as appetizers or during the course of the meal.
An idea similar to the pineapple turkey would be turkeys made from pinecones. If you have pine trees near you, this would be a great way to send the kids outside for a while, and have them gather some open pine cones for the decoration. Again, you would need to craft the head and some tail feathers, but these are small enough to be made for each place setting and given to family/friends to take home.
We’ve also made turkeys from Styrofoam balls and pipe cleaners. These can get to be very creative, in their own way since the turkeys can be very colorful depending on the pipe cleaners that are used. Another type of turkey can be made from the small brown paper lunch bags and some construction paper. The kids can be as creative as they like using so many different colors!
Don’t forget those traditional turkeys made from the children’s handprints. You can trace your child’s handprint onto cards and send them out to family and friends as greetings for this holiday. If you want to keep them at home, trace them onto construction paper and let the kids color them. Once this is done, “laminate” the paper with clear contact paper and use them for placemats. You could also simply make pictures with the turkey as the focus and hang them up around the house to decorate.
Feeling more creative? Then take a look at this cute turkey decoration made from a tin can. Kaboose.com has a very cute way to use an empty can (about the size that vegetables or fruit would be in), some felt and the patterns on the site to make a very cute turkey. Their suggestion is to fill it with candy, but I think it’s cute just the way it is.
I hope these ideas can get you started crafting turkeys for Thanksgiving. There are just so many different ideas out there to try! Stop by the forum to share some of your ideas for making these traditional Thanksgiving birds-it’d be great to hear your ideas.
