With Thanksgiving happening next week, we wanted to touch on how awesome it is to bring the whole family together. Some of us travel or even take in family that we haven’t seen in a long time. It’s all about togetherness and good times, which is what we’re all about too! But sometimes, kids can be extra excited for the festivities and are hard to keep calm on Thanksgiving Day. If you need some help entertaining them since the living room TV has been taken over by football, keep on reading!

Thanksgiving is all about the 3 F’s: Family, Food and Fun! Family is, of course, the most important. However, stuffing your face with some awesome food is really great and fun as well, so why not combine all 3 in this week’s DIY – with a place to “sell” it out of?

Farm Fresh Playhouse

Apples and oranges and flowers…oh my! Our Farm Fresh House Tent is serving up endless farm stand fun for foodies of all ages! At 48″ x 38″ x 48,” this house tent is large enough for a handful of mini farmers to sell their goods from farm to table in style and comfort. Featuring durable polyester fabric designed for indoor and outdoor use, this product is sure to hold up to years of planting and harvesting.

The Farm Fresh House Tent is constructed of double stitched seams, radius cut hook and loop fasteners, and pole system that not only ensure safety and security, but are also color-coated. This also comes with a sturdy carrying bag for simple set-up and storage. Your child will enjoy plentiful natural light and fresh air to go along with their newly-picked produce thanks to the No-See-Um mesh. Let’s go to the Farmer’s Market!

Popcorn Corn Cob DIY

With all the hustle and bustle around the house during Thanksgiving Day, it can be a little tough to wrangle your little ones and keep them out of harm’s way while cooking. This DIY will keep them occupied while you worry about the turkey, make them feel like they are contributing and also doubles as a pretty delicious after dinner snack! It can also be a great way for the kids to bond with family members they don’t see too often and may be feeling a little shy around. And, hey, you never know – it could become a new tradition for the years to come!

What you need

• Popcorn
  • You can grab any kind you like, we chose regular
• Green Crepe Paper (we used two shades of green)
• Zip Lock style Gallon Bags
• Twine
• Scissors

How you make it

• Fill bag about 1/3 of the way full with popcorn and roll up tightly.
• Cut out four strips of crepe paper and line them up, slightly overlapping each other.
• Place the rolled up bag of popcorn the center of the paper strips.
• Bunch up the ends of the paper and twist to hold in place.
• While holding security to keep the shape, take a piece of twine and wrap around the twisted end.
• Tie the twine down to hold each end securely.
• Repeat for each piece you are making.

Take it up a notch!

When making your Popcorn Corn Cob this Thanksgiving, it can be super fun to take things up a notch and be extra festive. This can be great to also do in the days before Thanksgiving to prepare if you have any guests coming over. We put together a few of our favorite ideas to make it even more fun!

Customize them!

Why not customize the Popcorn Corn Cobs with some name tags and use them as place settings? They can also double as party favors for guests, and can be a great snack to eat before or after the feast. Just cut out some tags, write their names on them, hole punch the top and add it to the twine before you tie it down.

Spice it up!

Popcorn is super delicious on its own, but there are so many fun recipes you can make to make your popcorn even better. All you need to do is purchase some regular popcorn and put your own spin on it! There are tons of recipes out there to make popcorn more exciting. They include adding some bacon, drizzle some honey or chocolate, add mint chips, brown sugar or even putting some cheese on the kernels before you pop them. The combinations are literally endless, and your guests (and children!) will love it!

Make it a centerpiece!

Decorating for the holidays can often turn expensive. There’s tons of options, yet everyone house starts to look the same after a while. We put them out once a year and they take up tons of room in the garage, so sometimes we tend to skip most of the decorating all together other than having a tree. This DIY can also be a great way to decorate around the house for events! Just make a bunch of these Popcorn Corn Cobs and dress them up with some red and green ribbon for an awesome and inexpensive centerpiece! Just toss them into a basket or glass bowl and viola! Or, you could even use a giant bag and make one big one for the middle of the table.

”Sell” it out of your Farm Fresh Playhouse!

Still need to kill some time before dinner is ready? Have the kids “sell” their popcorn to each other and the rest of the family! It’s a great way to practice math and counting money during their break from school, to learn customer service skills and to use their imaginations! You can even get different color twine to keep track of who purchased who’s, and the winner gets the first choice of whichever piece of pumpkin pie they want.

This product is also great for outside play when the weather permits. Check out this post we did a few months back that features DIY tote bags for you little ones to use at the farmers market.

Let us know!

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Does your family have any really unique traditions? Did you make the Popcorn Corn Cob DIY? Tell us in the comments below!