These homemade name tags for Thanksgiving dinner are the perfect memento for everyone to take home and remember the day’s festivities forever. We originally made these when my girls were young and you will will see them displayed in their Mema’s hutch along with all her other treasures.

When setting your dinner table give it charm with something made by the children or by you. You can get very creative with these but we kept it simple.

The Mayflower Ships

What You Need:

Walnuts
Toothpicks
Construction Paper
Scissors
Glue Gun

Optional:

Thin markers
Pinking Shears

Directions:

1. Crack open the walnut being careful to at least have one half of the shell not broken. If you are a really good nut cracker you’ll get to use both halves.
2. Remove nuts from shell- these can be kept and used in a recipe or just eat them
3. Cut one end of the toothpick to take off the point
4. Cut construction paper into triangles (sails). This is where you can get creative and use different scissors to make the edges fancy
5. With thin marker write one name on each sail (triangle). Again you can get creative here and color the sail in or add family colors.
6. Slide toothpick through sail – try not to go through the name
7. Load the bottom of the inside of the walnut with your hot glue
8. Stand toothpick up in it and you’ll need to hold it for about 30 seconds until it almost dries

You now have your Mayflower ships for Thanksgiving. It’s sometimes fun to tell the kids the Mayflower story and let them tell their version at dinner.

You can also make extra and float them in a bowl of water. Yes They Sail! Try coloring your water and adding floating candles too!

For more DIY decorating ideas, visit a few of my favorite bloggers:

• Easy Cinnamon Pine Cones with Essential Oils by Confessions of an Overworked Mom
• DIY Bar Cart by Champagne Living
• Thanksgiving Decor with Cricut by Life with Lisa
• Easy Home Decorating for Thanksgiving by Controlled Confusion
• Homemade Name Tags for Thanksgiving Dinner by Tools 2 Tiaras
• My Six Best Holiday Decorating Secrets by Rajean Blomquist

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