6 Ways Your Kids Can Help on Thanksgiving
Preparing for a major holiday like Thanksgiving is exciting, but definitely a lot of work. Mighty Mommy shares 6 tips to make this Thanksgiving a family affair so your kids can share in the preparation and execution of the dinner.
I love the entire reason behind Thanksgiving. All too often we don’t stop to give thanks for all the amazing gifts we have—our kids, spouses, extended family members, true friends, a cozy home, our health, pediatricians that we love, loyal pets, trusted babysitters, a great cup of coffee, the perfect glass of wine, jeans that fit the way they did 5 years ago—the list goes on and on.
See also: 11 Ways to Raise Grateful Kids
Of course, Thanksgiving is also about the feast—the heavenly roasted turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes with creamy gravy, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits, homemade pumpkin pie, and everything else in between.
While this is definitely a terrific celebration, let’s face it, it’s also a lot of work, especially for parents.
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This year, lighten your load by making your Thanksgiving dinner preparation a family affair. When your kids are assigned their own important jobs they’ll feel great about contributing to the event and appreciate the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Here are Mighty Mommy’s 6 tips for getting the whole family involved:
Tip #1: Hold a Family Planning Meeting
When I have a big project at work, our team gathers in advance to set our goals and assign individual tasks.
Planning and prepping for a big family holiday such as Thanksgiving is no different. Set a time when your family can get together to discuss the menu as well as brainstorm other aspects of the day such as decorations, activities, etc.
See also: 6 Ways to Improve Family Communication
In our family, I used to be the designated holiday planner but now one of my college-age kids (who is in art school) has gladly taken on this position because she enjoys putting her artistic touch on everything from the food choices to the tablescape.
With most of my 8 kids attending our Thanksgiving planning meeting, believe me not all of them are jumping up and down to sign up for jobs like peeling potatoes or helping to clean bathrooms before company arrives. So I try to make sure they all have input in picking tasks they would enjoy doing as well as fit what they’re capable of contributing.
We’re hosting 30 people for Thanksgiving this year, so here are some of the ideas we came up with at our planning meeting…
Tip #2: Menu Selection
The first thing we all shared was what we wanted to serve for our Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey was the easy part, but we also have two family members who are allergic to turkey so we also found another main course that would work for them. Each child (ours range from 9 – 21) made menu recommendations ranging from appetizers to side dishes to desserts. We even accounted for a few favorite ways to serve up those awesome leftovers. (Our kids who are away at college texted us their suggestions!)
See also: 5 Tips to Make Meal Planning Easier
One way to get your grade-school children involved is to let them write up a menu that can be posted for your family and guests on Thanksgiving Day. This gives them a way to express their creative side as well as give them practice with writing out a list. This can be done days in advance or Thanksgiving morning.
Tip #3: Create a Detailed Shopping List
Create a detailed shopping list and choose a time when several family members are available to go to the grocery store together. Because there is so much to buy for a large meal like this, breaking the list down into groupings (such as baking ingredients, side dishes, paper goods, appetizers) is one way you can involve your kids. Based on their ages, you can assign different lists to one or more kids, or your spouse, to make your trip to the grocery store take less time and less hassle.
Tip #4: Simplify the Prepping and Cooking
Here’s where the entire family can begin to pitch in to make your holiday meal less work and more memorable. If you’ve already agreed at your planning meeting that certain individuals will be helping with the meal preparation, save yourself some time and confusion by making up lists in advance to pass along to your helpers.
Two of my kids love to bake, so they take charge of the desserts and start baking the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Thanks to them, I didn’t do a shred of baking for last year’s meal. They just handled it.
I’m in charge of all the veggies and the stuffing so my 9-year old daughter helps me do things like measure chopped onions and celery and break up the bread for the stuffing. She’s also in charge of getting out all the serving dishes, platters, and bowls the night before Thanksgiving so that they are ready to go.
See also: Domestic CEO’s Thanksgiving Dinner Recap
Younger kids, even preschoolers, can do things like snap the ends off of the fresh green beans or help you gather items from the pantry like cans of cranberry sauce or your baking ingredients—flour, sugar and salt—perhaps even fold the napkins. Even if it’s just one small job, you’re including them in the process and helping them feel pride about their abilities.
Tip #5: Set the Table and Decorate Your Home
When we have a large group of guests coming to our home, I tend to go a little overboard with cleaning and getting everything ready. I make sure to include tidying up in our to-do list at our family planning meeting. I remind them that although we don’t live in a museum, our home should be something we can be proud of, so it’s important that we all work together to make it inviting for our guests.
Younger kids can be in charge of putting their own toys away so that guests aren’t tripping over Legos and Barbie dolls. Older kids can pitch in with cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, and organizing the main living areas and family room.
Adding some autumnal touches to your décor is a big part of the fun in getting ready for Thanksgiving, especially if you have budding Picassos who love to get creative. Last year my daughters worked together to make homemade placemats out of brown craft paper. They simply decorated them with stickers of fall leaves, pumpkins, and turkeys and colored a border with orange and red crayons. It was an extra festive touch to our table and they got lots of compliments on their craftiness. While they were at it, they created place setting cards with markers and a bit of glitter—another sparkly touch.
Another of my kids gathered some small, dried branches that were in the yard and we spray painted them gold and placed them in vases throughout the living room and foyer. If your kids made arts and crafts projects in school for the holiday, be sure to incorporate those into your decorating scheme—another source of pride for the family.
See also: Fall Décor Ideas
If your kids are too young to help set the table, see if they can at least put the silverware out for you or get the napkins ready—any little bit they can do now will make them feel involved and you can build on it for next year.
One important job that you can involve your kids in is greeting the guests when they arrive. They can take coats and put them in the coat closet or in a bedroom and point them in the direction of where the family is gathering. And if you have pets that get overexcited when company arrives, this is another important opportunity for a child to be a helper and keep the pets calm or out of the way while everyone is getting settled.
Tip # 6: Clean Up
There’s no getting around it—preparing a huge meal means a lot of clean-up, especially if you’re entertaining guests beside your immediate family. Since the entire family gets to enjoy the benefit of a delicious feast, there’s no reason why those who are able can’t help to clean it all up.
On Thanksgiving morning we have a quick “recap” of that original family meeting so I can give some gentle reminders about who’s doing what to help that day. To offer some guidance, I post a list on the kitchen bulletin board that outlines what those responsibilities are and who is doing them. This sets the expectation for the day so there are no surprises.
One of my sons has a part-time job as a dishwasher, so he volunteers to do most of the dishes rather than have to do any of the prepping or shopping or cleaning. This is a huge win for my family because most of us loathe doing dishes. We still enlist the other kids’ help to clear and scrape dishe and put leftovers in sealed containers and away before dessert is served. Assign a younger child the job of gathering all the used napkins on the table and putting them in the laundry basket. Watch for a huge proud grin when you praise the accomplishment.
Even if your family is not entertaining outside guests, you can still get the family involved in all of these steps but on a smaller scale. You’ll be teaching them that teamwork is essential in helping to make a special holiday like Thanksgiving even more rewarding because you worked together to make it happen.
See also: Domestic CEO’s How to Host Thanksgiving Dinner
How do you involve your family in the Thanksgiving holiday? Share your thoughts in the Comments section at quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy, post your ideas on the Mighty Mommy Facebook page. or email me at mommy@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email. Also visit my family-friendly boards at Pinterest.com/MightyMommyQDT.