Thanksgiving Activities for Kids: 15 Easy Ideas for the Big Day (and the Kids’ Table)

Set up the kids’ table in 10 minutes

1. Cover the table with kraft paper or a paper tablecloth kids can draw on.
2. Put an activity placemat and 3–4 crayons at each seat.
3. Add a place card with each child’s name; kids love finding their seat.
4. Put a small cup of extra crayons or colored pencils in the middle.
5. Keep one “big kid” page ready for older children who finish quickly.

15 Thanksgiving activities for kids

At the table, while waiting for dinner

1. Activity placemats: a maze, a word search and tic-tac-toe on one sheet.
2. Draw your plate: kids draw what they hope will be on their plate, then compare.
3. Table talk questions: “What made you laugh this year?” “What is your favorite food on the table?”
4. Spot the difference between two Thanksgiving pictures.
5. Count the pumpkins or falling leaves for the youngest guests.

Gratitude activities

6. Thankful tree: each person writes one thing they are thankful for on a paper leaf and tapes it to a branch drawn on paper or a real branch in a vase.
7. “I am thankful for…” sentences: younger kids draw, older kids write.
8. Thank-you cards for the cook or host, drawn at the table.
9. Gratitude circle: before dessert, everyone shares one thing, starting with the youngest.

Crafts and games for after the meal

10. Hand turkey: trace a hand, color the fingers as feathers and draw a face on the thumb.
11. Paper leaf garland from cut-out fall leaves strung on yarn.
12. Thanksgiving word search race between teams.
13. Tic-tac-toe tournament with pumpkins and turkeys instead of X and O.
14. Leaf hunt walk outside: find a red, yellow and brown leaf.
15. Thanksgiving charades: act out “eating pie,” “a turkey walking,” “watching the parade.”

Activities by age

Safety and practical notes

• Seat young children away from hot dishes, candles and the edge of the table where pots are placed.
• Scissors for leaf cutting: child-safe scissors with an adult nearby.
• Whole nuts, popcorn and hard candy on the snack table are choking risks for small children.
• If the meal runs late, have a quiet activity ready for tired toddlers rather than more games.

Make it reusable

Slide placemats into sheet protectors or laminate them and use dry-erase markers. They wipe clean between kids and can be saved for next year.

Our printable Thanksgiving placemats

Our Thanksgiving Placemats for Kids (17 pages, ages 3–8) have 10 full-page activity placemats, each with 3–4 activities: mazes, word searches, tic-tac-toe, dot to dot, spot the difference, a big coloring scene, table talk cards, a draw-your-plate page, thankful prompts with a hand turkey, and a harder “Big Kid Challenge” page for ages 6–8. Bonuses: 6 fold-over place cards and 12 “I am thankful for” leaves for a thankful tree, plus a 2-page answer key. They print landscape on US Letter (11×8.5 in) or A4. Start with the free 2-page sample below.