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(Updated for 2021)
Do you ever feel sad that Thanksgiving often gets lost in the shuffle between Halloween and Christmas? I know I do.
This year I hope to help solve this problem by coming up with one simple activity you can do with your residents each day in November leading up to Thanksgiving.
So here goes!
1. Have you heard of the Butterball turkey hotline? Your residents will enjoy these stories of hilarious cooking questions fielded by Butterball experts.
2. Do your residents know the history of the annual presidential pardon of a turkey? Learn the details in this article from History.com.
3. Play charades using Thanksgiving-themed words like wishbone, cranberry, gravy, and gobble.
4. Spark some healthy laughter with these silly Thanksgiving jokes. (Why did the turkey cross the road twice? To prove he wasn’t chicken!)
5. Sing songs about Thanksgiving. Check out these classic favorites.
6. Enlarge Thanksgiving crossword puzzles and solve them together as a group. Or you can print them out for individual residents.
7. Read poems about gratitude. Better yet, encourage residents to write poems of their own.
8. Ask residents to share their favorite holiday recipes, then print or post them for your staff.
9. Share this fascinating Thanksgiving trivia from Good Housekeeping.
10. Create a Thanksgiving craft. Check out these fun ideas from Woman’s Day.
11. Challenge residents to make up as many words as possible from Thanksgiving-themed words like cornucopia, drumstick, cranberries, leftovers, centerpiece, or tablecloth.
12. Share inspirational quotes about giving thanks.
13. Find out if any of your residents ever attended the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Then share these fun facts about the parade’s history.
14. Invite residents and employees to write something they’re thankful for on leaves made from autumn-colored paper, then create a gratitude tree.
15. Play The Price Is Right using Thanksgiving grocery items such as cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, canned green beans, and pumpkin pie filling.
16. Solve a Thanksgiving word scramble.
17. Reminisce about your residents’ memories of Thanksgiving celebrations from their childhoods. (Did any of them have to sit at the kids’ table during dinner?)
18. Get creative with adult coloring books for Thanksgiving.
19. Invite your staff to dress up like turkeys, then host a hallway parade. Ask residents to vote for their favorite costume, and offer a fun prize for the winner. Prize options might include a frozen turkey or a pumpkin pie donated by a local grocery store.
20. Ask residents for their tips and tricks for cooking a perfect turkey. You can also see if a resident will share a cooking catastrophe from the past!
21. Watch the delightful classic movie, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. For 2021, the show will air on PBS on Sunday, November 21. Check your local listing for the time.
22. Make pumpkin mug cakes. Give each resident their ingredients in individual containers. (I find medication cups work well.) Then they only handle food that they’ll eat themselves.
23. Do you have residents who love to settle back and watch football after Thanksgiving dinner? I know they’ll enjoy learning more about this holiday tradition.
24. Encourage each resident to come up with a list of things they’re thankful for by using every letter of the alphabet.
25. Happy Thanksgiving!
What did I miss? I would love to hear what you’re planning for activities leading up to Thanksgiving!
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