Few days on the calendar bring people together quite as wonderfully as Thanksgiving. Whether you gather with friends or family (or both!), it’s a time for celebration and sharing for everyone.
There’s more to Thanksgiving than just cooking up a turkey, though—it’s an event! For the creatively-inclined, it’s also an excellent opportunity to show off your stuff. Everyone wants to add that special touch to the affair, and simple additions to your table setting and home decor will surely heighten the ambiance you create for this special day.
If you have a printer, scissors, tape, and a little imagination, you’re already halfway to creating handsome and unique looks to dress up your table, as well as provide fun games and gifts to brighten everyone’s day.
Here are a couple of our favorite Turkey Day design ideas for you to gobble up.
Printable Thanksgiving Menu
Nearly every Thanksgiving Day table spread comes equipped with the necessities, including turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and the like. However, now more than ever, people are innovating new dishes to accent traditional fare, or adding new touches to the old favorites. A menu is an excellent way to let everyone know what special touches you’ve added with elegance and sophistication. Printed menus also provide a space to give credit to everyone who contributed by bringing their own dishes. For anyone far from home arranging Friendsgiving, a menu lets everyone know what everyone brought along. Finally, it’s a great way tell Uncle Jerry with a shellfish allergy NOT to eat your seafood stuffing, no matter how good it looks.
For a simple bi-fold menu, the Avery® oversized 8.5″ x 5.5″ greeting card paper quickly prints and folds for a deceptively professional look. This heavyweight paper perforates cleanly for quality results with no tools and little fuss. It’s also stiff enough to stand on the plate for a fine-dining look and feel.
Looking for design inspiration? Here are a few fashionable looks you can download for free (or cheap!) to get you started:
Design by SarahHearts.com
Design from PrintableHaven’s Etsy Shop – https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrintableHaven
Printable Placecards for Guests
Another fantastic classic look that will boost the sophistication of your turkey day soiree: place cards for each of your guests. Small decorative place cards make everyone feel welcome at the table. Easily design and print simple place cards with quotes of gratitude like those from the Simple As That blog for a stylish, on-trend look using Avery’s business card paper.
From SimpleAsThatBlog.com
Printable Thanksgiving Wine Labels
The best gifts are those which people want to hold onto, things they want and can use. Bonus points if they improve in quality (or even increase in value!) over time. For all these reasons, giving bottles of wine to guests at formal celebrations like weddings and graduation remains popular. You don’t need to know a vintner or own a vineyard to have your own special Thanksgiving wine! Pick up a couple of nice bottles at a local shop and customize them with festive labels for your beloved guests. You can find some inspiration from SarahHearts.com.
From SarahHearts.com
Thanksgiving Activities
Not long after the turkey disappears, the next stage is unavoidable: tryptophan. That’s what scientists call the chemical in turkey that catapults you into nap mode after you eat it. While you may be ready to hunker down on the sofa and drift off in front of the game, your little ones may not be so willing to play along. Having some fun Thanksgiving-theme activities to keep them occupied while mom and dad “rest their eyes for a minute” can be a lifesaver.
Conveniently enough, you can print them out too. Here are a couple of our favorites:
For Kids
Activity Placemat: This one is best printed on legal size paper.
From PriorityMinistries.com
Printable Kit:
Color by Numbers:
More Kids Printable Games (including word search and scavenger hunt)
For Grownups
What are you thankful for? Say it loud and proud! I’m Thankful For Cards
Who says Thanksgiving isn’t also a party? Check out the printable spinner from this party pack. It’s best to use card stock for this game.
At the end of the day, once your turkey pan is in the dishwasher, and the kids are piled into your sister’s car, getting everyone together is what matters. Little decor touches and personalizations on old traditions are mere window dressing on the most important things: family, friends, and the gift of sharing.
