Build Grand Memories With Thanksgiving Place Cards and Placemats

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Thanksgiving Table Crafts for Grandkids

On TV, a perfect and beautiful table setting is the finishing touch to a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.  In this grandma’s house, though, that gets trumped by something I think is even better – grandkid creations. Last year we made Fall Wreaths using grandkids' handprints, handprint family trees, and handprint turkeys. This year, how about some  more "Happy Thanksgiving" decor ideas, like:

• Fall Foliage Placemats – Enjoy the great outdoors with the grandkids, collecting colorful fall leaves from your own yard to make a lovely, natural placemat.  If all your leaves are already gone (the weather has been a bit wild and wooly in many parts), you can use artificial leaves you’ve picked up from the craft store.  Cut two rectangles out of contact paper a bit bigger than the size you need. Have your grandkids arrange the leaves neatly on the first piece. If your grandkids are older, they might like to give the placemat a border by gluing strips of construction paper about an inch wide along the edges.  Help them carefully place the second piece on top, pealing part of the paper backing off a little at a time, and press in place. When they are all done, trim the placemats to the size you need.
• Pilgrims and Indians Placemats – Have your grandkids draw or find a pattern for simple silhouettes of Pilgrims and Indians that they can trace and cut. Kids coloring pages are a good resource for those. Place one of each on either side of a sheet of brown or orange construction paper.  They can have fun decorating them, or leave them as simple silhouettes.  Craft feathers could be added for cute details around the edges.
• Placeholders or Placecards – I love to use placeholders or placecards at the dinner table. These help to eliminate the arguments of who sits where at dinner and are particularly useful if uncle George and aunt Stella insist on armwrestling in the middle of dinner each year. With place cards, you can make sure they are well separated. 🙂 Your grandkids can take a piece of card stock or heavy paper, about four inches square, and fold them in half.  Have them print each person’s name on both sides or help them if they aren’t old enough to write. If you have an older grandchild who has learned how to do calligraphy, that can add a nice touch. Here's another easy way if one or more of the grandkids enjoys using the computer. Have them use a decorative font to type each name along with a verse or prayer, then print those out and glue them on the card. If your grandkids are quite young, you might like to prepare ahead of time by printing out some cute Thanksgiving clip art for them to cut and paste onto the place cards while you write the names. While you and your grandkids are having fun with all this, you could also make some extras. A set of Thanksgiving placecards or placemats would be a very sweet Thanksgiving gift for aging parents, friends, and neighbors.

Taking the time with your grandkids to create these special Thanksgiving place cards and placemats for your table, as well as a special Thanksgiving gift or two, will make your home, and others, even more attractive, adding color, fun, and great memories to the festivities that will be enjoyed by everyone. Be sure to sign up for the SandwichINK free email so you don’t miss any fun holiday ideas for Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents! 🙂