Thanksgiving Favors to Celebrate Friendsgiving!

When I think November, I think Thanksgiving. Visions of turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie... it's all so wonderful! Now that my little guy is in preschool, he's making little friends at school and I wanted to make sure he understands the importance of giving thanks for these sweet friends. Friendsgiving for preschoolers, if you will.

It's not always easy explaining traditions to toddlers, but it's never too early to start. While we got ready to make his friends a little Friendsgiving treat (because if you know me, you know my love language is all about receiving gifts, so I like to give them too), I told him all about how Thanksgiving is a traditionally a time to give thanks for the harvest (or the fact that we're lucky to have an abundance of food), as well as all of the wonderful things that we're so fortunate to have, like a loving family and caring friends. Maybe the harvest and abundance of food is a little bit of stretch for a 2.5 year old, but the concept of friendship surely isn't. We stream a lot of preschooler programs on Netflix, that focus on the importance of friendship, like Veggie Tales and Elmo & Friends, so I'm fairly certain he knows it's a good thing to have buddies. He's made some good friends in his small class, and has really blossomed over the past few months. I'm really thankful for that, so I wanted to be sure that all the children in his preschool class felt loved and appreciated. I thought a little treat would be a perfect token of our gratitude.

To celebrate his friends, the Wubba and I made adorable little treat bags to resemble harvest corn. I had some disposable piping bags left over from the last time I decorated a cake and those were perfect for this craft. This particular kind allows you to snip the tip off yourself, so try to find those (but don't snip it!), or treat bags that are triangular.

Here's what you'll need:

• Treat bags (or disposable piping bags)
• A variety of candy treats - I tried to stick with a fall theme (Rolos, M&Ms, Candy Corn Taffy and Candy Corn, Caramels). Be sure to inquire of any allergies in the group.
• Bugles - they are perfect little cornucopias!
• Construction paper in yellow and/or brown
• Ribbon
• My cute, FREE friendship printable
• A hole punch and scissors
• Optional but helpful, rubber bands

Simply fill your bags with the candy and Bugles. Try to layer it out a bit and use a candy corn (point down) for the tip of the bag, otherwise it's won't really fill with anything. Once you've filled it a good bit, tie it off with a rubber band.

Then, take a piece of your construction paper and cut it into a rectangle about 8 inches or so long. Cut fringes into it about every ¼ of an inch or so - it doesn't have to be perfect, but leave a ¾ inch or so solid strip along the bottom. Now wrap it around your "corn" bag so it looks like a dried husk sticking up.

Now, grab the sheet of my free printable and cut one out. Click on the link HERE to print this out in full size. It will print 6 circles on an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper. Use a piece of card stock if possible to give it a little more sturdiness, or print on plain white paper and glue it to a piece of coordinating card stock if you have some on hand. Punch a hole above the word "I'm" and you'll be ready to attach it to your baggie with ribbon.

Once you attach your "I'm thankful for your friendship" message, you'll be good to go! These take only minutes to assemble and are such a lovely little treat for your children's friend (or your friends!). They'd also make great Thanksgiving table favors. You could create your own little message (I used PicMonkey to do this), or use them as place cards too!

What do you think?
I'm pretty sure his friends will love them! 

Disclosure: I wrote this post in coordination with the Netflix #SteamTeam. As a stream team member, I've received a subscription to Netflix and a promotional item for participating. Amazon links are affiliate links. All opinions are my own.