Children helping with a green Thanksgiving

My kids tell me they want to help with Thanksgiving. Do you know that that means? Mashed potatoes accidentally spewed all over the kitchen. (Me: counting to 10). A whole tin of cinnamon dumped into the pumpkin pie. (Me: counting to 10 again, and breathing very deeply). The turkey slipping off its serving platter, landing on someone's toe, followed by a monster bout of crying during which the pumpkin pie gets knocked off the cooling rack and someone getting cranberries in her hair. (Um, counting to infinity and beyond...).

That's the horror story I fear, so I'm enlisting their help outside the kitchen. We started with making a centerpiece: corn husk dolls. Oh, round about last August, back when corn was in season, we saved some husks for this purpose. In the meantime, they've asked me about every day if we could make the corn husk dolls yet, and I delayed and stalled, finally to come to the conclusion that it was the perfect Thanksgiving craft project and centerpiece.

The only thing we needed other than the dried corn husks was two pipe cleaners, some string, scissors and a tub of warm water for soaking the husks. Here's how we did it:

1. Soak dried corn husks in warm water for about 10 minutes. I used a big casserole dish.
2. Take 6-8 husks, and tie them in the middle with string.
3. Fold over where you first tied, and tie over the folded husks, about 1 inch from the end, forming a head.
4. Roll one husk around a pipe cleaner. Tie in the center and at the ends. Stick these arms through the body of the doll, dividing the husks in half front to back.
5. Take two husks and cross over the body of the doll making X's in the front and back to define the shoulders. Tie over the X's and middle to make a waist.
6. I kept looking at how tiny these dolls seemed, yet this last step (pictured) fixed all that. Gather up about 8 more husks, pointed ends down, and tie around the waist, covering up the head. Then fold all these down, making a nice skirt. You could also gather some up and tie into legs, if desired.

I did not take near enough pictures during the process, so here's a link to a site that explains making corn husk dolls similarly. All in all, it was fun. Not too messy (just a tad wet). My kids needed a bit of help getting their ties snug enough, but otherwise good for elementary school aged kids. Now it's time to make some of those little must-have turkey hands for place-cards!

How do you involve your kids in greening your Thanksgiving?

Before I sign off for today, Heather and I would like to thank you all for your participation in this little ol' website. We are so very grateful for the positive community you are part of -- the sharing of ideas and challenges -- that helps us all to be better green parents. Happy Thanksgiving to all! We'll be taking a few days off to celebrate with our families, and will resume posting next Monday.