Guests appreciate having a seat at the Thanksgiving table reserved for them. Place cards add a special touch to a formal sit-down meal and help guests avoid that awkward “where do I sit?” shuffle. Even the kids can help with these easy and fun ideas for helping guests take their seats.

• Make Cranberry Place Cards for your special guests. Inside each card, have the kids write a special holiday memory or message about why they are thankful for each family member. Decorate the outside of the cards by gluing on a few Ocean Spray® Fresh Cranberries and a twist of gold ribbon, twigs or fresh herbs.

• Miniature 3-inch terra cotta flower pots make fun little pilgrim hats. Paint the pots black, then paint a yellow buckle on the hat’s band. Glue a 4-inch circle of black felt, foam or cardboard to the wide end. Turn over, and write each guest’s name on the hat in paint pen.

• Delight your guests with tiny individual bowls of homemade cranberry sauce at each plate (decorated recycled baby food jars work great). To each add a small decorated sign that say things like, “Uncle Jim’s Private Reserve” or “Hand-made for Aunt Betty.”

• Make “hand-some” turkeys. Have the kids trace their hands on yellow, orange and brown construction paper and then cut out the tracings. The palm becomes the turkey’s body. Draw an eye on the thumb for the turkey’s head, and color the fingers like turkey feathers. Write a guest’s name across the bottom, and glue the turkey to a place card so it will stand up.

• If your kids are little and still like a big canvas to draw on, cut out large place-mat-sized sheets of white paper and let them draw a holiday picture for each guest. Help them write the guest’s name across the top and you have an instant place card and place mat. Or roll the pictures up, secure with a ribbon, add the guest’s name to the outside, and place at each place setting.

• Make garlands of fresh cranberries to wind around the center of the table. Then tie a festive gift tag, with each person’s name on it, to the garland just in front of their plate. (To avoid staining, do not place cranberries on light-colored fabrics.)

• Place a scoop of Ocean Spray® Fresh Cranberries in a small, shallow bowl or saucer. Nestle a small card, with each guest’s name written on it, in the cranberries so the card stands up. Place a bowl at each place setting.