This may be my favorite thing to do on Thanksgiving besides hanging out with family. I look forward to watching it every year while I cook the big feast.  Giant floats. Kid Favorite Characters. Musical acts. It's a lot of fun to watch with the family while the turkey's in the oven.

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If you've cut the cable, this parade is usually streamed for free by NBC and on YouTube.

It's an activity AND a history lesson!

This is probably the most popular Thanksgiving craft of all time. Even better, it's simple and makes a wonderful keepsake of your little ones' hand prints. All they have to do is paint their hands and fingers with finger paint, making each finger a different feather color. Then, they stamp their hand print on a piece of paper to form the turkey. Draw in a beak, legs, and add an eye to complete your turkey.

Paint or color about 11 Popsicle sticks black. Glue about 8 of your Popsicle sticks on to a piece of paper vertically. Then, glue the remaining 3 sticks horizontally across the bottom of the 8 sticks. Add a white strip of paper at the top of the 3 horizontal sticks and cut out a yellow square for the center of your white band to act as the hat's buckle.

Color a paper plate with fall colors (aka turkey colors). Cut some slits around the sides to act as your turkey's feathers. Pick a side of your turkey to be the bottom and cut across, adding legs as you cut. Using brown construction paper, cut out a turkey head and past to the center of the plate. Add a beak, eyes, and the red gizzard to complete the turkey.

Draw Native American symbols, patterns, and imagery onto a paper bag. This makes for a good time to talk about petroglyphs  and totems with your kids! Cut a door near the bottom of the bag, then rubber band the opening of the bag a few inches down from the top. Lastly, cut the part sticking up out of the rubber band to split it into the "separate pieces" of the teepee.

I spent Thanksgiving at a friend's house one year and found their tradition of going around the dinner table saying what each was thankful for to be a bit corny. Over the years as I've gotten older, though, I think this is a great tradition for any family to do. To make a craft that embodies this idea, cut half a plate to act as a turkey body, color it in brown. Use a toilet paper roll as the turkey's head.  Add eyes, beak and a red gizzard to the roll. Then, using fall color construction paper, cut out feathers to past around the plate. Then have the kids write something on each feather to show something they are thankful for!