Simple Thanksgiving Costumes for Kids

Simple Thanksgiving costumes and props for Thanksgiving day or a Thanksgiving play.

This past year we finally got to get at our home for Thanksgiving. I know many think I’m nuts, but I love being at our house, cooking a big Thanksgiving Feast myself, and getting to decide what meaningful activities we will do that day. Here are some simple Thanksgiving Costumes for kids we threw together. I’ll share more about our Thanksgiving play later.

Make the Mayflower out of a Cardboard Box

We made this Mayflower ship out of a cardboard box we had laying around. It was not only a great prop for our Thanksgiving play, but was a lot of fun to make and play with too. We flattened a large Amazon box and I cut out the shape of the ship. Then the kids helped me color the dark brown deck and blue water below. I added some lines to show the wood used to make the boat. Finally we used scrap cardboard and white paper to make 3 sails for our ship. We attached our ship to a small orange box we got free at our local Target store. That helped it to stand up and move easily for our play.

Turkey Costume for Toddlers and Preschoolers

This is probably my favorite costume I came up with. I made a simple circle head that I taped on a brown “crown” that peaked at the front. Then we glued on yes, triangle beak, red wattle, and orange turkey legs. Then we made some pointed elongated oval feathers that we taped at the back of the crown – that gave it a nice effect. It was darling!

Native American Costume for Kids

Native American Headress Thanksgiving Craft for Kids

My Kindergartner played the role of the Wampanoag in our Thanksgiving play. I am not claiming it to be historically accurate, but we made a simple Native American headdress with some colorful feathers at the back.

Pilgrim Costume for Boys

Pilgrim costume for kids out of construction paper - perfect Thanksgiving Craft for Kids

The pilgrim costume came out super cute. We made a black crown fitted to my 2nd graders head first. Then out of black paper we made a long trapezoid shape we taped onto a long black rectangular strip Then we taped it all onto the black crown. Finally we taped on a hollow yellow square as a buckle. The collar is super easy to cut out from a white piece of paper. Just cut up the middle (long ways) and then cut a circle when you are the top 1/3 of the paper. Now cut back down.

FREE Thanksgiving Play for Families

If you are looking to recreate the first Thanksgiving with your kids this Thanksgiving, make sure to grab my FREE Thanksgiving Play for Families. (link live 11/4/2014)

Looking ahead to Christmas?

Make sure to grab a copy of my hugely popular Christmas Crafts for Kids with over 100 Christmas Activities, Crafts, and Recipes based on Children’s books.