Schools are closed, there’s a chill in the air and
Butterballs are (figuratively) flying off the shelves. It’s time for Turkey
Day! Take a break from the baster and have the kids dive into the
festivities – they’ll gobble it up! —
Cool Crafts
Hand turkeys are fun, but let’s face it, they’re so 2010.
Instead, have your kids help brighten that plain Thanksgiving dinner tablecloth
by sponge-painting placemats! You can purchase canvas placemats or use brown
paper bags. Pick up Thanksgiving-themed sponges (think Pilgrim hats, turkey shapes and cornucopia) at any craft store, along with
red, yellow and orange paint, and set the kids to work!
For decoration or just for fun, collect old toilet paper
rolls and make them into feathered friends. Cut out feathers from construction paper and
glue on googly eyes and other appendages. You can even have your family write
down what they’re thankful for on the feathers and share what they wrote over
dinner. Grandma will be so impressed! If you’re short on toilet paper rolls,
you can substitute them for paper plates. (Idea courtesy of AllKidsNetwork.com)
If you’d like to keep the thanks-giving all in one place,
make a family tree of thanks! Draw or cut out of brown construction paper a
tree with branches for each member of the family. Color and cut out leaves with
words or pictures that describe what everyone is thankful for. Bonus points if
you use actual leaves – the perfect excuse for a stroll through Central
Park!
For more autumn arts & crafts ideas, check out Fall’s Last Fling.
Gobble It Up
Thanksgiving
is all about tradition, but that can also mean starting some new ones as a family.
We’ve gathered a great line-up of recipes that incorporate the foods everyone is
used to—but with some slight twists and tweaks. Check out pigs-in-pilgrim-hats (little hands can help!), sweet potato cakes, sausage and
chestnut stuffing and mouth-watering apple pie cookies.
Not
interested in cooking this Thanksgiving but don’t know where to go that is open
and kid-friendly? Carla
Sullivan of MiniMunchers.com has some ideas on where to celebrate the holiday in restaurants that will welcome your little ones. Our favorite place to eat on Turkey Day? Jane in Soho is dishing up some traditional favorites, like candied yams!
Book ‘Em
Nothing gets little ones in the spirit of a holiday like reading a
story about it. We love Natasha Wing’s The Night Before Thanksgiving, a
whimsical whirl through one family’s Turkey Day. Join in the chaotic good times
as the fam cooks, greets, eats, laughs and gives thanks.
For a story with a bit
of history and a lot of fantastic illustrations, check out Balloons Over
Broadway by Melissa Sweet. Walk through Manhattan
with Tony Sarg, the genius puppeteer who gave America
the helium balloons that liven up our Thanksgiving mornings.
Hip, Hip, Parade
The rest of the country has to settle for watching the
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, but New Yorkers get to experience the
real deal. Get caught up in the real-life excitement and energy of the biggest
parade of the year! Make sure the whole family is well-fed, bundled up, and has
used the all-important restroom before heading out. Avoid the insanity of the
official viewing area on 34th Street – instead, park your camp uptown, along
the much more relaxed viewing route between 72nd Street/Central Park West and
61st Street.
If you think your kids might be too antsy for the three-hour
parade, consider booking a hotel room for Wednesday night into Thursday
morning. Many of the hotels in Times Square, as well as
ones several blocks uptown, offer special parade packages with yummy breakfast
options and spectacular views of the world-famous balloons.
Wednesday Night: Also, don’t forget that’s when the
parade really kicks off: Wednesday night: Between 3 pm
and 10 pm, take a walk through 77th
and 81st streets between Central Park West and Columbus
Avenue. Watch in awe as the whimsical floats and
balloons come to life! It may not be the parade, but there’s something very wondrous and spectacular about being out there for the preparation. Following tradition, the weather is looking cold (low 40’s) and damp tonight, but not rainy. So this should work if you bundle up your kids, and prepare for a food stop either before or after about an hour’s worth of gawking.
Check MenuPages.com for prices and phone numbers, addresses, but here are some yummy and family-friendly recommendations nearby:
Bagel
Talk 368 Amsterdam Ave |
Btwn 77th & 78th St
Cafe
Frida 368 Columbus Ave |
Btwn 77th & 78th St
Chirping
Chicken355 Amsterdam Ave
| Btwn 76th & 77th St
Isabella’s 359
Columbus Ave | At 77th St
Shake
Shack 366 Columbus Ave |
At 77th St
Cafe con Leche 424
Amsterdam Ave | Btwn 80th & 81st
St
Island
Burgers & Shakes 422 Amsterdam Ave
| Btwn 80th & 81st St
Patsy’s Pizzeria 61
W 74th St | Btwn CPW & Columbus Ave
Pay It Forward
Give thanks by giving back! The Jay-Harama
Senior Center
in Brooklyn throws an annual Thanksgiving party for the
elderly. Help serve food, clean up, or mingle and boogie down with the
partygoers.
Round up the coats in your house that no longer fit and
collect friends’ and neighbors’ outgrown jackets to give to New York Cares’
annual coat drive, which runs now until Dec. 31st.
Host a virtual food drive for the Food Bank for New
York City! Visit the Food Bank’s website to set up and
personalize a drive, invite friends and family, and have your kids help pick
out which items to buy. The coolest part is that your money buys more here
than it would in a regular grocery store.
Head over to Hunts Point to serve a hot Thanksgiving meal to
the needy on Thursday afternoon in The Point, a community center on Garrison
Avenue. Bring extra personal-care essentials to
donate, as attendees will be able to shop for free clothes and necessities.
