Guides

Mom’s Guide to Thanksgiving: Tips and Traditions

November 4, 2025

Traditions

Start a Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree! In a vase, arrange a few branches. Cut leaves out of colorful construction paper. Throughout the month, encourage your family to write what they are thankful for on the leaves. Attach the leaves to the branches. When Thanksgiving Day arrives, your tree will be full of gratitude, and you can read aloud everything your family is grateful for. This same tradition can be done with a Gratitude Turkey, where kids write what they’re thankful for on paper feathers to adorn a turkey. – tips from St. Louis moms, Angie Mitchell + Christina Johans

As you set the table for your feast, set up a small table or corner of a buffet and dedicate it to those who you wish could be with you this Thanksgiving. Whether it’s loved ones who have passed or family that’s too far away to celebrate with, put your favorite photos of them (or with them) on the table and encourage any other guests to bring their own photos. Decorate the table with leaves and make it festive.

While the family is gathered from near and far, don’t forget to snap a photo of everyone while you are together!

Watch “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” the night before, complete with the Charlie Brown feast to snack on! Buttered toast, jelly beans, popcorn, pretzels, and ice cream!

Encourage everyone coming to Thanksgiving to bring some canned goods or to drop a monetary donation in a jar. Later in the week with your kids, drop off the food / money at a food pantry or another charity of your choice. If it’s only your immediate family celebrating Thanksgiving, take some time to research local charities where families can volunteer, and set aside a day each month for the next year to help others. Check out this post to find needs in your area that naturally suit your interests as a family, which is a great way to get the kids excited about volunteering.

Make ahead a scrumptious breakfast (cinnamon rolls, breakfast casserole) to eat as you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Set out a hot cocoa bar with marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles, candy canes for stirring, toffee bits, mini chocolate chips, Pirouette cookies, and chocolate + caramel syrup.

Individualize a fun placement for each of the kids with Canva, or buy a template from Etsy! – tip from St. Louis mom, Caitlin Ladd

Don’t be afraid to eat dessert first … if you’re spending the whole day together with your Thanksgiving guests (or if it’s just your immediate family) skip breakfast and gather around and dig into dessert late morning. Take a break from the meal prep and enjoy the sweets. Once everyone has tried all of the baked goods, get back to making the main meal. Plan to eat late afternoon / early evening and your appetite will be back and you will have thoroughly enjoyed every part of the meal.

When gathering for your Thanksgiving dinner, let everyone share what they’re thankful for. Don’t put too much stress over what you eat or what you do; remind your kids that the greatest blessing is being together as a family. – tip from St. Louis mom, Christina Johans

Create a Gratitude Pumpkin. Place a midsized pumpkin on a counter or tabletop along with a marker. Encourage your family to write what they are thankful for on the pumpkin whenever they are inspired throughout November. On Thanksgiving day, place the pumpkin out as part of your seasonal decor, and share everyone’s blessings. – tip from St. Louis mom, Jessica Hendricks

For families with older kids / family members, play the dice game Left, Center, Right. It’s the perfect family game with easy rules, a fast pace, and it’s easy for all ages! -Tip from Kayla Cain, St. Louis Mom content creator

Make an edible turkey! Use apple slices as the base and cereal for the feathers! – tip from St. Louis mom, Candice Meyer

Make a tradition running one of the many fun Turkey Day Races across the STL area. It’s a great way to work up an appetite as a family before the big feast! Most races have shorter, kid-friendly races so everyone can join in. Plan ahead and decorate family t-shirts or make fall colored no-sew tutus to wear.

Make crafts! Cut a turkey body out of poster board and encourage kids to put their turkeys in disguise so that no one recognizes them and they stay safe from the Thanksgiving feast! The possibilities are endless. There are many books you can read before doing this activity, such as How to Hide a Turkey by Sue Fliess and Simona Sanfilippo. – Tip from STL mom, Candice Meyer

If the weather is nice, plan a Thanksgiving Day family hike before the big meal, or plan some outdoor games. Find a new hiking trail here!

Do you have an extra burner on the stovetop? Create a simmering stovetop scent to tantalize the senses of everyone who walks through the door. It will blend beautifully with the other smells of the feast. – tip from STL mom, Anna Beck

Tips

Families with older kids or empty nesters, if you don’t feel like cooking a huge feast for a few, find a local restaurant from our Mom’s Guide to Dining Out on Thanksgiving and make reservations to have your Thanksgiving feast out this year! – tip from St. Louis mom empty nester, Meg Smidt

Prep as much as you can in advance to make Thanksgiving Day easier. Make your turkey the day before. Slice it and put it in a disposable foil pan (for easy clean up) with chicken or vegetable broth. On Thanksgiving, pop the pan in the oven to warm.

If you’re inviting a large crew, have everyone bring a different homemade pie and have a contest where everyone judges, and the best pie wins a prize.

Make a timeline for cooking all of the elements of your Thanksgiving feast. Work backward from when you want the meal to be served and plot out everything from initial prep to a break to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Read this post for a breakdown of making the timeline. Remember that not everything needs to be made from scratch! – tips from St. Louis mom, Marlena Renner.

If you want a homemade meal but not all of the hassle, buy a precooked turkey (see our guide to Thanksgiving Feasts To-Go) so that you don’t have to cook one yourself, and focus on making all of the sides and desserts from scratch.

Run butcher block paper down the middle of the table as a table runner, and provide cups filled with crayons and markers, along with fun seasonal stickers, so the kids can decorate the table runner for the big meal.

If you have a large group of family members gathering, create your own Family Trivia game! Have each adult contribute a few lesser known fun facts about the family. Take each fun fact and phrase it in question form on a power point slideshow and cast it onto the TV. Break up into teams and see which team knows the family best! Prizes optional.

Buy a bunch of small pumpkins, apples, and cinnamon scented pinecones and stagger them down the center of your table, complete with fall leaves and candles, for a simple table scape. For a centerpiece, you can scoop out a larger pumpkin and fill it with fall flowers and leaves.

If you don’t have family in town to celebrate with, find friends / neighbors who are also celebrating solo. Invite them to join you on Thanksgiving, and over the years, build your own Thanksgiving family.

Challenge the slightly older kids to untangle all of the Christmas lights! The team who untangles their pile of lights first gets double dessert (or some other prize to incentivize them to knock this off of your to-do list!)

Food

Thanksgiving is a time to make traditional dishes, but each year add a new recipe to the mix (whether it’s a spin on a traditional favorite or something completely different). When your new recipe is a hit, add it to the annual rotation of dishes. To make it more personal, try new recipes from your own culture so that over the years, your meal becomes truly representative of your family.

Get small cookie cutters, such as leaves or a turkey. Open a can of cranberry sauce on both ends and slide the sauce onto a plate. Cut it into even slices. Have kids use the cookie cutters to cut out seasonal shapes in the middle of each slice. Because you used small cookie cutters, instead of being left with scraps, you will have the outline of your cookie cutter shape left over, no sauce wasted! Use a spatula to slide each piece onto a platter and serve!

This Pumpkin Dip is delish with cookies, apple slices, or just about anything else you’d like to dip!

For the adults at the table, a signature cocktail is always a fun addition to the meal. Try Apple Cider Sangria or this Spiked Bourbon Cider that STL Mom, Amy Sanders, swears will bring out the holiday spirit! if you’re serving up non-alcoholic mocktails, a Spiced Pear Mocktail that our STL Mom, Jennifer Karrasch, loves, or this Mint Ginger Ale.

Use your crock pot to make mashed potatoes to save room on your stovetop for other sides! Here is a tried and true recipe. Or make a batch of mashed potatoes earlier in the week and store them in a crock pot liner bag, sealed with a twist tie, in the refrigerator. On Thanksgiving day, pop the liner bag in the crock pot and heat them up on low while the other food cooks. Be sure to add a little extra liquid as they add moisture that will cook off. Stir often as they heat up.

Everyone is too stuffed for dessert on Thanksgiving (even though we all still eat it!), so make a few pies the week leading up to the holiday, and actually get to enjoy your pie, and build up the anticipation of the feast to come!

Tired of the traditional pumpkin pie? Try this popular Pumpkin Crunch Cake!

This isn’t a recipe, but a fun tradition for kids is to add Baskin Robbins’ Iconic Turkey Cake.

What to do with all of the leftovers? Try this ultimate Thanksgiving Leftovers Hot Pocket recipe!

Make the day after Thanksgiving an annual “Kids Cook” day. Each of the kids choose a dish (main, side, dessert) and plan their grocery lists. They get to shop, cook, and present dinner all together that night. Adults can judge the dishes and pick a winner if you’ve got a competitive group. This gives you a day off before you eat turkey leftovers for the next week, and it also gives the adults a day off from cooking after slaving over the Thanksgiving feast.

Click here for some STL Mom favorite Thanksgiving recipes from years past!