Thanksgiving Table, kid-friendly place cards

I first made this pilgrims hats several years ago, based on an idea I found in Child Magazine (I think). The first time we made these, it was for a relatively small (I have a huge family, so I’m not sure if my idea of small is the same as everyone elses) Thanksgiving dinner at my sister’s house. The plates we were using were black and so these hats tied in the black color and made it so it didn’t feel out of place for Thanksgiving. My daughter—a toddler at the time—loved playing with her miniature hat.

They are really simple to make. You just purchase black plastic cups, cut out black rings to fit around for the brim of the hat and a small buckle out of something gold or yellow. I used gold paint pen to write the names

I realize these may not be totally PC, today, but I like to teach about The First Thanksgiving and how there were pilgrims and Native Americans feasting together. Last Thanksgiving, we pulled out the old pilgrims hats that had been too cute to throw away, and fixed them up, and supplemented the rest with these mini feather headbands, that my daughter and I put together. I just cut some feather shapes, positioned them on a strip of cardstock and stapled them (with a fun gold staple from CTMH). Again, I used a gold paint pen to write the names. (They are a bit stereotypical, but then again, so are the pilgrims hats.)

Here is last year’s table. My Mother-in-law owns most of the pretty things you see on the table. I just put it all together. You can see our little pilgrims hat there. Perhaps it is a bit more casual than the rest of the table, but since adults and kids were all together at one big table, it was nice to include a little bit of fun with the elegant.