The Best Thanksgiving Books

It's always bothered me that Thanksgiving has been swallowed up in the swirling vortex of holiday terror that "The Holidays" has become.  At our house, I refuse to put up a single Christmas decoration or hear any of out beloved Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, and not a moment before.

One tradition we have at every holiday is to put out our favorite holiday books on the coffee table.  I've started a special page just for Holiday themed books, so you can always check there for my recommendations, but here are some of our favorites for Thanksgiving:

1621  A New Look at Thanksgiving by Catherine O'Neill and Margaret M. Bruchac is an amazing look at what Thanksgiving really was.  This book is really for older children (8 and up), as it is fairly lengthy and detailed, though you could paraphrase and share the pictures to younger children - which I've done and strongly recommend.

The First Thanksgiving by Linda Hayward and the Story of the Pilgrims by Katharine Ross are wonderful introductory books on the holiday, for children 4-8, and The Know-Nothings Talk Turkey, by Michele Sobel Spirn is a fun look at Thanksgiving that young children will enjoy.

A fun project to do with your kids this time of year is to start a Thankfulness Tree.  Cut out leaves on fall colored paper and use a hole puncher to make a hole at the base.  Have children (and parents:) write what they're thankful for and tie with ribbon to some festive dogwood branches and - voila! - you have a Thankfulness tree.

Of course, there's always the handprint turkeys - you can't really go wrong with that.  Actually painting a young child's hand and stamping it is my favorite way to do it, but there are plenty of variations.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!