Kid-Friendly Thanksgiving

The holiday hosting duties rotate around in my family, and this year happens to be my year off for Thanksgiving. As I mentioned in my post Christmas Trees in April, Pumpkins in May, I’m not the poster child for holiday decorating. Therefore, it’s safe to say that if I’m not hosting Thanksgiving, I’m not going to put a ton of effort into decorating for it.

There’s a story behind this for a later date, but these pumpkins are all I did for Thanksgiving this year…

My Gramma and Aunt added the additional pumpkin and super cute pillow when they visited, so this corner is pretty much where you go to feel some of the fall holiday spirit. Don’t worry, we’ll try to pull it together more for Christmas.

These cute little guys were the only carryover from the previous year…

Thanksgivings Past

With the time I gained by not hosting this year, I decided to look back at some details of the last couple Thanksgivings. The presence of our kids was in full swing, so we had fun adding some of those elements into the mix. (The food obviously takes the majority of the work and planning, but it’s pretty much the same year to year).

The adult tablescape is shown below. Out of everything, I think my favorite part is the individual wine decanters. I originally got them because I liked the “fancy restaurant effect” they gave off. They are rarely used, however, because I haven’t quite figured out how they work without a waiter.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m rarely with a group of people who all want to drink red wine? I’m assuming they’d work great for white wine as well, but white wine has to be consumed right away and doesn’t need the airing out. I think for this meal, the red wine drinkers eventually took the decanters from the non-red drinkers. No wine went to waste in the making of this tablescape!

When I think back to decorating this two years ago, I can’t help but think about the huge mistake that is glitter. My love for glitter is cyclical… A glitter-loving phase ends abruptly after one use, as soon as I realize the mess it created. Time will pass, I’ll forget the stress, and I’ll fall back into the glitter trap.

The glitter usage here is funny because it’s so random. I somehow thought it was a good idea to mix with sugar. It’d be cool if it were a beach-theme, but I’m not sure why I thought sand would fit into fall? The Hershey Kiss acorns turned out awesome though!

For the Kids

As much as I tried to make the tablescape fun, it’s obviously still VERY breakable. Therefore, the kids got their own little version…

Super fancy, huh? I love covering kid surfaces with paper to reduce any need for worry while eating dinner. The little hat holding the markers was super easy to make, and the kids loved it.

Last year, we did the same thing but changed up the craft we gave the kids. The idea was to entertain the kids so the adults could actually eat. It never actually works out that way. I’m always open to suggestions, but all we’ve heard so far is that it will get easier as they get older.

My mom made these little turkey treat boxes, and I love them so much! Definitely the best part of the kid table decor. I wanted to save them, but little hands are too destructive.

My favorite addition to Thanksgiving last year was this Thanksgiving tree. I had randomly come across it on Etsy (link here), and it was seriously so sweet doing this with little kids. We took turns coming up with all the things we were thankful for.

We intervened a little to add some meaning, but Minnie, Daisy, and Milk are on there to prove the kids’ participation:)

I can’t wait for another family-filled Thanksgiving later this week! Happy Thanksgiving!!