These easy Thanksgiving recipes for kids are the perfect way to get your little helpers involved with the holiday preparation. If they want to help even more, be sure to check out The Ultimate Kids' Cookbook for easy dinners your kids will love making all year round!
Kids love having real responsibility for preparing important dishes for family celebrations.
If you've been shooing them into the living room while you slave away over the turkey alone in the kitchen, you're missing an amazing opportunity to encourage your kids and spend time with them this holiday season.
At all ages, kids are more than capable of cooking with us.
It is all about finding the just-right recipe that meets them at their level.
This is exactly why I wrote The Ultimate Kids' Cookbook! I firmly believe the most magical family memories are made when cooking with your kids.
This Thanksgiving, set your kids up with one of these festive holiday dishes. What they are capable of cooking on their own will simply blow you away!
Once they are hooked, you can surprise them with a copy of the best cookbook for kids as an awesome gift for Christmas.
Pair it with one of our favorite kitchen tools for kids and you'll have a unique gift they'll use all year round.
Easy Thanksgiving Recipes for Kids to Cook
Got a kitchen helper eager to be useful for the Thanksgiving meal prep? If your little chef wants to help cook a dish for turkey day, these easy recipes are perfect to hand over to them.
BONUS: They'll love to eat them, too!
Thanksgiving recipes are not usually very popular with kids as a whole. When my girls were younger, I finally made them a deal:
As long as they took an adventurous bite of the traditional dishes being passed, I would guarantee we'd embrace the southern tradition of having mac and cheese as part of the holiday meal.
This easy recipe has been on our table ever since and there's no need to feel guilty about it!
This one bowl pumpkin quick bread makes three loaves. Your little chef could bake them early and freeze them for the holiday.
This lets you help as needed when you have a little more time but they still feel special on Thanksgiving that they had something to contribute to the feast.
Teach your child how to open a can opener and then set them free to cook this entire recipe all by themselves.
BONUS: They get to decide how many (if any!) crispy onions get included.
This awesome holiday garnish for the dessert table is one part stunning recipe and one part science experiment! The kids will love watching what happens to the berries as they dry overnight.
While a marshmallow topped sweet potato casserole may be more traditional, this recipe is a much greater hit with my kids because of the pecan crunch.
The recipe is better for kids with a little more experience in the kitchen but a tasty addition to the feast. If they start with slowcooker sweet potatoes, it is even easier!
Teach your kids how to use your bread machine and they will have a total blast whipping up fresh breads for the family!
Both my girls have made this bread in their tween years. It would make a great Thanksgiving bread basket addition.
If you're a Midwesterner, you're likely familiar with the Minnesota salad tradition of serving Snickers salad at the holidays.
Delight your kids with this fun addition to the feast and let them make it! Turn a blind eye when they take a "chef's nibble" to make sure it turned out ok.
Even though my kids won't eat my homemade cranberry sauce with dinner, they absolutely LOVE it rolled into these easy cinnamon rolls using refrigerated dough.
Not all kids love pumpkin pie but these pumpkin gooey butter bars are always a hit with my kids. The texture has a little more cake-like bite and we love the crispy edge pieces.
This one bowl cookie recipe is loaded with butterscotch chips. It is a fun Thanksgiving treat for young bakers to bring to the holiday.
This adorable turkey cupcake would be such an easy dessert for the kids to make for the holiday! Gobble, gobble!
Homemade applesauce is even easier in the microwave! Kids will love to help mash the apples.
Another fun holiday side dish for kids is this pistachio fluff fruit salad -- with or withoutu the chopped pecans on top.
If the kids aren't into pistachio, this pineapple marshmallow salad is a zesty addition to your holiday table.
Edwina
We create memories in the kitchen too! My boys are excellent chief pantry runners but when it comes to the actual preparation, well, I've lost count on how many times an egg has been dropped on the floor! These recipes all look delicious. I'm keen to make the pumpkin bread first so we'll see how we all go. Hopefully it's a fun and successful experience.