Ideas for Family Holidays and Celebrations

A centerpiece, name card or placemat craft is a fun way to keep kids busy on Thanksgiving, and makes something useful for the dinner table. I've also seen coloring placemats that could come in handy during the dinner itself, for kids who get antsy during a long meal.

For preschoolers and toddlers, have a mini pumpkin "egg" hunt! Buy a dozen of those adorable mini pumpkins and hide them throughout your home for a fun thing to do on Thanksgiving. Kids can also take turns hiding them for each other. Later, use the pumpkins as dinner table décor!

With a white tablecloth or runner on your table, have everyone present for the Thanksgiving dinner write something they are thankful for in Sharpie or fabric marker and sign their name. Carefully launder the tablecloth, and you can bring it out again each year to repeat as an annual Thanksgiving activity and enjoy looking back on past years!

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving we break out our poster paints and paint a big tree, minus the leaves, on big sheets of paper. We also cut out large leaves using colorful construction paper and put the tree up in a prominent area with a big pile of paper leaves nearby. Throughout Thanksgiving, we each write down things that we’re grateful for on a leaf to add to the tree (and invite any guests to do the same) - it’s such a fun and visual way to see and recall the many things we have to be thankful for!

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road? Because he didn't have any guts.

What's the scariest pasta to eat? Fettuccine "afraid-o"

Why do vampires have no friends? Because they are a pain in the neck.

Why are ghosts such bad liars? Because you can see right through them.

Volunteer to participate in a trunk or treat event! This is a fun Halloween activity for high school kids who have a car. They can pick a theme, decorate the car and dress up in costume, and hand out candy to kids.

A murder mystery dinner is a fun thing for teens to do for Halloween with friends. You can use a kit that sets it all up for you, and everyone can dress in costume that matches the time period or setting of the game.

For teens that are into baking, there are a lot of fun Halloween treat recipes to try.

Halloween movie marathon! Teens might be excited to "graduate" to scary movies from the spooky little kid ones they grew up with.

Rosie the Riveter with jeans, blue button up shirt with sleeves rolled up, red bandana around the head, red lipstick.

My husband dressed up as a picnic table one year at last minute, to match our son's ant costume. He cut out a big rectangle from a cardboard box, and hot glued some of the kids' toy food onto it, including a tablecloth and toy dishes. Then he hung it around his neck using some yarn, and voila! A picnic table. It was done in less than 30 minutes, and he got so many compliments!

Scarecrow is an easy diy costume. Jeans, button down plaid shirt, floppy hat. Use makeup or facepaint for a brown nose and red circles on cheeks.

A black cat is pretty easy to throw together using stuff you already have at home. Just wear all black, and draw whiskers and a nose on your face with eye liner. Add kitty ears using black triangles cut out of construction paper (tape them on a headband or pin them on with bobby pins), and if possible, find something to use as a tail, like a black belt, tie or sash.

There are so many great Halloween movies for kids, you can easily pick a new one each week for a whole month of spooky family movie nights. Lean into the theme by mixing some candy into your popcorn.

In our last neighborhood, one of our neighbors had a casual Halloween party every year. On Halloween before trick-or-treating, the neighbors would all hang out in their driveway for dinner and to check out everyone's costumes. It was always one of my favorite parts of the holiday!

Hide candy or little Halloween trinkets inside Easter eggs for a Halloween egg hunt.

If your kids love making paper chain countdowns for events they're anticipating and ripping off a link each day, make a black and orange one for Halloween!

Hot potato. We just had a birthday party for a five-year-old, and ended up playing hot potato along with pass the parcel. Though I’ve loved pass the parcel since we discovered it on Bluey, think the kids enjoyed hot potato even more, as they were able to toss the “potato” (we used a small plushy) to each other out of order, which made the game more active and the kids more engaged. When the music stopped, whoever was holding the plushy got out, and the last person in got the prize. This kept the kids from slow passing, too, since the goal was NOT to get caught with the plushy!

Pass the Parcel! We'd never heard of this one until we saw the Bluey episode about Lucky's Dad's Rules (best. episode. ever.), and now my kids want to play it ALL the time. Similar to Hot Potato, kids pass around a wrapped gift while music is playing. When the music stops, whoever is holding the gift gets to unwrap it. According to the Bluey episode, the original way to play is to wrap a single gift in various layers of wrapping paper, so you go through several rounds before a child actually opens the gift, which they get to keep. Another version of the game includes small prizes within each layer of paper, and strategically stopping the music to make sure every child gets a prize.

Obstacle course. This is one of the best birthday party games for an outdoor party! Get creative using pool noodles, cones, hula hoops, and existing playground or other outdoor equipment for obstacle challenges. My kids love to time themselves to keep trying to improve their time getting through the obstacle course.

Nerf war! My son's friends have done birthday party games where each kid brings their own Nerf blasters and ammo and they all go to town in the yard. My advice is to label your kid's gear so it's easier to identify during cleanup. We've lost a lot of Nerf bullets this way, but the kids do love it!