The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal, starring a large roasted turkey. All of the dishes in a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner are made from foods native to North America, the Pilgrims having received these foods from the Indians.

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Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Purchase small striped or colorful gourds. There are always lots available in the grocery stores at this time of year. Keep the ones with pretty stems to include without candles.

Parental supervision is recommended.

This project is rated AVERAGE to do.

What You Need

• Striped green and yellow squash
• Yellow and green candles
• Apple corer
• Florists' adhesive clay, optional
• Dried leaves or vines, as desired

How To Make It

1. Break off the stalk from the gourds.
2. Use an apple corer to make a bigger indentation in the top for a candle.
   Note: If the gourd is too hard to do this, get some florists' adhesive clay and use that to hold the candle in the top.
3. Insert a candle.
4. Make a centerpiece with several candleholder gourds and some of the ones (with nice stalks) that you saved.
5. Scatter in some fall (dried) leaves or vines, whatever you can find. Use your imagination!

Turkey Table Decoration

You can make this turkey as small or as large as you would like. The turkey can be a place setting decoration or a larger table decoration.

Parental supervision is recommended.

This project is rated AVERAGE to do.

What You Need

• Wooden heart
• 2 Wooden doll heads (flat bottoms), one a little smaller than the other
• 2 Wiggle eyes
• Yellow craft foam
• Red craft foam
• Brown craft paint
• Red craft paint
• Orange craft paint
• Paintbrush
• Tacky glue or hot glue gun
• Scissors

How To Make It

1. Paint the two doll heads brown.
2. Paint the heart red and add orange accents, if desired.
3. Allow to dry.
4. Glue the two doll heads together, one on top of the other, to form the turkey's body.
5. Glue the red heart behind the body of the turkey to form the feathers.
6. Glue the wiggle eyes to the front of the head.
7. Cut out the beak and gobbler from red and yellow craft foam.
8. Glue the beak and gobbler as shown in the picture.
9. Add a name card if you wish to use as a place setting on your table.

Source: Thanksgiving Arts and Crafts for Kids