These Thanksgiving Place Cards are simple but elegant. They actually can be used for any meal. Just change the small corner embellishments to match the occasion. You can even use small stickers if you want and what kid doesn’t love stickers? Your kids need something to do Thanksgiving morning. They are super easy to make and the kids feel like they helped.
They can easily be personalized to match your family. And Timmy and Suzy will be helping to get dinner ready without being underfoot. I made another set of Thanksgiving Place Cards that your kids can color. They are here.
What you will need
- Cardstock
- Pen
- liquid glue
- Download File
Paper Selection For the Thanksgiving Place Cards
The main card can be any paper but a solid color works best. As long as your pen shows up though a pattern would be fine. The frame is thin and a pattern really wouldn’t work. The little corner embellishments could be a small pattern. Glitter or foil paper would work for anything except the main card. None of the papers need to be two sided or any particular weight. This is a great project for using up pieces from your scrap bin.
Cutting The Thanksgiving Place Cards
Cricut will do all the writing. I used a simple Access font called Awesome in the Design Space File. The SVG file uses a different font but I don’t remember which one but any writing font will do. An alternative is to have your kids hand write the names on the place cards. Just hide the writing and cut the place cards out.
The embellishments, especially the frames are thin so be careful removing them from the mat. You can combine the different colors to one mat to save time. If you need to know how to do this see my video.
Assembling the Thanksgiving Place Cards
These are really simple to make. First, start by re-creasing the folds. The on one face glue the frame centered on the side around the name. Add the little embellishment to the corner. They are interchangeable. If you want to have the kids write the names, do this after putting the embellishment on the place cards but before you glue them.
Finally one the glue on the embellishments is dry, glue the tabs to the back of the other side, forming a triangle.
And your Thanksgiving Place Cards are done.
How Turkeys Became a Thanksgiving Tradition
Thanksgiving turkey is a bit of a mystery. Nobody knows exactly how this particular bird earned a place of honor at the table each November, but historians have a few different theories.
Thanks to letters and records kept by early American settlers, we know that when the colonists sat down to dine with the Wampanoag Indians, beef and fowl were on the menu. This historical meal would later become known as the first Thanksgiving.
Although historians cannot say for sure which types of fowl were served up that day, a letter written by pilgrim Edward Winslow mentions a turkey hunting trip before the meal.
Another theory attributes the Thanksgiving turkey to the Queen of England. During the 16th century, a fleet of Spanish ships sunk on their way to attack England.
According to legend, Queen Elizabeth received this news while eating dinner. She was so thrilled that she ordered another goose be served. Some historians say the early settlers were inspired by the queen’s actions and roasted a turkey instead of goose.
The wild turkey is native bird of North America. As a result, Benjamin Franklin claimed this made the turkey a more suitable national bird for the United States than the bald eagle.