Easy DIY Thanksgiving Decor: Oreo Turkeys and More!

Last year I hosted Thanksgiving for my family, and I went into full-on Pinterest mode, searching party planning, decorating, and just Thanksgiving crazy! I had Thanksgiving Bingo planned and a Thankfulness jar complete with questions on paper leaves that everyone had to pass around and answer. I had goodie bags for every guest and a kiddie table that would make Martha Stewart proud. So from me to you, I share my Thanksgiving ideas. I hope they help. 

I am by no means a Pinterest expert, so rest assured I tested these out myself and tried to supply all information to avoid Pinterest fails. Ain't nobody got time for that!

How to Make OREO Turkeys

I saw this OREO turkey idea on Pinterest, and I thought, how hard could it be? I'm not going to lie- it's a little labor intensive-BUT- my tips will make it easier for you! Hopefully, at least.

It wasn't hard, just time consuming, especially since I decided for some unknown reason to make THIS many turkeys:

Yep, that was me.  So anyway, if you want to make these OREO Turkeys, here you go:

You Will Need:

-OREO cookies (do NOT get the singles, they MUST be DOUBLE STUFF!! Trust me.)
-mini Reeses peanut butter cups
-candy corn
-decorator frosting (in red, yellow and white)
-sprinkles (for eyes)
-malted milk balls (like Whoppers)

Now this might sound like a total cop-out, but for an entire tutorial on how to assemble them, you need to visit Our Best Bites. She does a far better job than I ever could! Then scroll below for some of my tips on how to keep the turkeys together and how to decorate your table for Thanksgiving.

OREO Turkey Tip:  I skimped and just used frosting for the beaks because I couldn't get the candy corns to stay on as beaks. Getting them to stand up to dry as I was making them was also an issue, so I used a cookbook and propped them against the backsplash in the kitchen to harden. I originally tried drying them flat but it wasn't working.

(I highly recommend that cookbook for crockpot meals, by the way. It's called Fix-It and Forget It by   Phyllis Pellman Good). Anywho, you might notice that I stuck frosting in between the cookies to get the candy corn to stay in there. That's because, like a dope, I did not buy the Double Stuf OREO cookies and I could not get the candy corn to stay in there right. Note to self for next time!

My turkeys came out so cute! I put one by each plate and they were the talk of the evening. But no one wanted to eat them because they were so adorable.

Thanksgiving Table Decor

Here's what my table looked like all set (pre-OREO turkeys added):

Believe it or not, many of my table decorations were the Better Homes brand from Walmart. And here's a pic of the kids' table, which only wound up having one kid at it (mine) who didn't actually want to sit there anyway. But at least it looked cute:

The paper decor and the coloring print-out were from PaperGlitter. I have bought so many printables from her Etsy store. I am in LOVE with her cute characters!!! She also offered some free Thanksgiving printables on her blog, so be sure to check that out, too.

Here are the goodie bags that each guest took home. The bags were from Target or Walmart. I think they were 50 cents each. I have a thing about giving favors to guests who come to my house for dinner parties. I know, it's weird. But I like the feeling of giving my guests a little gift for their travel trouble. 

The tags, again, were made from my printable purchase from PaperGlitter's Etsy store.  The extra candy corn was for our Thanksgiving Bingo game, which I purchased from Current Catalog. Yes, we played Bingo at my Thanksgiving dinner. Don't laugh. I even had prizes. 

Last but not least, I gave each guest a poem printed from Shutterfly. I had received a coupon to get cards for free, so I ordered these:

The little turkey salt and pepper shakers were from Cracker Barrel.

I have no pictures of the actual meal, would you believe that? But I do have pictures of the week after, when I was trying to put all of the Thanksgiving decorations away. Then, my table looked like this:

It's making me think that maybe you shouldn't be taking advice from me. But, hey, we all had a great time. Bring on Christmas!