Our family has been doing this since I was a young girl, and we’ve kept up the tradition with our kids. After gorging ourselves at dinner, before dessert, we play Family Bingo. We purchase dollar store prizes and wrap them. When someone gets a Bingo, they reach into the goodie bag and pull out a prize. The prizes include candles, toys, chip clips, candy dishes, soap, aspirin, laxatives, etc. We do this while wearing either Indian hats or Pilgrim hats which our family makes out of construction paper and feathers on Thanksgiving Eve.
-Anne Rezabak, Elgin
Bingo
Our family’s Thanksgiving tradition is we make hand turkeys every year. We compare how big our hands have gotten from the previous years and we talk about being greatful for everything we’ve had to make our hand and our hearts bigger! We have four kids and LOTS of hand turkeys, but each is special to me.
-Lisa Verdon, Chicago, with Bridget, 10; Brady, 5; Caroline, 3; and Emily, 1.
All Hands on Deck
A few of the kids in the family cut out fall-color leaves from construction paper and punch holes at the top. They hang them on a big branch with lots of little off-shoot branches. They place the “tree” in a big vase on the table. Everyone that comes to Thanksgiving dinner writes what they are thankful for, but doesn’t sign their name. Then, to make it fun for the adults, everyone puts in a dollar, and the quotes are read. Whoever can guess the most of who-wrote-what wins the pot!
A Thanksgiving Tree
