One way to help make a holiday dinner seem special is by making the table look festive. Here’s an idea to brighten your table and, at the same time, remind us of the meaning of Thanksgiving. These construction paper leaves with optional glitter trim can remind us of things for which we can be thankful.
A leaf pattern and eight printed labels are provided for your convenience. However, you could make your own leaf pattern, if you have a maple leaf available. (The size of the pattern provided is designed so that a 9×12 sheet of construction paper will accommodate two leaves.) You could also just write on the leaves, using your own ideas for things we should appreciate.
You may want to make yellow, gold, orange, or red leaves. Just be certain that the colors you choose contrast well with your tablecloth, if you use one. A green, brown, tan, ivory, or white tablecloth would work well with all three colors.
To make it into a project for young children, you could make a simple shape leaf pattern. Then trace the leaf pattern on some plain white paper and cut out the leaves. Things for which to be thankful could be written on the leaves with a felt pen, then the leaves colored with red, orange, gold, or yellow crayon. Or the leaves could be colored first, and the pre-printed things for which to be thankful could be cut out and glued on the leaves.
If you want to use a tablecloth but don’t have one, you could consider buying a disposable one at a party department or store. Or maybe you could use a twin-size sheet. Or you may even find a nice tablecloth on sale for a very reasonable price. A candle in the middle of the table is always nice. If you don’t have a base for the candle that will work with your color scheme, you can use an empty can, in good condition, turned upside down. If you use glitter on your leaves, you could coordinate the can used as a base by adding a line of glitter on the top and bottom rims. I turned mine on its side to do half, let it dry completely, then did the other side. I placed a rock in it to keep it from rolling.
If you want to do this project, don’t wait until the night before Thanksgiving. It does take some time to cut out the maple leaves. You will probably have other cooking and cleaning chores that will keep you busy the night before the Thanksgiving gathering. You might even want to set the table the night before.
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