5 Thanksgiving Garland Ideas

Paper Thanksgiving Craft: Decorate with Garland

Decorate your dining room for Thanksgiving with cute fall garland you make together as a family. Use these ideas for paper garland decorations or let each family member design their own. Some fun Thanksgiving garland ideas include fall leaves, owls, turkeys, pumpkins or squash, pilgrim hats, tepees, or cornucopias. Enjoy!

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Thanksgiving Garland Ideas.

4 Holiday Toilet Paper Roll Crafts

4 Cardboard Tube Crafts for the Holidays

Whether you use a paper towel roll, wrapping paper roll, or toilet tube, these cute cardboard tube crafts for the holidays are easy to make. We made 4 fun holiday toilet paper roll crafts with bits and bobbles from cardboard rolls. Scroll down to see our Thanksgiving Turkey, Christmas Reindeer, Snowman, and Little Puppy. Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links.

Cute Cardboard Tube Crafts.

1. Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

We used cardbboard paper towel rolls and toilet paper tubes to make these little creatures. They are skinnier than most, because we cut a 1" strip out of each roll and then hot glued the cardboard back together. Each holiday creature is cut at a different height, so they can be displayed in an attractive centerpiece for the holidays.

Toilet Paper Roll Crafts Thanksgiving Turkey.

Cardboard Tube Valentine Treat Creature

If you want to make Cardboard Tube Crafts for Thanksgiving, purchase some felt leaves. We found a Thanksgiving garland kit on clearance and used the pieces to make turkey feathers. An autumn pack of pipecleaners. pom poms, and felt bits were used for his beak and head.

To attach the head, it is best to use hot glue. Place a bead of glue around the top of the cardboard tube and then press and hold the pom pom down until the glue sets.

If you want to paint your tube, do that before you begin decorating it. We like the natural look of of the cardboard roll.

2. Cardboard Tube Puppy

Cut a 2" section of cardboard roll to make a little puppy.

Make Cardboard Tube Crafts for Holidays

Mini Cardboard Tube Creatures.

Make Cardboard Toilet Roll Christmas Tree Decorations

3. Cardboard Paper towel Roll Snowman Craft

Use a vegetable skewer to make hands
for your cardboard toilet roll snowman.

Fun Snowman Craft

Twist two pipecleaners together to make a scarf for your snowman.
We glued two cottonballs together to make  his head.

4. Reindeer Toilet Roll Craft

Wrap pipecleaners around your finger or a pencil
to make spiral antlers for the cardboard reindeer.

More Cardboard Roll Crafts for Thanksgiving

Mayhem designed her own Easy Cardboard Toilet Tube Turkeys.

Cut 1/4" strips approximately 3" down the toilet paper roll to make the turkey feathers. Then, bend 1 strip down folding the end up to attach the turkey's head. Cut two orange strips and glue inside the tube to form legs. Now, you have a shelf sitter turkey for Thanksgiving.

Share your ideas with us in the comments.


Recommended:


Paint with Cardboard Tubes

The Night Before Thanksgiving

Holiday Salt Dough Ornaments

Make an Envelope Barn and Toilet Roll Silo

Felt Leaves

Cardboard Toilet Tube Rocket for New Years

Activities for Children: How to Make a Straw free Scarecrow with Recycled Items

How to make your own Kid Scarecrow without Straw

When we visit a local farm, there are lots of activities for children including an area set aside to make your own scarecrow. It is very messy and smelly! We all sneeze. Wouldn't it be cool to have a scarecrow without straw?

Activities for Children: Mini Scarecrow for Indoors.

So, a few years ago, I decided to design my own allergy-friendly scarecrow activity for kids. We used paper and recycled bags!

Tired old allergy free scarecrow.

How to Make an Allergy-Free Scarecrow

Old kid's clothes (short sleeves work too).
Paper lunch sacks or plastic pumpkins
Plastic grocery bags
Raffia, yarn, staples, or duct tape to attach the parts.

Grab your kid's old , torn clothes. Stuff the pants with plastic grocery bags. (Tie them in knots or blow them up like balloons for extra padding.) Stuff your shirt.Ties the feet and arms off with string or tape with duct tape. Stuff shirt into waist of pants. Duct tape works best here. Attach it to look like a belt. Cut arms or hands from paper bags as needed. Staple to end of shirt. Make feet too. Stuff a paper lunch sack with plastic bags, tie it off, and attach to the shirt. You can use a plastic pumpkin for the head too- not as easy to attach. Throw on a straw hat or cut out strips of the lunch bag and staple on for hair.

Recommended Reading:

Companion books for this children's activity are:

The Big, Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown *ad

Turkey Chick Pom Pom Thanksgiving Craft

Make a Baby Turkey Craft for Thanksgiving

Make a cute baby turkey from pom poms and feathers. Aww...  Turkey Feathers! This cute pom pom turkey chick craft was a deal! Scroll down to learn how to make your own Thanksgiving turkey. Enjoy!

Pom Pom Turkey Craft Thanksgiving Activity.

Deep Discount Bat Craft Turns into Bargain Turkey Craft.

I got these bats at Michael's on clearance for 29 Cents! The turkey kits were $1.79 each. My creative juices were flowing. I thought about dividing them and doing a fall barn owl now and saving the bat for next year, but when I got home a light bulb went off in my head. So, I sorted the pieces and decided to make a turkey critter and a bat fridge magnet. 

Take Away: Stock up on holiday clearance items.

Divided the pieces for individual kid's craft projects.

I like to repurpose things...

So, I robbed last years fridge magnets of their precious feathers.

We got to work crafting this cute baby turkey chick from pom poms.

Cute, baby turkey craft for Thanksgiving.

Tacky Glue works better than Elmer's Glue. Hot glue is best for allowing the wings to stick out at the sides. 

Look for cheap foamy rectangles or construction paper and cut out the shapes seen here. Buy a bag of feathers, pom-poms, some googly-eyes, and get crafting. All of those items are at the Dollar Tree too.

Adorable baby pompom turkey craft.

Recommended Reading:

Free Printable Turkey Coloring Sheet

Crafts for Thanksgiving (Holiday Crafts for Kids)*

T is for Turkey: A True Thanksgiving Story*









ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Healthy Zucchini Snacks Mayflower Ship Craft for Thanksgiving

Easy Edible Mayflower Craft for Kids

An Edible Mayflower Boat Ship makes it easy to Play with your Food and Eat your Vegetables, because it is edible art! If you want something sweeter, scroll down for the doughnut Mayflower Ship. Either way, the kids will have making eatable Thanksgiving crafts that are pefect for a party celebration. Enjoy!

Easy Edible Mayflower Boat Craft for Kids.

1. We found this cute Edible Mayflower Boat Craft at Art is Helping the Children.

Mayflower ship you can eat from Art is Helping the Children.

2. Cream Cheese Mayflower Sandwich Boats

Looking for a new way to get your kids to eat vegetables? Try this!  It's pretty self explanatory, we took cucumbers, zucchini, and squash and cut them in half lengthwise. Then, I tried to collect healthy edibles: cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, sliced squash, pretzels, and mini-dip breadsticks. Cheeseballs worked great too- just not healthy! The kids loved using the colored toothpicks to connect pieces for the "sail".  It's like healthy legos!

When done constructing, set out plates of dip, and let everyone deconstruct, dip, and eat. Everyone ate their veggies. They even tried the yellow squash! Food is more fun when you get to play with it. 

3. For an unhealthier version, try this Doughnut Mayflower from PartyPinching.com. It is super easy with only a pretzel and a doughnut required. That sounds yummy!

Doughnut Sailboat for Thanksgiving.

We read these books: "The Littlest Pilgrim" and "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims".  A book about the Mayflower for kids is available but very wordy, "If You Sailed On The Mayflower " by Ann McGovern. You might also like, "On The Mayflower" by Kate Waters for school-age kids.

Recommended Reading:

Bake and Make Amazing Cakes (Kids Can Do It)*

Turkey Treat  

Kid's Squish Book: Slimy, Squishy, Sticky Things to Do That Should Only Be Done When Wearing Your Oldest Clothes*






ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Thanksgiving Activities: Turkey Game and Craft for Children

Family Friendly Games for Thanksgiving

You've heard of Reindeer Games, so why not, Turkey games? This is an easy, fun activity for Thanksgiving get togethers. 

Family friendly crafts and games for Thanksgiving day party feasts.

Mayhem loved playing this turkey game.

Here are a few ideas to brighten up your Thanksgiving Family Feast:

• While you're preparing Thanksgiving Dinner, have your kids make turkeys out of paper plates and construction paper.

• They can create it anyway they choose or follow these instructions:

Cut two - 3" slits 2" apart in the bottom of the plate.

Lift and fold this flap out and fold it into a triangle or tent shape.

This is the turkey's head.

Turkey tutorial.

Add googly eyes or draw your own. 

Don't forget to draw his gobbler :-)

 
Cut feathers from colored construction paper.  Using a glue stick connect them to the top of your plate, or draw them directly onto the plate with brightly colored markers. You can go all out and use real feathers from a craft store too, it's all good. Or trace your foot onto paper for extra fun and a SENSORY ELEMENT. Now poke a 1/4'" hole in the center of your turkey (the plate).  Get yarn, kite string, Christmas ribbon, etc... remember, it's all good. 

My kids tried it with a shoe string. Cut the string about 6' in length. (Shorter or Longer depending on your spatial restrictions.)  Thread the string thru the hole and knot it in the back of the plate. 

Do this twice - that's two turkeys... 

Set up two chairs and tie one turkey to each chair. Stretch the string taut and lie it flat on the ground with the turkey opposite the chair. This is the starting line, divide into two teams and start the turkey races with kids standing at the opposite end of the chairs.

"Ready, Set, Fly!"

On the signal kids begin gobbling and lifting the string in the air trying to get the turkeys to fly to the chairs. (You are essentially shaking the plate down the string.) If your turkeys refuse to "fly" have the kids race by pulling their turkeys down the line as fast as they can while someone else holds the opposite end taut.

Last kid to reach the chair is a Turkey!

The latter methods works best with smaller children.

HAVE FUN and remember, it is what it is, so make it fun and don't fret.

Post variations and; pictures of your turkeys in action.

We got this idea from an old 1970's  party book that used bats.  You can change anything to fit the theme. 

Recommended Reading:

Thanksgiving Is for Giving Thanks (Reading Railroad)

Fun Thanksgiving Activities for Kids! 25 Fun & Educational Thanksgiving Activities for the Whole Family (Activity Books for Kids)

Holiday Games for Parties

Thanksgiving: Turkey and American Indian Craft Popsicle Sticks for Preschoolers

These Turkey and Native American Indian Stick Puppets are so simple and fun to make they are perfect for preschoolers. 

We always have construction paper and popsicle sticks. So, for Thanksgiving, I grabbed a bag of craft feathers and we started creating. The plan was to make Wampanoag Indians to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth. The feathers begged to become a turkey. Afterward, we pretended they were puppets and made a holiday play.

We made snowmen and reindeer too. Run to Joann's and buy a bag of fall-colored feathers. Use colored craft sticks or recycle Popsicle sticks. Tacky glue works great. Construction paper, mini-googly eyes, and the smallest pom poms ever!

Great for Wampanoag Indian Lessons and Curriculum.

Trace a small kid's cup for the head and turkey's body. Then glue on extras as appropriate. It's so simple and lends itself to creativity.

Easy Popsicle Stick Turkey Craft for preschoolers.

I use them for a thanksgiving puppet show with a shoe-box backdrop. Little hands love to move them around the fridge as magnets.

Recommended Reading:

Crafts for Kids: A Month by Month Idea Book

Crafts for Thanksgiving (Holiday Crafts for Kids)