For as long as I can remember, on Thanksgiving Day, my sister, my mom, and I would make turkey cookies while we watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. The name sounds misleading, these are not cookies with chunks of turkey in them. That sounds rather disgusting. I’m talking sweet and salty and chocolatey deliciousness that doubles as Thanksgiving table décor, a child’s craft, and you get to use up all your leftover candy corn from Halloween in the process!

This is a great project to do with your kids, your friends, or your hubbies (but if he’s anything like mine you’ll probably have to watch how many cookies are actually making it on the plate…) Because I am unable to go back home to Nebraska this year to make these cute little guys with my sister and my mom, I’ve enlisted the help of my sweet friend here in Tennessee, Emily, and her adorable two-and-a-half year-old, Kinsley, to help me make our Thanksgiving a little sweeter!

Here are the supplies you’ll need:

Chocolate Frosting (but you can certainly use vanilla or even caramel flavored frosting if chocolate isn’t your thing), Ritz crackers, Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, Caramels, and all your left over candy corn

And if you have little ones (or just a messy husband like I do), you might want to put down a plastic tablecloth and don them in their “play clothes.” You’ll probably end up with chocolate frosting in places you never thought it could be!

Ready? Let’s get started!

You’re going to start by taking a Ritz cracker and cover the front side with frosting. You’ll then put a small dollop of frosting on the bottom of the backside and press an unwrapped caramel to it so your Mr. Turkey can standing up instead of laying flat.

* Note: This step isn’t necessary if you find it to be too complicated for little hands, but when they stand they are cute place decorations at your Thanksgiving table!

Next you will give Mr. Turkey his body by gently pressing an unwrapped Hershey’s Kiss onto the front side. Once he has a body, we’ll need to decorate him with some feathers! So add as many candy corns, white points down just like Miss Kinsley’s, letting the yellow pieces stick up proudly over the top of your cracker.

And there you go, your Turkey Tom is finished and ready for eating, playing, or plating on your Thanksgiving place settings! I hope this cute little DIY brings your families as much joy as it has brought mine throughout the years. Turkey cookies are a tradition back at the Carnes house in Nebraska and I am so happy I am able to start these same traditions with friends in our new southern home!