Thanksgiving kids’ table activities for a long dinner

Thanksgiving dinner asks children to sit for a long time while the adults talk. A kids’ table is easier on everyone when it gives children something to do before the food arrives, while they wait for dessert and after their plates are empty. Nothing here needs a screen, and most of it is paper.

Cover the table in paper

Roll kraft or butcher paper across the whole table and tape it underneath at the ends. Draw a place setting at each seat, with a plate circle, a fork, a knife and the child’s name, and put crayons or washable markers in cups down the middle. If you only do one thing on this page, do this. Children can draw their dinner, play tic-tac-toe and trace their hands into turkeys.

Put the first activity out before they sit down

A hard stretch is the wait between “come to the table” and the food arriving. Have a printed activity sheet at every place, such as a word search, a maze or a coloring page, so that hands are busy from the first second.

Give every child a job

A job gives each child a part in the meal.

• The oldest are table captains. They read out game rules and help the little ones.
• One child makes place cards for the adult table.
• One child is the bread runner, who carries the basket between tables.
• One child is the official photographer for ten minutes.

Name the jobs before dinner so nobody argues about them during it.

Games while they wait

Choose games that need no equipment and can stop the moment food arrives.

• Thankful A to Z. Go around the table naming something you are thankful for, starting with A, then B, and so on. Silly answers count.
• This or that. “Only pie for a week, or only mashed potatoes?”
• Table bingo. Children mark things they hear or see during dinner, such as someone asking for seconds or a dropped fork. Printed cards suit this.
• Guess the number. A sealed jar of dried beans or pasta shapes, lid taped shut, kept on the adult table, with paper slips for guesses. Announce the winner at dessert.

A thankful tree

Stand a bare branch in a vase. Put a stack of paper leaves, a pen, a hole punch and some string beside it. Each child writes or draws one thing they are thankful for and ties it to the branch. The children can carry the tree to the adult table before dessert and read the leaves aloud. It gives them a moment in front of the whole family, and it gives the adults something to keep.

After the plates are cleared

The stretch after the meal, when adults linger, needs one more plan. A printed game the whole table can play together is one option. A drawing challenge on the paper tablecloth, such as “draw the strangest turkey”, is another, and older children can run it.

Mixed ages at one table

Seat the youngest next to a patient older cousin, not next to each other. Give toddlers chunky crayons and large stickers, and keep anything small, such as beads or buttons, off a table where children under three are sitting.

Set it up the day before

• Paper on the table, place settings drawn
• Crayons in cups
• Activity sheets printed, one set per child plus spares
• Paper leaves cut and the branch in its vase
• Jobs assigned

On Thanksgiving, all that is left is carrying the food in.