Thanksgiving Turkey Craft - Project Nursery

by Happy Wish Company

Thanksgiving is one of our very favorite holidays! It’s such a special time to gather with friends and family, eat yummy food and reflect on the many things we have to be thankful for. Make the holiday enjoyable for the kids too by having them create this fun 3-in-1 Thanksgiving turkey craft. It’s a centerpiece, appetizer and activity that will keep them busy while the turkey is cooking and the pies are baking!

This apple turkey is a simple craft that you can make with many ingredients you might already have around the house. For the base, you will need one small apple and one whole strawberry for each child. The craft is assembled using long wooden toothpicks, so make sure you have plenty of those on hand too.

Fill polka dot snack cups with toppings like grapes, marshmallows, raisins, cheese puffs, pretzels, candy corn, olives, cherry tomatoes, gumdrops, popcorn, cheese cubes, blueberries and fruit loops. The toppings can be geared towards the ages of the children doing the craft, and of course, chosen based on their food likes, dislikes, allergies, etc.

Using the toothpicks, let the children get creative and skewer the toppings of their choice in any order, making sure to closely supervise the youngest crafters. We recommend building a total of five toothpicks with toppings. If you skewer too many, the turkey will topple over!

Once the toppings are skewered onto the toothpicks, stick them into one side of the top of the apple, evenly spaced and spread out so they look like colorful feathers.

For the turkey’s head, attach the strawberry (stem side up) on the opposite side of the apple from the feathers using half of a toothpick. And for the face, use a dab of frosting to affix the candy eyes (which can be purchased at Michael’s, Target or Walmart), candy corn beak and a raisin for the snood—yes, it’s little known fact that that’s the name for the thing that hangs off a turkey’s face!