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Thanksgiving Decoration You Can Do With Your Child

Posted on 18. Nov, 2009 by Kate in Baby Stuff, Mommy Stuff, Parenting

Thanksgiving day doesn’t necessarily lend itself to decorations, per se, but it’s one of my favorite holiday gatherings and this year I thought I’d try to start some new family traditions – that is besides the eating till you drop tradition followed by the unbutton your pants and sit on the couch tradition.

I found this fun/child friendly turkey day craft project and thought it would be just the thing. Basically you make a turkey out of two balls, some yarn and felt. At least that’s what the directions say (the actual directions are on Parents.com).

My little toddler helped out with some of the yarn and glue parts and I did the cutting and assembly. As for the tail, we all pitched in and wrote down things we’re thankful for on construction paper and craft sticks and skewered them in to the turkey’s butt.

The wrapping of the Styrofoam ball in yarn for the body of the turkey was actually very easy, though it takes a bit more manual dexterity than a toddler has. That said, it seemed fascinating for my little girl to watch – winding the yarn round and round.

For the head, the directions call for making a ball of yarn 4 inches round. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have no idea how to start a ball of yarn that doesn’t fall apart, so I opted to use the 3 inch Styrofoam ball I bought as back up. That, I wrapped just like the body, but I did cut a very large portion of the bottom off, so it would lay flatter against the big body ball.

Well, along with the list of “parts,” the directions should have included straight pins. Long straight pins, like 3-4 inches long. These helped tremendously in attaching the head to the body. Simple glue doesn’t work. The head kept falling off and I got glue everywhere, much to the delight of Sophie. She’s on a cleaning kick and tried to wipe it all up but was confused when the cloth kept sticking…to everything.

You should also know that, when buying craft sticks, get something that will easily puncture yarn wrapped Styrofoam…I bought little rounded sticks and had to cut points for each.

Otherwise, the turkey turned out great. My husband says it looks a little “deer in the headlights.” We’ll see if it makes it through this holiday to become an actual tradition. One really good thing has come out of it, though. We’ve all been thinking what is “turkey worthy” to give thanks for this year.

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Tags: Styrofoam Thanksgiving turkey, Thanksgiving traditions