How to Make a Turkey Piñata for Thanksgiving

A turkey piñata is a fun, festive way to add excitement to your Thanksgiving celebrations. Making your own turkey piñata is easy and rewarding. In this DIY guide, you’ll learn step-by-step how to craft a paper mâché turkey piñata filled with candy or small prizes.

Overview of Making a Turkey Piñata

Making a turkey piñata involves

• Creating cardboard molds for the body, feathers, and hat
• Paper mâchéing the molds
• Assembling the pieces once dry
• Decorating with tissue paper and other embellishments
• Filling with treats and prizes
• Hanging up and breaking open!

The entire project takes 2-3 days from start to finish with about 4-6 hours of total working time. Read on for detailed instructions on crafting your own memorable Thanksgiving turkey piñata.

Supplies Needed

You’ll need the following supplies:

• Cardboard
• Newspaper
• Flour
• Water
• Toilet paper tube
• Tissue paper
• Construction paper
• Paint/markers
• String
• Tape
• Scissors
• Plastic cups
• Vegetable oil

Step 1: Make the Cardboard Molds

First, create cardboard molds that will form the structure of the piñata pieces. You’ll need molds for:

• Body – Trace around a plastic cup onto cardboard. Cut out.
• Neck – Use a toilet paper tube.
• Feathers – Trace your hand with fingers spread. Cut into a feather shape.
• Hat – Make rings from cardboard and tape together into a tube.

Make sure pieces fit together how you want them. Lightly oil molds to ease paper mâché removal later.

Step 2: Paper Mâché the Molds

Mix up paper mâché paste using flour and water. Tear newspaper into strips. Dip strips into paste mixture, remove excess, and apply to molds:

• Apply 2-3 layers to fully cover each mold.
• Leave neck and hat open at the ends.
• Let dry fully between layers.

This may take a few hours. Gently remove paper mâché pieces from molds when totally dry.

Step 3: Assemble Piñata Body

Once molds are dry and removed, you can assemble the main piñata body:

• Attach neck to indented hole on body with tape and mâché.
• Attach feathers around opening of body with mâché.
• Attach hat to neck with tape and mâché.

Let all joints dry fully before decorating.

Step 4: Decorate Your Turkey

Time for the fun part – decorating! Cover the piñata in flair using:

• Tissue paper streamers for feathers
• Construction paper beak and snood
• Googly eyes
• Crepe streamers for hanging tail feathers
• Anything else that suits your turkey!

Paint the hat black and add a buckle. Get creative with colors and textures.

Step 5: Fill With Treats

Before hanging, fill the turkey through the hat opening with:

• Candy
• Small toys
• Fortune cookies
• Gift cards
• Anything else you want the piñata to contain!

Use something long like a stick to cram filling deep inside.

Step 6: Hang and Break!

Add a hanging loop and hang your turkey piñata up in an open area. Take turns trying to break it open using a bat or stick. Once cracked, watch everyone scramble for the prizes!

Turkey Piñata Tips

• If paper mâché cracks, add more strips and mâché to fix
• You can skip making molds and mâché right on an object, but removal will be trickier
• Let mâché dry fully – at least 24 hours – before decorating
• Keep piñata lightweight by limiting filling
• Have guests wear blindfolds to make hitting the piñata more challenging

Creative Variations

Switch up your turkey piñata with fun variations like:

• Turkey wearing sweater or scarf
• Turkey holding cornucopia full of treats
• Turkey cooking in chef’s hat and apron
• Turkey in Pilgrim hat
• Turkey with bowtie and top hat

There are endless ways to customize your piñata to match your Thanksgiving theme or decor. Let your creativity fly!

Making your own turkey piñata is a crafty way to generate huge excitement leading up to the big event. Kids and adults alike will have a blast taking swings at this homemade paper mâché bird. Follow the step-by-step instructions to create a turkey piñata full of sweet surprises for Thanksgiving day.