Thanksgiving event ideas for fundraising, fun & education

Thanksgiving is almost upon us! But it’s not too late to pull together an event, whether you’re looking for a way to raise money, educate and inspire, or simply have fun.

Especially seeing as now we’ve got you covered with a whole host of creative Thanksgiving event ideas 😌👇.

Top tip: When you sell tickets online using Ticket Tailor, it’s quick and easy to set up a donations feature, so ticket-buyers can easily donate a set amount or chosen amount to your cause.

Thanksgiving event ideas for schools 

Wherever you are in the world, running a Thanksgiving event at school can be a great way to educate students and explore new perspectives around this historic holiday. 

Educational events can also be doubled up as fundraisers – you can sell tickets online to raise funds, or simply set up some donation points around the event for parents to drop cash into.

• Reenactment Turkey dinner – go one step further than the usual delicious Thanksgiving turkey dinner by putting on a ticketed event complete with actors (or teachers!) in costumes reminiscent of the original Thanksgiving Day. 
• Thanksgiving mystery trail – give the kids a chance to dress up and immerse themselves in a real-life mystery trail around the school. Put up plenty of seasonal decorations, and have fun creating Thanksgiving-themed characters and clues – perhaps Peter the Pumpkin has gone missing, and the little ones need to enlist the help of Tessa the Turkey to find him?!
• Thanksgiving quiz night – if you’re looking for creative ways to educate students about the history of Thanksgiving, why not run a quiz night and get the parents involved too? Make an event of it providing drinks and snacks, with fun prizes for winners and runners up.

Thanksgiving event ideas for the local community 

Putting on a Thanksgiving event for your local community is a great way to get people together, raise money for charity, or simply to celebrate and honour the holiday in style. 

• Thanksgiving Food Fest – get the locals together for an afternoon of culinary treats. Enlist the help of the community’s top bakers, or hire in street food vendors for a truly tasty Thanksgiving event. Try securing a local music artist for some live entertainment, too.
• Thanksgiving Native American history lecture – book a historian or tribal representative to host a talk at a local venue to give the community a chance to enjoy some historical education around this legendary holiday.
•  Thanksgiving U-pick event – Halloween might be over but pumpkins still make great Thanksgiving decor. And you don’t have to stick to the gnarly orange veg when it comes to pick-your-own events, either. Contact a local farm to see if you can organise a festive u-pick event – whether that’s seasonal fruit and vegetables for Thanksgiving lunch, or gorgeous autumnal flowers and foliage for wreath making.

Thanksgiving arts, crafts & workshop event ideas

• Autumnal wreath-making – these days, autumnal wreaths are almost as trendy (if not more so!) than Christmas wreaths. If you’re into arts and crafts, hosting a wreath making workshop around Thanksgiving can be the perfect way to make use of all the inspirational textures and colours of the season. Be sure to provide some festive drinks like mulled wine or hot cider – and we’re sure some traditional Thanksgiving sweets will go down a treat, too!
• Christmas card craft workshop – what’s next after Thanksgiving? Christmas, of course! Now’s the perfect time to start planning all those festive traditions, so why not get the community together for a crafty Christmas card making workshop? 
• Thanksgiving dinner table centrepiece workshop – another great way to express some artistic flair around this festive holiday is with a dining table centrepiece workshop. Attendees can flex their creative muscles and walk away with a beautiful decoration for their Thanksgiving feasts – win-win.

How to sell tickets to your Thanksgiving events with Ticket Tailor

The best and easiest way to sell tickets to your Thanksgiving events is with an online ticketing service (shameless bit of self-promo coming up 🤭). With Ticket Tailor, you can sell tickets online for a simple flat fee – or, our platform is totally free to use for free events. 

It’s really easy to sell your tickets on a website, or you can sell them straight from your own Ticket Tailor box office page. 

In a hurry? Check out these time-saving features that can help you sell tickets to your festive events.

Also, if you do have a website, you might find this guides useful:

• Sell tickets on Wix
• Sell tickets on Squarespace
• Sell tickets on Wordpress

Happy Thanksgiving!