Special touches for thanksgiving dinner

[CraftinFool]

My husband and I are hosting thanksgiving dinner for the first time. It will be us and the little one, my parents-in-law, his sister and husband, and their 3 kids - 8, 5, and almost 1.

I'm looking for suggestions on making it special - like place settings, decorations, treats/activities for the little ones, etc.

Thanks!

[Craft Forums]

[anthrogirl]

You've come to the right place.

First, the kids. You might want to put white paper with crayons on their table, and let them draw on it while getting ready for dinner. That will keep them busy. You can also give them brown paper, construction paper, a stapler and safety scissors so that they can make 'hand' turkeys to decorate the table. The grandparents can assist them. Everyone's name can be written on the turkeys, so they can also serves as place holders.

For decorations- you can fill little baskets with candy corn and decorate the basket handles with curling ribbon in brown, orange and yellow. You can also put tiny pumpkins next to each place setting, or use a larger hollowed-out pumpkin with an bowl in it as an impromptu soup tureen.

If you take rounds or squares of construction paper in Thanksgiving colors, turn them into cones (you can even layer the colors and shapes) and decorate the edges with a thin line of glue and some glitter. fill each finished one with candy (candy corn, little chocolate pumpkins, and maybe even a small toy or two). Make one for each guest and put them on the plates as favors to take home.

For the main table, you can buy inexpensive fabric that's about a foot to a foot and a half wide and use it as a runner down the center of the table. If you get two pieces in different widths and colors (or textures) layer them so you get a color contrast. You can drape the chairs too- which is a good idea with children anyway.

And finally, if you want to keep the kids busy, you can hide small pumpkins somewhere in the house or in the backyard and send the kids on a pumpkin hunt. The kids who finds the most pumpkins gets a prize, or gets to be king or queen of the the table and wear a crown during dinner.

[amaryllis]

For my fall wedding, I wrote the guest names on business card sized card stock then made small slits in Gala apples and used those as place cards. Everyone loved it and the day after, my Mom sliced up the apples and made an apple pie!

[CraftinFool]

great ideas here. thanks! I like the mini pumpkin idea, I think i'm going to use them somehow for place settings.