Thanksgiving Turkey Decorations: Two Innovative Craft Ideas

Creating crafts to display along with the Thanksgiving turkey is a great way to help your children or younger nieces and nephews do something fun...while staying out of the cook's way! The following are two great ideas for creating Thanksgiving Turkey Decorations for this Holiday season.

Walnut Turkey Crafts

These little turkeys are a great way to use something out of the ordinary, a walnut, to make miniature turkeys with your kids or younger relatives for decorating your Thanksgiving Turkey display are an excellent activity to keep the kids busy while Mom or Dad is cooking. These neat crafts make an excellent Thanksgiving decoration or can even be used as small gifts for the grandparents or other relatives. You can also use this craft for a neat pre-Thanksgiving activity with a Sunday or Elementary School class.

Walnut Turkey Materials

- A whole walnut (one per miniature turkey)

- One 3 inch tall orange and yellow fake maple leaf (one leaf per turkey)

- Gold Pipe Cleaner

- Orange and red scrap foam or felt

- 2 Wiggle Eyes per walnut

- Glue or glue dots

- 1 Acorn per turkey

- 1 Sheet balsa wood

- 1/4 inch thick yellow ribbon (3-4 " required per turkey)

Directions

1. Glue the base of the leaf to the tip of the walnut. This will be the tail and feathers of the turkey. Set Aside

2. Glue the wiggle eyes at the top of the base of an acorn. The tip of the acorn will be facing to the rear of the turkey once it is attached to the walnut. Next, cut a small triangle out of the orange felt or foam (the turkey's beak) and a small oval with the red felt or foam. Glue the orange triangle just below the wiggle eyes and the red felt or foam just below the orange triangle. Set aside.

3. Cut the balsa wood to loosely mimic the shape of the walnut with the walnut on its side. You will want to taper the balsa a bit as you move to the point of the walnut. Now, Cut the gold pipe cleaner into two inch pieces. Fold each piece in a tight oval. These will be the turkey's feet. Glue each foot to the balsa wood top and set aside. (See the picture if this seems confusing)

4. Once dry, glue the acorn to the top of the base of the walnut (the turkey's head). Set aside.

5. Now, glue the turkey body to the feet on the base of the balsa wood. Set aside

6. Once dry, take 3 inches of gold or yellow ribbon and tie around the turkey's next.

7. Repeat as many times as desired.

This is a fairly simple craft to use with your Thanksgiving Turkey Decorations. Reuse multiple times to set around your Thanksgiving feast and enjoy making these crafts with your children or younger relatives.

Turkey Placemats

Another great craft to do with your kids is making Thanksgiving Turkey placements to decorate your dining room table for your Turkey decorations.

Placemat Materials

- Construction paper

- Brown craft paint

- Orange, black, green, and yellow craft paint

- Brown or black magic marker

- Clear contact paper

Directions

1 - First take the child's hand and draw an outline of the hand on the construction paper.

2 - Next, paint the thumb and palm (on the same hand) with the brown craft paint and use a few of the other colors on the other fingertips.

3 - Now, press the child's hand onto the construction paper in the outline that has already been made of the hand (turkey's body)

4 - Allow the paint to dry. Don't worry if your kid is messy with this step. That's ok; it makes the placement turkey decoration appear more authentic.

5 - Once dry, help your child use the markers to draw eyes, feet, legs, and any other turkey body parts you can think of.

6 - Once happy with the decorating of the turkey body, cover the construction paper with clear contact paper and smooth.

That's it. Depending on the age of your child and your patience, you may stop at one placemat, or you may have enough energy to do several for use as Turkey decorations at your Thanksgiving dinner!