A Thanksgiving Table Setting for Children Under Five

Every year I see all these beautiful tablescapes of holiday tables, and I envy them.  I would love to have a beautiful, elegant table to sit down at for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It's not that I'm incapable of creating my own lovely tablescape.  No, I'm pretty good at holiday decorating if I do say so myself.  But my dilemma is I have three adorable little munchkins at my holiday table which I wouldn't trade for all the perfect, beautiful, elegant tablescapes in the world!  My grandchildren are what makes celebrating every holiday more meaningful.  So I decided, in lieu of the typical stunning Thanksgiving table setting you are seeing everywhere on Pinterest and Blogland right now, I'd show you what my Thanksgiving table looked like last year.

I covered the table with an old vinyl tablecloth that was way too small for our table, but it was the only one I had.  A cloth table cloth would just be ruined immediately with stains from the little ones, or my messy husband. 😁

Each table setting had a whimsical, hand-made item by me, whether it be a Thanksgiving figurine, or a paper turkey, plus a Thanksgiving Bible verse, and some corn nuggets (more on that later).

Last year I made these cute little pilgrim and Native American figures out of toilet paper rolls.  It ended up being my most popular post of the year,  even when I couldn't include directions because the link was broken.  Go figure.  The grandkids loved these little figures and played with them all week.

The paper turkey I made years ago following a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. 

The Thanksgiving faith index cards I made two years ago and we have used them every year at Thanksgiving.  The kids love them and they bring a spiritual element to the table.  Each family member picks a card, then reads the Bible verse on Thankfulness on the front of the card, then they talk about what that verse means to them.  The experience takes it a little beyond just mentioning what you are thankful for, since for most of us that doesn't change much year to year (family, friends, health, job, etc.).  You can find more information on the Thanksgiving Faith Index Cards HERE!

Now about the little packet of corn;  our church has a Thanksgiving Eve service the night before Thanksgiving Day.  At the service, the pastor shared the hardships of the early pilgrims and how many had starved to death their first winter in the new land.  He said many pilgrims only had five kernels of corn a day to eat,  and we were sent home with little packets of five kernels of corn to remind us of the hardships of the early settlers and how much we had to be grateful for today.  

Now whether the story is true or a myth I don't know, but I love the lesson the legend can teach us today. 

Photo Credit

 I put the packets of corn on the grandchildren's plates so we could discuss the values we learned from the story during the meal.  The grandkids then decided to try and eat the corn 🤯😆,  so we had to quickly grab the corn bits away from them.  I think if I ever do this again, I would use candy corn.  😀

I have many different styles and colors of plates and cups already in my dining ware collection, and these jeweled toned plates and Harvest Gold glass cups are perfect for a fall table.

Fall paper napkins were used in place of cloth ones, once again, more practical with little ones.

And finally, prior to our Thanksgiving meal, I printed out some Thanksgiving scenes for the grandchildren and I to color.  This was one I colored in using Copic markers.  I displayed it on the hutch next to the dining room table.

I hope you enjoyed reading about how my family and I celebrate Thanksgiving.  I will be taking the week off in lieu of the holiday.  I will return November 29th with a Bible Journaling post.

Have a Great Day and a Happy Thanksgiving.  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Paper Turkeys For Your Thanksgiving Table

I saw this Rosette Turkey Tutorial on the Splitcoaststamper Website and I thought it was such a cute idea I wanted to make my own.  At first I worried it might be too time consuming, but once I completed one, the rest fell together quite easily.

Aren't these just the cutest things you ever saw?  I made them to use as place settings for our Thanksgiving table.

If you decide to try making these turkeys yourself, be sure to use double sided pattern paper.  The first turkey I made I did not, and so the back of the turkey is just plain white.

Another tip I have is to use a glue gun.  The glue dries so fast, that you don't have to hold the rosettes in place long before they stay put on their own.

This is the first turkey I made.  I used a different punch on the edges just like the tutorial advised.  But for the rest of my turkeys I did not because I didn't think it made that much of an effect.

 I love the dimension that is created in the layers of rosettes.

This is what the back of the turkey will look like if you don't use double-sided designer paper.

For the head, I just put the card stock directly in my printer and printed the turkey head directly on the card stock.  In the tutorial, they tell you to print on copy paper and then use the copy paper as a template to trace onto your card stock.  Too much extra work to do it that way!

I usually would find making stuff like this too time consuming, but for some reason,  I really enjoyed it;  maybe because it was different from my usual card-making hobby.

I should also mention, don't worry if you don't have a lot of the very specific supplies in the tutorial.  Just use what you have!  I did!  I didn't have any of the circular punches, so I just used my Spellbinders Nestabilities for the circles.

If my Thanksgiving Day doesn't get too crazy, I'll try and remember to take a picture of my Thanksgiving Table with the paper turkeys on it!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!