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I used to make the place cards myself. Pretty handwriting, the good pens, all of it. Then one November my sister dropped the kids off early and I had two restless small people and zero patience left, so I shoved a stack of blank-ish printables and a glue stick at them and said go.
My niece is seven and presses so hard the crayon waxes up. My nephew is five and spelled his own name wrong, then taped a second strip of paper over the mistake instead of starting fresh, which honestly I respect. They worked at the kids’ table for almost an hour. Glue everywhere. Washi tape on the chair, on the dog, on one of their sleeves. The cards came out loud and crooked and bright in those crayon-box colors, reds and that screaming grass green, and both kids were prouder of them than I have ever been of anything I lettered by hand.
That is the whole pitch for letting kids make these. A few of the files below are ones we actually printed and scribbled on, and yes, some links are affiliate links, so if you grab one I get a tiny cut at no cost to you. Hand the kids the scissors. Go.
Borrow the Letters: Flash Cards That Doubled as Name-Card Tracing
This one is a set of Spanish alphabet flash cards, and no, it is not a place card. Hear me out. My niece wanted her cousin’s name spelled right and could not picture the letters, so we printed a page of these, let her trace the shapes onto her blank card, and suddenly the wonky handwriting had training wheels. The bright primary art on each card matched the crayon-brights we were already going for.
I printed them on plain copy paper because we were just tracing, not keeping. Cut them into a little deck, spread them on the kids’ table, and let the five-year-old hunt for the letters in his name like a scavenger thing.
One nitpick: the labels are in Spanish, so a couple of the picture words threw the kids for a second. We ignored the words and used the letters. Worked fine, but if you want them strictly for naming the turkey side of the table, know that going in.
The Coloring Book We Tore Pages Out Of
I almost kept this coloring book intact like a good aunt. Then I realized the small framed turkey on page three was the exact size of a folded place card, so we tore it out, my nephew colored it in jagged orange, and we taped a name strip across the bottom. Done.
Printing it is the easy part. I ran it on the cheap inkjet at home and the line art held up even where the kid scrubbed the same spot forty times. Set the colored-in pages at each plate, fold a little tent, and you have place cards plus an activity that kept them busy until the rolls were ready.
The nitpick: a few pages are dense, tiny details that frustrated my five-year-old. We stuck to the big simple ones for naming seats and saved the busy pages for later. Pick the roomy designs for the table.
Activity Pages That Bought Me Forty Quiet Minutes
These activity pages are mazes and dot-to-dots and little prompts, and they are the reason the kids stayed at the table long enough to finish their cards. I printed a stack, set them out as a warm-up, and by the time they got bored of the mazes they were ready to decorate.
A couple of the pages have blank banner spots that my niece filled with names in fat crayon, so they crossed over into actual place-card duty. I propped one of those at her own seat. She beamed.
Nitpick: some prompts assume the kid can already read well, which left my five-year-old waiting on his sister to translate. Not a dealbreaker, just expect to read a few out loud if your crew is little.
Coloring Pages, Folded Into Tent Cards
This is a separate coloring set, and the leaves and pumpkins on it fold into a place card cleaner than anything else we tried. The trick is the art sits in the top half of the page, so you color it, fold in half, and the picture stands up while the name goes on the front of the fold.
We printed on slightly heavier paper this time, maybe 65 lb, so the folded cards actually stood instead of flopping. My niece colored a pumpkin in three different reds because she could not pick one. It is on the mantel now.
Nitpick: print these on copy paper and they will tip over the second someone bumps the table, and someone always bumps the table. Use cardstock if you have it. The thin ones curled by the time the gravy came out.
Brushstroke Backgrounds for the Kids Who Wanted Fancy
My niece decided halfway through that her card needed to look grown-up, so we used this fall brushstroke art as a printed background and let her write the name on top. The painterly amber and rust streaks gave her plain card an instant backdrop without her having to fill the whole thing with crayon.
I dropped the brushstroke onto a card-sized layout, printed it, and handed it over. She added washi tape borders in clashing crayon-brights, which fought the soft brushstroke colors completely, and I let it ride. It was hers.
The nitpick: it is a PNG with a transparent background, so if you print it straight without putting it on a card layout first, you get a floating smear and a confused kid. Place it on a card shape, then print.
The Kawaii Bear That Won the Whole Table
If you have little kids, this cute bear set is the easy yes. My nephew did not want to draw anything, he wanted a picture already made, and the round-faced bear at a tiny feast was exactly his speed. We printed it, he colored the bear’s scarf in furious green, taped his name under it, and called it the best one.
Print it small, two or three to a page, so each kid gets a bear at their seat. The art is bold and simple, which means even my heavy-handed niece could not really wreck it. Bright and friendly, very crayon-box.
Nitpick: the bear is adorable enough that both kids wanted the same one and there was a brief negotiation involving tears. Print extras. I learned this the loud way.
The SVG Bundle I Used to Cut Blank Card Shapes
This is the only cutting-machine file in the bunch, a whole tablescape bundle, and I did not use it the obvious way. I pulled the simplest card and tag shapes out of it, cut a stack of blank cards on my machine, and those blanks became the canvases the kids decorated. The fancy layered designs in the bundle I saved for my own grown-up table.
So the kids got clean, sturdy card blanks with nice rounded shapes, way better than the lopsided rectangles I cut by hand last year. They glued and taped and crayoned all over them.
Nitpick: this bundle really does want a cutting machine to shine. You can print and hand-cut the flat pieces, but the layered 3D parts assume a Cricut or Silhouette. If you only want kid blanks, the cut shapes alone are worth it.
Whimsical Turkeys to Glue, Cut, and Argue Over
Clipart sounds boring until you give it to a five-year-old with a glue stick. We printed these whimsical turkeys, the kids cut them out, mostly, and glued one onto each blank card next to the name. The goofy turkey faces are exactly the right kind of silly for the kids’ table.
I printed a full sheet of them so there were spares for the inevitable scissor disasters. My nephew cut one turkey’s tail clean off and glued it on anyway, beak down. It is a feature now.
Nitpick: the individual turkeys print fairly small if you fit a lot on one page, and small means fiddly cutting for little hands. Size them up and put fewer per sheet so the kids can actually follow the lines.
A Cornucopia the Kids Could Crayon Inside the Lines, Mostly
This cornucopia art is fuller and more detailed than the kawaii stuff, so I gave it to my niece, who at seven wanted a real picture to color in. We printed it as the front of her place card, she filled the spilling fruit in with every red and orange and yellow in the box, and the name went on a tape strip across the basket.
It prints rich, so I warned my tired inkjet ahead of time and it still ate a chunk of the orange. Looked fine once she crayoned over the gaps. The detail gave her something to actually do for a while.
Nitpick: it is a PNG and it is busy, so a five-year-old will get overwhelmed and scribble. This is a big-kid card. Keep the little ones on the bear.
The Sunflower Sign, Shrunk Down for the Kids’ Seats
This is built as a wood-sign style print, all sunflowers and faux-rustic, but I shrank it to card size and it made the sweetest little place markers. The warm yellow sunflowers read bright even next to the crayon chaos, and the kids only had to write a name since the art does the heavy lifting.
I printed two to a page, folded them into standing tents, and let my niece tape washi around the edge. The sunflower yellow plus her hot-pink tape should not have worked and somehow did.
Nitpick: the faux wood texture is darkish in spots, so a name written in crayon over those areas disappears. Have the kids write on the lighter sunflower part, or add a pale tape strip first and write on that. We did the tape strip.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to make thanksgiving place cards?
Print a card design at home, fold it in half so it stands like a little tent, and write or tape a name on the front. With kids, I hand them blank-ish cards and let them color, glue cutouts, and tape on names themselves. Messier, prouder, way more fun than my neat handwritten ones ever were.
If you want them to last through dinner, use heavier paper so they do not curl or tip when the table gets bumped.
Can I print these at home?
Yes, that is the whole point. I run all of these on a tired home inkjet, and the simple line art and clipart hold up fine even when a kid scrubs the same spot raw. The richer, detailed PNGs use more ink, so keep an eye on your levels.
No home printer? I have sneaked a stack to the library printer more than once. Works the same.
What file formats do these designs come in?
Most of these come as PNG or printable pages you can send straight to your printer, and the tablescape one is a cutting-machine bundle. For the kids’ cards I mostly used the print-and-color pieces, since little hands want to decorate, not assemble.
The product page from the shop lists what is in each download, so check there before you buy if you need a specific kind of file.
Do I need a Cricut or Silhouette to use these?
Only for the tablescape SVG bundle, and even then just for the layered, fancy pieces. I used my machine to cut clean blank card shapes for the kids, but you can absolutely print and hand-cut the flat parts with scissors.
Everything else here is print, color, fold, tape. No machine needed. My niece and nephew did the whole table with glue sticks and washi.
Before You Print
Two kids, one stack of blank cards, a glue stick going dry, and a name taped over a misspelling that nobody fixed. That was our place-card setup this year, and the misspelled-then-patched card ended up at the head of the table on purpose.
Print the simple ones, let the little kids have the bear, give the seven-year-old the cornucopia to color, and stand back. The crooked crayon ones will get the gasp, not the fancy ones you slaved over. Ask me how I know.
