ALT-1 Ideas for Fun Family Activities on Thanksgiving Day
When dinner is over and you still have a houseful of family, organize some fun family activities on Thanksgiving Day. Start new traditions, share your blessings or just work off some of the calories you've consumed. Here are some great ideas for fun family activities your family can do.
HAVE A PARADE
- Pull out the bicycles, hot wheels, skateboards, baby buggies, golf carts, riding lawn mowers or whatever has wheels and decorate them with Christmas colors. Then have a parade to kick off the Christmas holidays.
- Invite your neighbors to join you and take a walk around the block. Give each person a red or green balloon to carry.
PLAY GAMES INDOORS
- See who can make the most words using the letters in Thanksgiving.
- Play Monopoly or another board or card game.
- Have a talent show or do Karaoke
- Play Charades or Who's Line Is It.
PLAY GAMES OUTDOORS
- Have a game of touch football or have a relay race.
- Play Red Rover, tag or duck-duck-goose.
- Have a jump rope contest
MAKE SIMPLE BIRD FEEDERS
- Spread peanut butter in the center of a small paper plate and sprinkle it with birdseed. Using several short nails, attach the plate to a tree where birds will feed on this nutritious bird snack.
- Make a bird feeder from a disposable aluminum pie pan by spacing four holes in the rim and attaching a two-foot long string at each hole. Lift the strings up and tie in a knot. Hang the feeder in a tree and fill with birdseed.
START A THANKSGIVING ALBUM
- Make a group picture of everyone present and paste it in an album, under a heading that says Thanksgiving 2008. Under this, write out a menu of your dinner. On a numbered page, have everyone write his or her name and what he or she is most thankful for this year and paste it facing the photo page. Each year you can add new pages and watch your family grow.
DRAW NAMES FOR CHRISTMAS
- Think of a unique way to draw names for Christmas such as hiding everyone's name somewhere in the family room or attaching the names to a dartboard and having a game of darts. Whoever's name you get closest to is who you buy a Christmas present.
PUT UP CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS
- While you have plenty of help, break out the ladders and hang the outdoor Christmas lights and set up any yard displays.
- Put up your Christmas tree and have everyone help decorate it. Pop some popcorn and let the kids string it or have them make paper chains.
- At dark, allow the youngest child to turn on the lights!
VISIT A NURSING HOME
- Make plans early in the week with a local Nursing home for your family to visit and bring desserts for those shut-ins who have no family to visit them. Then, load everyone up and go share your blessings with others.
There's no need for your celebration of thanks to end with the meal. While the family is all together, take time to enjoy them and catch up on what each is doing. Thanksgiving is a time for counting your blessings and sharing your joy and you can do it with these ideas for fun family activities.
