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Please make the children's table festive at Thanksgiving! It’s so much fun for everyone.

I watched a little muchkin’s face fall last Thanksgiving when she realized she was relegated to the “children’s table.” I do set a separate table sometimes for the kids, but I do it like a special treat, not as a punshment for not being an adult.

Here are some festive drink recipes for the little Pilgrims at your holiday get-together. Choose festive ware and garnish. Any drink with whipped cream, you can put sprinkles atop, candied fruit, cinnamon candies, Thanksgiving “picks,” drizzle with (non-alcoholic) crème de menthe for color, shaved colored chocolate, or add a candy kiss. Tie an orange bow with a sprig of fall leaves on the punch ladle; surround the base with leaves and greenery and miniature pumpkins, squashes, or toy Thanksgiving “ornaments” from the Dollar store. There’s lots to choose from!

If it’s hot, stick in a cinnamon stick or butterscotch candy. Dollop with whipped cream and garnish with sprinkles, cinnamon candies, or confectioner’s sugar; add a holiday "pick"; stick a sparkler in each mug and light at presentation time.

If it’s cold, use decorated ice cubes – freeze cranberries, tiny ornaments, mint leaves, anything festive and NON-POISONOUS into the cubes and add at presentation time. (Remember at Christmas time that holly berries and all parts of the mistletoe are poisonous); or freeze the same things in an ice mold. You can have great fun with floating ice rings for punch for the kids - put in ornaments, cherries, greenery, anything you can make hygienic-enough and that edible!

Whatever you serve, serve it with festive flare, and give it a holiday name!

1. Nana's Nog

3 cups milk
1 cup half 'n' half
3 T. sugar

Put in blender with ice and frappe. Consider orange food coloring and chocolate candy sprinkles to keep with the color scheme. Serves 4.

2. Pumpkin’s Progress for Pilgrims

1 can of pumpkin puree
12 oz. can of frozen apple juice concentrate
Ground nutmeg and cinnamon to taste
2 ½ cups of water

Remove the pumpkin from the can and freeze for an hour, till slushy. In a blender, combine the partially frozen pumpkin, the frozen apple juice concentrate, and spices and blend till smooth. Continue to blend while adding the water.

3. Harvest Cider Punch

1 gallon apple cider
12 whole cloves
2 large apples (Granny Smith, Rome Beauty), peeled, left whole
2 cinnamon sticks
Ground nutmeg

Pour apple cider into large pot. Insert 6 cloves into each apple. Add apples and cinnamon sticks to pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and barely simmer over very low heat 1 hour to allow flavors to blend. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over low heat before continuing.) Ladle hot cider punch into mugs. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve.

Source, Bon Appétit, December 1995

4. Spicy Cranberry Punch

1/2 cup red cinnamon candies
4 C. water
8 C. cranberry juice cocktail, chilled
6 oz. can frozen limeade concentrate
6 oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate

In small pan, melt candies in water; chill. At serving time, combine candy liquid and fruit juices in punch bowl. Stir to dissolve. Makes 18, 5-oz. cups.

5. Children's Orange Thanksgiving "Champagne"

Combine 2 well-chilled 750-ml. bottles non-alcoholic sparkling cider with 1 cup orange juice or to taste.

8. Turkey Toe-Warmer

1 qt. vanilla ice cream
3 sticks margarine
1 box brown sugar
nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice

Combine and keep in freezer. At serving time, put 1 heaping T. scoop into a mug, add hot water (to taste) and heat.

9. Pumpkin Orange Punch

4 cups water
3 cups sugar
2 small packages of orange Jello
l large can pineapple juice
1 bottle of almond extract Serves 25-30.