Thanksgiving: Best of Parent Hacks
Thanksgiving brings to mind delicious food and relaxed family time. Unless you're the host or the parent of little kids.
You need ideas for simplifying holiday travel, streamlining meal preparation and table setting, getting the kids involved and keeping them entertained while they wait for the turkey and pie. Not to mention teaching them about the spirit of Thanksgiving.
It's doable, and with a little planning, fun for everyone. Here are some of the best Thanksgiving tips we've collected here at Parent Hacks. We add new tips as they come in; come back often!
Thanksgiving meal planning and preparation
- An organized Thanksgiving (including shopping list and supplies list templates)
- Cook and freeze the side dishes and desserts ahead of time
- Organize the Thanksgiving potluck with Google Docs
- Label the serving pieces
- Cut up the turkey before roasting to cut cooking time
- Collaborate on meal planning with Google Wave
- Online grocery services organize your shopping list for you -- even if you don't buy
Thanksgiving travel tips
- Book a "nap flight" for holiday travel
- A keepsake journal "triples" as travel entertainment, art preservation, and a grandparent gift
- Toy catalogs make for good kid distraction
- The Travel archive is full of hundreds more great family travel tips!
Thanksgiving activities for kids
- Thanksgiving craft project: Cup cozies
- Non-TV ideas for organizing children during social gatherings? Talk amongst yourselves.
- Special event coming up? Try a "practice run" beforehand
At the table
- A trick for figuring out which plate and glass are yours at a crowded table
- Speed up after-meal cleanup with wipe-down placemats
- Attach the step stool to the chair or potty with bungee cords
