THANKSGIVING PARTY DETAILS

 GAMES

Turkey Tag ~ Choose teams. Two children, one from each team, run turkey fashion from one line to another. They must also gobble as they race. If one gets out of position to gain speed, he or she is taken away by the farmer (teacher). The team to have the most turkeys left at the end of two races wins.

Pilgrim, Pilgrim Where's Your Hat? ~ Have the children stand in a circle. Choose one child to be the pilgrim and stand in the middle Blindfold this child. Let the other children in the circle pass the hat to each other saying:
Pilgrim, pilgrim where's your hat? We've passed it around the circle Now you try to get it back. The children stop passing the hat when the poem is completed. The child who has the hat at this point hides it behind his back. The pilgrim tries to guess who has the hat.


Turkey Hunt! ~ Shhh! Hunt very quietly. You don't want to scare the turkeys...
On a dozen or so index cards, draw or paste a picture of a turkey. To play, everyone leaves the room except the leader. The leader hides the cards around the room. The hunters come back in to begin the hunt. As each turkey is found, it is brought back to the leader who corrals them in a separate pile for each hunter. When all the turkeys have been found, the hunter with the most turkeys is the winner and becomes the leader for the next round.

Bird, Beast, or Fish ~ You have to think fast for this game.
Everyone sits facing the leader. The leader points to one of the players and says either "BIRD," "BEAST," or "FISH." The chosen player must come up with the name of an animal that fits the category before the leader counts to ten. No repeating! If the player does not respond in time, she is out. The game continues until only one player remains. As you can guess, after a few rounds it can be hard to think of an animal that has not already been mentioned!

Corn Hunt ~ Warning! DO NOT play this game if you have or will have toddlers around! Any unfound kernels are a choking hazard! Hide kernels of corn around the room. The larger dried corn used for bird food is easier to use than popcorn. (Or you could use candy corn.) The goal of the game is to be the one to find the most kernels in a certain amount of time. You can use a timer and set a 3-minute limit. Or you might want to sing or play an appropriate song like the chicken dance.

Corn Pitching ~ Use dried beans if you prefer.
You will need a good size bowl and 6 kernels of corn (the kind used in bird feeders works better than popcorn). Each player takes turns pitching the corn kernels, one at a time, into the bowl from a set distance. Keep score of how many kernels end up in the bowl. The winner is the one with the highest score after three rounds.

Cranberry Stringing ~ Wear old clothes for this one -- cranberries can stain.
Each player will need a needle threaded with an 18-inch length of strong thread. Put a large knot at the end of the thread. Everyone sits around a bowl of cranberries. On the signal, everyone starts stringing the cranberries onto their threads. The first to fill the thread is the winner. You might want to try the game alternating popcorn and cranberries. Hang the completed cranberry strings outside as a treat for the birds.

Thanksgiving Dinner ~ You need a good memory for this one.
The players sit in a circle. The first player starts by saying, "At my Thanksgiving dinner I ate turkey." The next player must repeat this and add another dish, "At my Thanksgiving dinner I ate turkey and bread stuffing." The third player must repeat it and add yet another dish, "At my Thanksgiving dinner I ate turkey, bread stuffing, and sweet potatoes." The game continues with each player adding an item to the menu after first listing all the previous items in the exact order they were first said. If a player makes a mistake he drops out and the game continues until there is just one mnemonic expert left.

Cornucopia (active) ~ The old "Fruit Basket" game with a Thanksgiving name.
The players sit on chairs forming a circle. There should be one more player than there are chairs. The player without a chair is the leader. The leader points to each of the other players and gives them a name, such as "Squash," "Corn," "Apple," "Turkey," anything related to Thanksgiving.
After everyone is named, the leader calls out two of the names, "Corn and Apple." Those two players must quickly switch places. The leader continues calling like this (keeping up a brisk pace) until suddenly she says "The cornucopia has tipped over!" Everyone, including the leader, then scrambles for a new place. The one who ends up without a seat is the new leader.
The leader may give the same name to more than one person. This makes the switching of places a little more confusing and a lot more exciting.

Pumpkin Roll (active) ~ A silly old outdoor race
This is a simple race but since pumpkins are not nice smooth balls and refuse to roll in nice straight lines, you will need plenty of wandering room! If you need to play inside, use small pumpkins.
You need two large pumpkins and two sturdy sticks. The racers, line up on the starting line with the pumpkins turned on their sides. On the signal, the racers use the stick to roll the pumpkins to the finish line. Younger players may want to use their hands instead of the stick. If you want to play this as teams, make it a relay race.

BROOM DANCE (active) ~ Everyone loves a puzzler, such as the Broom Dance--except, perhaps, the last player to figure out the secret. WHAT YOU'LL NEED: At least two players and a broom. RULES: To start, the in-the-know participant takes a broom, clears her throat and then, dancing around, sings, "I can do a broom dance, broom dance, broom dance, I can do a broom dance, can you?" After her performance, she points to someone else, who must get up and try do the broom dance as well. After that player dances, the first dancer tells her whether she was successful. Chances are, the copycat will forget to mimic the one key action: No matter what your steps or hand gestures are, no broom dance is complete unless you clear your throat before you start.

Holiday Draw ~ In this group version of the board game Pictionary, the aim is to draw a picture of a selected word so a team member can guess it--before the clock runs out. WHAT YOU'LL NEED: At least four players, a large board to write on and a stopwatch. RULES: Divide your family into two teams. If you have a Pictionary set, you can use the game's clue cards to give each team subjects to draw. If not, create your own on index cards using words that go along with the holiday. In alternating turns, each team sends up a player to draw a word, with all members of that team allowed to guess it. If a team member guesses correctly before the timer goes off, that team wins a point and it is the next team's turn. The enthusiasm of this guessing game can be contagious, so make it clear that if someone from the resting team yells out the right word by accident, the drawing team still receives the point.

What Are You Thankful For ~ Have the children write down what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving - no one should tell anyone what they write! Collect all the papers in a bowl or basket. Read the answers aloud and have everyone guess who wrote each answer. You can also do this with your guests on Thanksgiving Day.

Turkey Hide and Seek ~ Send one child out of the room and hide a turkey beanie baby or other turkey toy in the room. Everyone should know where it is except the person who is "it". When that person comes back in the room, he looks for the turkey. Everyone else makes gobbling sounds as a clue - gobbling quietly when he is far from the turkey and loudly as he gets closer. Good luck playing this game without breaking out in laughter!

Thanksgiving Trivia - Make a list of trivia questions about the holiday … where was the first Thanksgiving held … what’s the name of the red thing under a turkey’s neck … etc.

 

TREATS

TEPEE TREATS ~ In a mixing bowl with an electric beater set at low speed, mix 2 cups of sifted confectioners' sugar, 1/4 cup of softened, unsalted butter, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract until smooth and spreadable. Stir in a bit of mil, if needed. Use the icing to lightly frost eight ice-cream sugar cones, then place them in the freezer for a few minutes until the icing hardens. Now you or your kids can use tubes of cake decoration icing to draw linear patterns and images and glue on decorative candies. For lodge poles you can even insert toothpicks into the tip of each cone.

Turkey cookies ~ This is so simple, you just make your basic sugar cookie recipe (or by the sugar cookie dough in the store). Roll our the dough and cut with a turkey or a leaf cookie cutter. Bake then ice. You can use colored candies to make a the tail.

SUGAR-CONE CORNUCOPIA ~ Miniature horns of plenty, created from sugar cones and fruit candies, make striking party favors for a Thanksgiving table. Your kids can assemble these treats (which can double as edible name cards) and spend the busy hours before your guests arrive making their own contributions to the holiday feast.
For each place setting, tie a ribbon around the opening of a sugar cone. With a tube of store-bought decorator's icing and a steady hand, squirt the name of a guest along the side of the cone. Place the cone on a doily-covered saucer. Your kids can then fill it with candies, such as raspberry jellies, fruit-shaped sweets, marzipan fruits, candy corn and citrus slices. For an inexpensive alternative, use fruit-shaped cereal. Let the goodies spill out over the opening and around the cone.
When the meal is served, guests can set aside the cornucopia and save the treats until after the turkey and fixings.

CANDY COBS ~ Filled with hard-shelled candy or after-dinner mints, these miniature corncobs add a sweet finish to your holiday meal. To make 8 candy cobs, gather a pair of clear plastic gloves, scissors, a large package of candy, string, and straw-colored crepe paper.
First, cut the fingers off the gloves and fill 2/3 of each finger with candy. Fasten the open ends with string or twist ties, leaving 1 1/2-inch plastic tails. From the crepe paper, cut out a 7 1/2-inch square for each favor. With the scissors, scallop the tops and taper the sides to create little cornhusks.
Next, cut eight 7-by-1/2-inch crepe-paper strips. Place a bundle of candy, tail-side down, on top of each husk. Bunch the lower portion of the husk around the cob's plastic tail and tie both together with a paper strip.

 

TURKEY BREAD & DIP ~ While the real bird is roasting, you can present your guests with this turkey. It's made out of bread and vegetables, and filled with a dip made from clams, a common food of the Pilgrims.
TURKEY BREAD: 1 round bread loaf, 1 oval French roll, 2 carrots, 1 red pepper, 2 raisins, 1 zucchini, 1 summer squash, Skewers and toothpicks
Cut the top off the round loaf and then slice the resulting oval in half (these halves will become the bird's wings). Use toothpicks to attach a half to each side. Then hollow out the center for dip. To make the head, cut an X in the roll and insert a carrot tip for the nose. To make the wattle, cut red pepper to hang around the carrot nose. Use toothpicks to attach the head and raisin eyes. To make the "feathers," slice the zucchini, summer squash, and remaining carrot lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick slabs. Push bamboo skewers through the middle of these slabs. To make them look feathery, use a small knife to cut jagged edges and carve lines on the surface. Stick the "feathers" into the turkey's tail. Serves 10 to 12. Now, you can add your favorite dip.

Cornucopia Cupcakes ~ Bake and frost cupcakes of your choice. To make cornucopia decorations, top each cupcake with a Bugle brand corn chip. Use Trix cereal or Runt candies to make the fruit coming out of the cornucopia. Thank You Debbie for this neat idea.

Mini "Turkeys" ~ I don't guess you would do this for a school party but it is a nice idea just for your Thanks giving dinner. Kids don’t care for turkey? On Thanksgiving Day, we individual cornish game hens for the children. They taste like chicken and the kids love having their own "mini turkey"! This came to us from Michelle, Thanks.

Cookie Turkeys ~ What you will need........1) a chocolate candy star 2) a square caramel 3) a chocolate frosted striped shortbread cookie (striped on the front, solid chocolate on the back) 4) a piece of candy corn. Place chocolate star flat on work surface. Place caramel on microwave-safe wax paper and microwave on high 5-10 seconds until slightly soft. Place caramel on chocolate star and push together. Press cookie onto back of caramel to make the turkey’s tail, and press candy corn on top of caramel for the turkey’s beak. If you can't picture this e-mail me and I will send you a picture of this. It is (the picture) to big for me to put on the site but it is cute.

 Thanksgiving Snack Mix ~ Decorate individual Ziploc bags with stickers. Personalize with a permanent marker if desired. For the snack mix, combine equal quantities of shelled sunflower seeds, candy corn, Bugles chips and pecan halves. Attach a tag to each bag that reads:

The sunflower seeds remind us that for a bountiful harvest next year,

Your seeds must be planted and cared for with heartfelt love and good cheer.

The candy corn tells of that winter when food supplies were so bad,

Each pilgrim got just 5 kernels a day but were grateful for what they had.

The "Bugles" are horns of plenty, full of the bounty of fall,

And the little fruit pieces remind us that the earth provides for us all.

If you take the half pecan pieces and place two together with care,

They just might remind you of hands offering thanksgiving and prayer.

Sometimes we forget the message of that first Thanksgiving day,

May this Thanksgiving mix remind you in a fun and tasty way!

Apple Turkeys ~ Use a red apple for the body. Stick a green olive on a toothpick for the turkey’s head, using the red pimiento inside the olive as the wattle. Stick the other end of the toothpick in the apple. Thread several raisins on several other toothpicks for feathers, leaving part of the toothpick free to stick into the apple. Make two more raisin-covered toothpicks and insert them as feet.

Cheesy Veggie Appetizers ~ Cheesy Veggie Appetizers - Use your choice of crackers, the cheese that you squirt from a can, and small pieces of fresh veggies like broccoli, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, etc. Let the kids squirt cheese on the crackers and top with fresh veggie pieces. Arrange on a platter prior to serving.

PARTY FAVORS

TURKEY HAT ~ Materials; scissors, brown paper bags, cardboard (cereal box), glue stick, colored construction paper, 2 small white pom-poms, black permanent marker. Cut a circle 3 1/2 inches in diameter from the paper bag, for the turkey's head. Next, cut a 3 inch-wide band to fit around your child's head. From the cardboard, cut a strip 5 by 1 1/2 inches to use for a neck. Fold a beak, fold yellow construction paper and cut out a small double triangle ( 1/12 inches along the fold.) cut a rounded L from red paper for the turkey's wattle. To create eyes, draw a black circle on each pom-pom with the marker. Glue the eyes, wattle, and one side of the beak to the head. Let them dry. Then, glue the loose end of the neck to the center of the headband. Now, wrap the headband around your child's head; mark where the ends overlap, then remove the band and glue the ends. Finally glue on construction paper feathers and wings. Refer to Family fun November 1999 issue for a picture.

TURKEY NUT HOLDER ~ Materials; pencil egg carton scissors or x-acto knife, tempera paint (brown and yellow), 4-inch pipe cleaner, 2 googly eyes, colored feathers, clue sitck, white paper toothpick, marker. You will need to get the Familyfun Magazine, November 1999 issue for the directions and a diagram on how to cut and make this.

NAPKIN-TAILED TURKEY FAVOR ~ Yellow 8-oz paper cup, three 12 7/8" square paper napkins: red, orange, yellow, Jumbo craft stick, 1/2 x 1 1/2 ovange paper scrap, 2" length of read chenille stem, Brown broad-line marker, black medium-line marker, thick craft glue and pencil ruler scissors and craft knife.

On craft stick do eyes on one end. Use brown marker to color craft stick leaving a small uncolored area around eyes. For beak, fold paper scrap in half widthwise. Cut a beak shape. For wattle, roll one end of a chenille stem. Glue wattle and beak on turkey under eyes. Use ruler and pencil to mark two 7/8" horizontal slits on back of cup. Use craft knife to cut slits. Gently push turkey craft stick through slits so turkey faces up. For feathers, fold one side of napkin over 3". Glue in place fold opposite side over 3". Glue in place Repeat the same for two more feathers. Glue one feather on back of cup on each side of turkey, seam sides to back. Center and glue third feather behind turkey. There is a picture and figures in the Pack-O-fun magazine, November 1999 issue.

"CONE"-HEADED TURKEY FAVORS ~ Materials: toilet paper roll, acrylic paints brown and red, small pinecones (approximately 3/4" x 1"), thin cardboard, red chenille stem, brown paper bag, scrap of yellow paper, thick craft glue, paper pencil, scissors, paint brush, dried corn kernels. Trace and cut out patterns. ** Cut a 1 1/2: piece from toilet paper roll. Trace one open end of boady on cardboard and cut out circle. Glue circle on one open end of body. Paint body brown. For neck, cut a 4 1/2" length from chenille stem. Fold length in half and twist together. =Glue ends of neck on back of pinecone for head. Paint head red. Blue bottom of neck on body. Cut beak from yellow construction paper.. Fold in half. Glue beak on front of head. For tail feathers, cut 1/8" strips to dashed line as indicated on pattern. To curl feather strips, wrap strips around pencil; remove pencil. Glue tail feathers on back of body. Glue wings on each side of body. For a picture of this check out Pack-O-fun November 1999 issue.

Lollipop-tailed turkey pot ~ 3" clay pot, brown acrylic paint 2 15mm wiggle eyes, scraps of felt red, yellow, small piece of floral foam, small amount of excelsior, eight lollipops, thick craft glue paper, pencil scissors, paper plate paper towel kitchen sponge. Trace and cut out patterns. ** Cut a 2" square from sponge. Wet sponge in water and squeeze out excess water until just damp. Put puddle of brown paint on palette. Press sponge into paint, blot on paper towel, and randomly sponge paint outside of pot. Glue eyes on rim of pot. Glue beak below rim and wattle on left corner of beak. Glue feet on bottom of pot. Insert foam in pot and fill with excelsior. For tail feathers, fill pot with lollipops.

TURKEY PLACE CARDS ~ What you will need....... 1) clay pot 2) wooden ball 3) feathers 4) wiggly eyes 5) fun foam 6) white index card 7) glue To begin you start with your small clay pot. Turn it upside down and glue the wooden ball to the top for the turkey’s head. Glue feathers to the back for the tail. Decorate the head with wiggly eyes and use a small piece of fun foam for the beak and wattle. Write the name on the white card and glue it to the front of the turkey or you could even make hands or wings for your turkey to hold the name cards.

Turkey Place mats ~ What you will need....... 1) construction paper (large size) 2) colors or markers 3) glue 4) con-tact paper Use a large piece of construction paper in fall colors for each place mat. Trace around your child’s hand and let them color in the tracing to make a turkey. Cut lots of squares out of other pieces of construction paper in coordinating colors. Glue the squares around the edges of the place mat to create a colorful border. Cover the place mat front and back with clear Con-Tact paper.

Napkin Rings ~ We have done this before but it was also sent in to me by Dee so... thanks Dee. Cut a paper towel roll into sections. Paint as desired with acrylic paint. Glue dried Indian corn kernels or popcorn kernels to the rings.

Candle Holders ~ This was a really cute idea that came to me but it needs to be done on Thanksgiving day. Remove the core from fresh apples. Spray inside with lemon juice to prevent browning. Use as candle holders. You can also use mini squash or pumpkins. Make sure your fruits and vegetables are stable and have a flat bottom (slice bottom if needed to make it flat).



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