Friendsgiving :: Celebrating Our Treasured Friendships

Holiday season is just around the corner, but it’s not the nation’s favorite food holiday that has us day dreaming about mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. This month we’re all about Friendsgiving, a popular take on Thanksgiving when friends come together to celebrate good food and great company.

Whether you’re planning a Friendsgiving feast or sticking to your traditional Thanksgiving routine, show your kids why friends are worth being thankful for with some crafts, fun recipes and some Netflix shows and movies that  explore lessons about friendship from a few of the greatest duos, including Rory and Lorelai, Charlotte and Wilbur and Bob and Larry, whose all-new Netflix original, “VeggieTales in the House,” starts streaming Nov. 26.

Image courtesy of Flickr

Netflix has created a lit of  ‘dynamic duo’ titles to stream on Netflix, which demonstrate the value of all kinds of friendships — whether it’s a sibling bond, classmate or furry friend. My daughter received a furry kitten for her fifth birthday and they have been best buds ever since!  Sorry, couldn’t resist this cute picture to share with you!

He usually can be found sleeping at the end of her bed at night or  snuggling up with her.  I think children benefit by creating and valuing these friendship with their furry pals. If you need some thought starters on how to spark a conversation around friendship with your kids, check out these tips from Common Sense Media.

For Your Little Ones:

All of these shows demonstrate the importance of having good friends as well as how to be a good friend. If you think about it, our children need to see this positive reinforcement from our actions as well quality programs like the ones listed below.  They are little sponges learning how to be in the world!  Whenever my daughter mentions that someone at school wasn’t acting very nice this opens the door for conversations about how to act towards others.  My motto to her and how I try to live my life is to treat others the way I would want to be treated.

1. Bob and Larry: VeggieTales in the House
2. Bert and Ernie: Sesame Street: Elmo and Friends
3. Bo and Dezzy: Bo on the Go!
4. Justin and Olive: Justin Time
5. Tod and Copper: The Fox and the Hound 2
6. Clifford and Elizabeth: Clifford

For Your Big Kids:

We love The Wild Kratt Brother’s for many reasons!  Their show educates children about nature and wildlife as well as how to treat others.  They are brothers as well as the best of friends – which is an important thing to see for children with siblings.  And Shaggy and Scooby are so fun to watch together!  Enjoy these handpicked selections from Netflix!

1. Phineas and Ferb
2. Shaggy and Scooby: Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
3. Vada and Thomas: My Girl
4. Martin and Chris: Wild Kratts
5. Finn and Jake: Adventure Time
6. Mario and Luigi: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
7. Charlotte and Wilbur: Charlotte’s Web

Plus a few for mom and dad:

I have heard good things about the Gilmore Girls and plan to check it out this month!  We are big fans of The X-Files and Breaking Bad.  If you haven’t checked out Breaking Bad yet, I would definitely recommend putting this show in your stream.  The love/hate relationship between Jesse and Walter is quite something to watch.

1. Rory and Lorelai: Gilmore Girls
2. Schmidt and Nick: New Girl
3. Ted and Barney: How I Met Your Mother
4. Liz and Jack: 30 Rock
5. Walter and Jesse: Breaking Bad
6. Mulder and Scully: The X-Files
7. Wayne and Garth: Wayne’s World

Vegetable Stamps

While you’re prepping Friendsgiving dinner, give the kids a few extra veggies, paint and paper to see what fun designs they can make. Click here to learn how to make your own veggie stamps, including instructions for making our favorite veggie friends, Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber.

Cucumber Rolls with Veggie(Tales) Cream Cheese

Celebrate the launch of VeggieTales (or just enjoy a pre-Friendsgiving snack) with cucumber roll-ups stuffed with veggie cream cheese. Anything can go into cucumber rolls, but for this version we’re sticking to sun-dried tomatoes for Bob the Tomato, a celery stalk for Frankencelery and baby carrots for Laura Carrot. Click here to see how to make your own.

Are you planning on spending time with your friends over the Thanksgiving Holiday?