Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year or even bringing a dish to your family gathering? If the answer if yes, and kids will be in attendance, you need to make sure that you’re making kid-friendly food. You’re in luck because I’ve developed a delicious kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu that’s sure to please kids and grown-ups alike!
I know it’s early November and you think you have a ton of time to figure out what you’re making for Thanksgiving. But, I like to start planning for Thanksgiving early. In fact, it’s one of my best tips for hosting holiday meals. Even if I’m not hosting Thanksgiving, I still like to figure out my contributions early. It’s the Type A in me, I guess, but it helps me not to look like the Anxiety character in Inside Out 2 during Thanksgiving week.
I can especially look and feel like Anxiety around Thanksgiving when I’m worried about kids eating the meal. For many kids, turkey dinner isn’t exactly familiar. Kids also don’t really care about the tradition behind each dish on the holiday table or how long it took you to make. They’re tricky little mouths to feed on Thanksgiving Day.
Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about what kids will eat on Thanksgiving and what they definitely won’t. I’m generalizing of course, so if your kid loves asparagus, then go ahead and make it. More power to you! For the rest of us who have kids with normal kid palates, I’ve made a kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu that should be marginally successful at least. I’m hoping for like 30%. If you want to make sure your kids eat at least something this Thanksgiving, read on for my kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu.
Kid-Friendly Thanksgiving Menu
Appetizers
Kids love to graze. They’re like cows. Or horses. Because they much prefer to eat bites here and there than an actual meal. Keep this natural fact of life in mind when you’re planning your kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu.
It’s a wonderful idea to have a variety of appetizers available on Thanksgiving before the meal is ready. This will satisfy your kids’ innate grazing instinct and keep them out of your hair while you try to finish cooking the actual meal. Appetizers might actually be the most important thing on your kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu. So, let’s talk about which appetizers might be good to offer.
Crudité
Don’t sleep on the humble crudité, or vegetable plate. It takes little to no effort to prepare (especially if you buy one already cut up and plated from the grocery store), it’s usually a crowd pleaser, and it’s a good way to get a vegetable in your kids. My suggestion is to put the vegetable plate out first before the rest of the appetizers. If vegetables (and ranch dressing, do not, I repeat do not, forget the ranch dressing!) are the only thing available to eat and they’re hungry, they will eat the vegetables. You’ll be surprised how many avowed vegetable haters eat vegetables when it’s the only food available.
Apples & dip
I also like to take the appetizer course as an opportunity to get in a fruit as well as a vegetable. After the kids have attacked the crudité, now is the time to set out some apples and apple dip. Again, this doesn’t take much time or effort to prepare and is a delicious way to keep the kids occupied and eating something that has at least some nutritional value. Grab an apple slicer and some apples (I like a tart apple like Granny Smith here) and use those arm muscles. For the dip, soften 8 oz. of cream cheese and mix in ½ cup brown sugar, a glug of vanilla extract, and about ¾ cup Heath Bar Candy Bits. Set the apple slices out with the dip and you have a great Thanksgiving appetizer that the kids will inhale.
Cheese & crackers
Another humble appetizer not to overlook is a plate of cheese and crackers. Sure, if you want to get fancy or trendy, you can prepare a full-on charcuterie board, but the critical thing for a kid-friendly Thanksgiving is the cheese and crackers. Kids would subsist only on cheese and crackers if we let them, so make sure you let them enjoy their food-centered holiday with their favorite food.
Dips
In addition to the apple dip, it’s nice to offer a savory dip too. I don’t know about your kids, but my kids love to dip things. It makes the eating experience fun for them, so they’re willing to try a lot if you present it in dip form or with a dip. This is why the ranch dressing is so crucial for the crudité! If you’d like to offer more than just veggies and ranch as a savory dippable appetizer, here are a few other kid-friendly Thanksgiving dip options:
- Pretzel bites with cheese dip
- Spinach artichoke dip (bonus: this can be made in the crockpot, so it saves oven space!)
- Hummus and pita
- Cranberry cream cheese dip
Crockpot meatballs
Kids love to use novelty utensils. Cocktail picks are one such intriguing utensils that might get a little extra protein in your kids on Thanksgiving. Why? Crockpot meatballs are the perfect thing to eat with cocktail picks. Another bonus of crockpot meatballs is that they use the crockpot to cook – I’m always looking for things that don’t require the oven on Thanksgiving!
You can choose to go in many directions with your crockpot meatballs on Thanksgiving. You can stick with traditional cocktail meatballs (grape jelly and chili sauce or BBQ sauce), you can get Italian and cook them in marinara sauce, or you can take a full-on left turn from traditional and do buffalo meatballs!
Pigs in a blanket
When I’m bringing food for a holiday that has a traditional menu, I almost always include pigs in a blanket in my list of offerings. Kids love them, so you know they’ll at least get some food in their bellies, even if they decline to eat the main meal. Grown-ups love them too, especially if you sprinkle them with a little everything bagel seasoning and offer a fancy mustard dipping sauce.
Turkey
Sorry about the appetizer section being so long. I promise the rest won’t drone on like that. Especially this section – there isn’t much to say about turkey. If you and your guests eat meat, turkey is a given on the Thanksgiving table. Luckily, many kids like turkey so it fits in well on a kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu.
You can, of course, choose to cook your turkey in any way that appeals to you. You can fry it (if you do so safely and responsibly), you can smoke it (my brother-in-law makes a delicious smoked turkey), and there are countless recipes for roasting it in the oven. I like to keep mine simple. I roast my turkey in the oven and just use butter, herbs (rosemary and thyme), salt, and pepper. I find this preparation makes the best gravy.
Gravy
Speaking of gravy, it’s not Thanksgiving without gravy. And it has to be homemade gravy using your turkey drippings or it’s not invited to my table. Gravy is also the secret to getting kids to eat much of what is put on their Thanksgiving plate. It makes everything taste delicious, so kids are more likely to eat the Thanksgiving meal if you pour gravy over basically everything. A gravy-filled Thanksgiving plate is a kid-friendly Thanksgiving plate.
Mashed potatoes
Mashed potatoes will likely comprise a significant portion of what your kids will eat on Thanksgiving, so they are a must on a kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu. If you ask my 5-year-old what his favorite part of Thanksgiving is he will definitely say mashed potatoes and pie. We will get to the pie in a minute, but let’s talk mashed potatoes now.
I like to serve both traditional (white) mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving. For the traditional mashed potatoes, this is not a day to skimp. Now is the time to use heavy cream in your mashed potatoes. If you choose to also serve mashed sweet potatoes, I urge you to try my mom’s sweet potatoes, which she stole from Colonial Williamsburg. These are this big kid’s favorite part of Thanksgiving!
Mom’s Colonial Williamsburg Sweet Potatoes
You’ll need
- 3 large sweet potatoes
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 3 Tbsp butter
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
How to make them
Boil cubed sweet potatoes until tender. Mash. Stir in remaining ingredients except 2 Tbsp sugar. Add to greased casserole dish, sprinkle with reserved sugar (you can add chopped pecans here too – delicious!). Bake in a 400°F oven for about 30 minutes.
Stuffing
I don’t actually stuff my stuffing in the bird, so I suppose it’s better to call it dressing here. Either word you use, stuffing is a great addition to a kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu. It’s another source of carbs, which is a kid’s favorite food group, and you can hide things like fruits, veggies, and protein in the carbs, which is a win for the grown-ups.
I make a sausage and apple stuffing, which gets the kids a protein source and a fruit. It’s terrific with a little gravy overtop and makes great leftovers.
Rolls
You must have rolls at your kid-friendly Thanksgiving. Rolls (or some type of bread) are an absolute must really any time you’re feeding kids. To check this box you can go fancy and make homemade rolls or you can buy brown and serve rolls from the bread aisle at the grocery store or anything in between. Don’t overthink it.
Corn pudding
Why don’t I make corn pudding any other day of the year? I really don’t know because corn pudding is delicious, easy, and a staple of any good kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu. There are many different recipes for corn pudding (or corn casserole) out there. Make whatever version your family loves. If you want to try my family’s recipe, I can ensure you that it couldn’t be easier!
Thanksgiving corn pudding
You’ll need
- 2 cans of whole kernel corn (drained)
- 1 can creamed corn
- 2 eggs
- Splash of milk
- Salt and pepper
How to make it
Beat the eggs together with milk. Add all the corn, then season with salt and pepper. Pour into a small, greased casserole dish. Bake at 350°F until it has set in the middle of the dish. A little wobble is ok!
Veggie
You should probably serve a vegetable as part of the main meal on Thanksgiving. Don’t expect your kids to eat it, but delight if they do! To give yourself the best chance of success at getting your kids to eat the vegetable you make, choose the vegetable that your kids eat most often. Even if that vegetable isn’t a traditional Thanksgiving vegetable, that’s what you should make. If your kids eat carrots, then serve carrots. Seriously, you want to make a meal that your people will eat, so don’t feel bound to make green bean casserole if you know your kids won’t eat that mess.
I like to make crockpot green beans. I stick washed and trimmed green beans in the crockpot (you can even use canned green beans here!) with some salt free chicken broth and a chunk of salt pork and let them cook for hours. If this sounds like something your kids will eat, give them a try. If not, you might have success with roasted butternut squash with maple syrup, Brussels sprouts with bacon, or another vegetable that doesn’t really taste like a vegetable.
Cranberry
Cranberry sauce is polarizing for kids and grown-ups alike. Some people love it, some people hate it. Most people expect to see it on the Thanksgiving table regardless of which category they fall into.
For most of the items on my kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu, I won’t judge you if you go with the premade variety. Not for cranberry sauce. Please make this yourself. Or at least buy a cranberry sauce that isn’t a jelly in a can. It’s so easy to make and you can do it days in advance. Throw cranberries in a sauce pan with a little bit of sugar and the zest and juice of an orange. Cook over medium low heat until the cranberries burst and you get a sauce. It’s delicious. Leftover cranberry sauce also makes tremendous muffins, so go ahead and make some extra.
Pie
And finally, we have come to the main event of Thanksgiving in my book, the pie. Everyone really just wants pie on Thanksgiving. Sure, you’ll eat some turkey and stuffing, but you really look forward to the pie. Kids are the same. They love pie and they love that you let them have pie on Thanksgiving. Heck, you might even let them have multiple pieces of pie and they live for this.
Whatever you do, don’t forget the whipped topping. This can look like freshly whipped cream straight from your KitchenAid, Reddi Wip (extra creamy is the only option), or even Cool Whip (don’t forget to thaw it!). It’s all delicious!
Other posts
If you’re in the Thanksgiving spirit, here are a few other posts you might want to read:
I hope my kid-friendly Thanksgiving menu gave you some inspiration, whether you’re hosting Thanksgiving or bringing a dish or two to a gathering. I’d love to know what you’re making for Thanksgiving! Let me know in the comments below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.