When my kids were small, they loved to help me in the kitchen. And one of the ways I passed on holiday traditions to them was to do simple Thanksgiving cooking activities. When they were super small, they started with simple tasks like stirring and dumping, but as they got older, they took on more of the responsibilities themselves. So naturally, I was thrilled when my adult son recently told me that he had continued my family tradition of baking cinnamon rolls for Thanksgiving, something I had to stop doing several years ago, thanks to a celiac disease diagnosis. I'm thrilled the tradition lives on in him.
Give your kids a love of cooking and start to pass on your own traditions with these age-appropriate Thanksgiving cooking activities. It will warm your heart years down the line when you discover they're doing the same for their kids.
Thanksgiving Cooking Activities for Toddlers
Toddlers love to engage in creative play. Thanksgiving activities in the kitchen must be simple and short for children this age.
No-Bake Pilgrim Hats
These adorable cookies require no baking, and very young children can put them together easily with a little parental guidance.
Ingredients
- Miniature peanut butter cups
- Mini chocolate sandwich cookies
- Melted chocolate
- Food-safe paint brush
- Yellow decorators icing
- Condiment squeeze bottle with a narrow tip
- The orange parts of candy corn, cut into fourths
Instructions
- Separate chocolate sandwich cookies and scrape off the filling.
- Paint chocolate with the paintbrush on the wide end (top) of a peanut butter cup.
- Place the peanut butter cup upside down on the cookie, using the chocolate as glue.
- Allow the chocolate to harden for a few minutes so the peanut butter cup no longer slides around on the cookie.
- Place the decorator icing in a squeeze bottle.
- Squeeze the icing around the edge of the peanut butter cup where it meets the cookie.
- Stick a piece of candy corn in the icing to make a buckle.
- Allow hats to dry completely before eating.
Acorn Donut Holes
This easy activity uses pre-made, plain donut holes and turns them into festive Thanksgiving acorns.
Ingredients
- Plain, pre-made donut holes
- Nut butter (peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter, or Nutella)
- Miniature toffee bits or chopped nuts
- Thin pretzels, broken into pieces
Instructions
- Place nut butter in a small, shallow bowl. Warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
- Place toffee bits or chopped nuts on a shallow plate.
- Dip the top third of the donut holes in the nut butter and then in the toffee bits or nuts.
- Place a bit of broken pretzel in the center of the toffee bits or nuts, poking into the donut hole, to create the stem.
Turkey Fruit Salads
These cute salads are made of fruit. It's easy for small hands to place them on plates in the shape of a turkey. An adult will have to help cut the fruit.
Ingredients
- Two small plates or saucers
- One pear, halved lengthwise
- One apple, cut into slices
- One small orange, such as a satsuma, segmented
- Four miniature chocolate chips
- Two almond slivers
- Two dried cranberries
- Two dried apricots, halved
Instructions
- Place one pear half, cut side down, on each plate, with the narrow part of the pear pointing toward the top of the plate.
- Arrange the apple slices in a semi-circle, starting along the side of the wide edge of the pear and up around the narrow edge, all the way to the other side to make the turkey's feathers.
- Place orange segments between every two apple slices, slightly overlapping, to add orange feathers.
- Place two small chocolate chips to make the eyes.
- Place a dried cranberry to make the gobble, and then layer it slightly with the slivered almond to make the beak.
- Cut dried apricots in half and then cut triangles out of them to make feet. Place the feet along the bottom of each turkey.
Alternate Way to Make Turkey Fruit Salad
Another way you could make the turkey fruit salad (good for a group) is by using a medium or large plate, the pair half as the body, then placing fruit skewers around the 'body' as the feathers. You can use any medium-size pieces of fruit, such as bananas, strawberries, pineapples, melon, or orange segments.
Thanksgiving Cooking Ideas for Young Children
As children get more coordinated, they are able to participate in more involved activities in the kitchen.
Slow Cooker Spiced Cider
This cozy cider was a mainstay at my family Thanksgivings. It's a perfect pre-dinner sipper, and it makes the house smell so good as it warms in your slow cooker.
Ingredients
- Slow cooker
- One gallon apple cider
- Two cinnamon sticks
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- Whole cloves
- Two apples
- Two oranges
Instructions
- Pour apple cider into the slow cooker.
- Add cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve.
- Poke cloves into apples and oranges, using as many or as few as you'd like.
- Float the fruit in the slow cooker.
- Cover the slow cooker and turn it on to high, allowing it to heat for one hour.
- Reduce temperature to low and allow the cider to cook for one more hour.
- Continue simmering on low, ladling it into mugs as needed.
Turkey Appetizer With Fruit Skewers
Serve fruit skewers with a Thanksgiving theme! An adult can help cut the cheese and peppers.
You will need:
- Medium-sized platter
- One pear
- One honeydew melon
- One red pepper
- Cheese
- Two raisins
- Grapes
- Wooden skewers
- Toothpicks
How to make the turkey:
- Slice off a small, flat piece of the melon to stabilize it. Place, flat side down, on the platter.
- Cut the ends off a red pepper and cut wedges in the ends to make them look like feet. Place them in front of the melon.
- Place a bamboo skewer in the pear and affix the pear to the melon, narrow side of the pear down, to make the turkey head.
- Cut a piece of cheese into a triangle. Using a toothpick, attach it to the pear to make the turkey's beak.
- Cut a narrow strip of red pepper, and affix it to the pear next to the beak to make the turkey's gobble.
- Attach two raisins to the pear with toothpicks to make the turkey's eyes.
- Cut the remainder of peppers into slices.
- Place toothpicks in the peppers and place them in the melon to make the turkey's side feathers.
- Skewer cheese cubes and grapes on long bamboo skewers. Stick them in the melon around the back to make the turkey's tail feathers.
Turkey Cookies
These are so easy (and sooo cute!). Make your own sugar cookies or buy some that are premade (or cut them from a roll and bake them). Your kids will look forward to this activity every year.
Ingredients
- Round sugar cookies
- Mini peanut butter cups
- Malt balls
- Candy corn
- Candy googly eyes
- Orange decorator icing in a squeeze bottle
- White decorator icing in a squeeze bottle
- Red decorator icing in a squeeze bottle
How to make them:
- Stick two sugar cookies together at a 90° angle so they make a little 3D stand.
- Place candy corn, point-side down, along the edge of the upright cookie (stick it with the white icing) to form the feathers.
- Place candy corn, point side towards the center of the cookie, on top of the melted chocolate to make the feathers.
- Use white icing to stick a peanut butter cup and a malt ball to the cookie to form the body and head.
- Add a dab of icing to the back of the googly eyes and stick them on the head.
- Use white icing to pipe the beak and red icing to pipe the gobble.
- Use the white icing to attach two candy corns for the wings.
- Squeeze icing along the bottom of the cookie to make feet.
- Allow to dry and set completely before eating.
Turkey Day Cooking Ideas for Older Children
As your kids get older, they can help with dinner and even take responsibility themselves to prepare one dish.
Pumpkin Pie Dip
This delicious dip for sliced apples uses traditional Thanksgiving pumpkin pie flavors, but it has a kid-friendly twist.
Ingredients
- One, eight-ounce package of cream cheese, softened at room temperature
- 2 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
- 15-ounces of pumpkin pie filling
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- Apples, sliced
- Mixer
- Medium bowl
- Decorative bowl
- Plastic wrap
Instructions
- Place cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Using a mixer, beat the mixture on medium until it is smooth.
- Add pumpkin pie, cinnamon, and sugar. Beat on medium until it is well combined and smooth.
- Place in a decorative bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least eight hours.
- Serve with sliced apples for dipping.
Cranberry Sauce
I know this might be super controversial (we see you, canned cranberry sauce fans), but I think homemade cranberry sauce tastes way better than canned. And it's so easy for your kids to make with your supervision.
Ingredients
- One, 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of orange juice
- 1 medium saucepan
- 1 bowl
- Plastic wrap
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a medium saucepan.
- Place the pan on the stove and turn it on to medium high.
- Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low.
- Simmer until berries begin to pop.
- Turn off the heat.
- Stir the cranberry sauce as it begins to cool.
- Allow to cool to room temperature.
- Refrigerate, covered, for at least four hours. Serve chilled.
Crescent Rolls
This is another of my family traditions that the kids loved. I made them at Thanksgiving (with their help), but they were also fun to make throughout the year for school lunches.
Ingredients
- 2-packages of quick-rising yeast
- ¾ cup warm water (110 degrees Fahrenheit)
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup shortening
- 4 cups of flour, plus more for kneading
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, very soft
- Instant-read thermometer
- Two large bowls
- Mixer
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Wooden spoon
- Oil
- Pastry brush
- Towel
- Rolling pin
- Pizza cutter
- Parchment paper
- Baking pans
These will take about four hours from start to finish, so if you are making them for dinner, start early in the day. You can also make them a day ahead and then reheat them, wrapped in foil, at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Mix
- Measure the water and its temperature. The water should be between about 108°F and 112°F.
- Pour the water into a bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and mix it lightly to combine.
- Set aside for five minutes. The water and yeast will start to look bubbly and fluffy.
- Add sugar, salt, eggs, and shortening to the yeast mixture.
- Using a mixer, mix ingredients on medium speed until they are smoothly combined.
- Stir in flour thoroughly to form a round ball of dough.
Knead and Rest
- Sprinkle a liberal amount of flour on a countertop, non-stick baking mat, or pastry cloth. Dip your hands in flour, as well.
- Turn out your dough onto the floured surface.
- With floured hands, fold the dough in half. Next, push the dough away from you with the palm of your hands. Now turn the dough one quarter turn. Repeat this process, which is called kneading.
- Knead the dough for ten minutes until it is smooth and elastic. You can take turns with someone else if your arms get tired!
- You may need to keep adding flour to the countertop to make sure the dough doesn't stick.
- You can tell the dough has been kneaded enough when you poke it with your index finger and it springs back quickly. You can also place the flat of your hand firmly on the dough and count to 30. If there is no sticky residue between your hand and the dough, it has been kneaded enough.
- Use a pastry brush to brush oil all around the inside of a large, clean bowl.
- Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat it with oil.
- Cover the dough with a towel and set it in a warm spot away from drafts. Some people like to use the turned-off oven for this step, since it is usually draft-free and reasonably warm. Be sure you don't accidentally turn on the oven while the dough is in there!
- Allow the dough to sit, covered, for about an hour and a half. The dough will double in size.
Make the Rolls
- Remove the towel from the dough when it has doubled. Make a fist and punch the dough right in the middle (this is the fun part!). The dough will deflate. This is called punching down the dough.
- Liberally flour a clean surface. Divide the dough into two pieces and form each into a ball.
- Flour a rolling pin. Roll the dough out into a large circle. Keep rolling until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick.
- Take half of the softened butter and carefully spread it evenly across the circle of dough.
- Line two baking pans with parchment paper or spray it with non-stick cooking spray.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough just like you would a pizza, into eight wedges.
- Starting at the wide edge, roll the dough into a roll.
- Place the rolls onto a baking sheet with the point side down. Bend the roll slightly to make a crescent shape.
- Repeat steps 18 through 23 with the other ball of dough.
- Cover the pans with a towel and allow the dough to rest again. The rolls should double in size in about 30 to 60 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Bake the rolls for 12 to 15 minutes, until they are golden brown on the outside.
- Cool on wire racks for use on a different day or serve immediately.
- If you are going to use the rolls tomorrow, place them in a tightly sealed container on the counter overnight.
More Fun Thanksgiving Food Activities for Kids
These simple food activities can help engage kids of almost any age in the kitchen for this joyful holiday. They also incorporate some of the Thanksgiving foods kids love.
Cranberry-Topped Muffins
Make simple spice, cranberry or other healthy muffins (or purchase store-bought ones) and let the kids decorate them with pretty Thanksgiving themed toppings. Mix equal parts pudding and cool whip together and kids can squeeze the topping over the muffins from a piping bag then top with candied cranberries. (Parents can make the cranberries ahead of time by simmering cranberries in ½ cup of sugar and ½ water. When cool kids can roll them in sugar.)
Chocolate Turkey Pretzels
Make a festive after-dinner treat that couldn't be easier. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, then help kids dip pretzel rods into the chocolate. Candy corn 'feathers' and the turkey's beak (parents can cut part of the orange candy corn to make peak shapes) should be affixed while the chocolate's still warm. Add a small circle of white frosting and cut small pieces of black licorice laces to place in the center of the frosting to make the eyes.
Cranberry Flatbread Appetizers
Children can help put together these easy Thanksgiving appetizers in minutes. Cut wedges of flatbread or pita bread and thin slices of soft cheese (such as brie or cream cheese). Cover each bread wedge with cheese, a dollop of cranberry sauce, a walnut or other nut, and a small sprig of rosemary.
Colorful Roasted Carrots
Colorful carrots make a perfect side dish. Let kids season carrots with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh herbs like chives, oregano, thyme or parsley. (Other vegetables, like onions or parsnips, can also be added if desired). Kids can place the vegetables in parchment and an adult can cook them in the oven at 400°F for 30-40 minutes or until tender.
Pumpkin Deviled Eggs
Put a new twist on classic deviled eggs; let kids help make them look like pumpkins! Depending on their age, kids can either help mix the ingredients or just help fill and garnish the eggs. Just make the deviled egg filling as you normally would, but add paprika until the mixture turns an orange color. Then add a small piece of chive for the top of the 'pumpkin,'
Stuffed Squash
A healthy Thanksgiving food option that could be fun for younger and older kids to create, this stuffed squash is pretty and delicious. You can cook squash in the microwave (or however you love to cook it), and then fill it with cooked quinoa (you can also substitute rice or stuffing if desired) seasoned with nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and a little butter. Other additions, like chickpeas and cranberries or grapes can also be added to give more flavor and visual appeal.
Thanksgiving Food Activities for the Classroom
If you are a teacher or need a Thanksgiving cooking activity for a group of children, consider these easy ideas.
Pumpkin or Spice Snack Cake
A plain pumpkin or spice sheet cake is the perfect canvas to get creative. Plain white frosting (you can use vanilla, cream cheese frosting or simply whipped topping) can be dressed up with sliced fresh fruit, dried fruit, dry cereal pieces, sprinkles, chocolate chips, cinnamon, and more. To make this a creative project, encourage children to create a Thanksgiving-themed design for their cake topper.
Healthy Harvest Snacks
For this Thanksgiving classroom snack, first pass out plain rice cakes to the students. Set up stations to dress them up — first with nut butters, and then fun harvest-themed additions like dried fruits, nuts, and seeds. For classrooms where there are concerns about nut allergies, swap the nut butters for seed butter, cream cheese, or pureed fruits or vegetables and use freeze-dried fruits or veggies in place of the nuts.
Thanksgiving Pudding Cup Treats
A fun treat for a class party might be these pumpkin pudding cups. Allow students to come to a station or a table set up with pumpkin-flavored pudding, vanilla pudding or yogurt, chocolate or spice cookie crumbles, whipped cream, and accents like chocolate sprinkles. To make this a fun learning activity, explain or write out the directions and challenge the students to follow them in order. Or, allow them to get creative and layer the ingredients however they would like.
Autumn Harvest Stew
You can do this using a slow cooker in the morning, and kids can enjoy the soup at lunch or an afternoon snack time. Add several cups of vegetable broth to the slow cooker, and have a variety of harvest vegetables (pre-cut and washed) such as carrots, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, corn, turnips, and others as desired. Allow students to choose vegetables to add (either individually or as tables or groups) and salt to taste. Use as a springboard to discuss the first Thanksgiving or autumn harvests.
Other Ways Kids Can Help in the Kitchen
There are numerous other ways kids of different ages can help in the kitchen, either to prep for Thanksgiving beforehand or to help the day of. Kids can:
- Set the table, help arrange centerpieces, or roll flatware into napkins
- Arrange fruit, vegetables, cheese and crackers, or cookies/small Thanksgiving desserts on trays or platters
- Help mix and stir punch, iced tea, lemonade, or other beverages
- Mix up simple dips for vegetables, chips, or bread
- Toss and/or add ingredients to salads
- Mash potatoes
- Help layer ingredients for casseroles
- Stir in ingredients and/or mix batters for desserts or baked goods
- Decorate or garnish dishes, desserts, or appetizers
- Be a designated 'taste tester' for adults doing the cooking
Tips
Always consider what's age appropriate and safe for your child. These are great instructions to give your kids before you begin the activity to help them establish safe and healthy kitchen habits.
- Always read activity or recipe through completely before you begin.
- Gather all the items you need before you start.
- Wash and dry your hands thoroughly before beginning.
- Protect your clothes with an apron.
- If you have long hair, tie it back in a ponytail to keep it out of your food.
- Have adults do the knife work for you.
- Have adult supervision when using the oven or stove
Family Thanksgiving Fun in the Kitchen
Participating in Thanksgiving cooking activities is a great way to get kids involved in this family holiday. You may even create a new Thanksgiving family tradition. Whether you're planning on celebrating Thanksgiving with a big family gathering or just having a simple dinner, involving kids in the kitchen can be a learning experience and create special lasting memories.
