About four hundred years ago in the merry country of England, James I put great pressure on a small religious group called Separatists to submit to his authority.  In time many Separatists fled to Holland and later North America.  The willingness of this group of Separatists to travel far from their homeland for the sake of their beliefs led to their being known as the Pilgrims.

En route for North America in September 1620 on a ship called the Mayflower, approximately 100 adults and children spent two stormy months on the North Atlantic Ocean before arriving at Cape Cod where they wrote the Mayflower Compact, a document that stated their wish to establish a community and submit to its laws.  On December 21, 1620 this settlement became Plymouth.

And the rest is history, as they say, as Puritans from England also decided to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony in about 1630 and by 1640 about 20,000 English immigrants were living in New England.

To commemorate these historical events and/or simply for entertainment purposes, both children and adults enjoy dressing up in costumes for Thanksgiving with schools and community centers sometimes putting on costume plays.  But for whatever your reasons for dressing up for Thanksgiving, there are plenty of colorful and fun costumes for the occasion to go around.

Take your pick from Native American, Turkey, Pumpkin and Pilgrim costumes.  You’ll feel like you’re fleeing England yourself as you look the part of a political and religious freedom fighter. 

With the Native American costume comes brown leggings, brown T-shirt and vest or tunic using a large paper sack, scissors and paint.  You can also create a realistic headdress using a band of cardboard with glued feathers.

The Pilgrim costume usually includes a black suit with a large white collar complete with the look of a top hat.  Girls normally wear simple, long-sleeved black dresses with white aprons and bonnets.

Not to be outdone is the Turkey outfit by wearing a pair of brown leggings or sweat pants or a brown T-shirt as the base of the costume.  Tail feathers can be created by cutting the shape out of cardboard and attaching it to the back of a belt you can wrap around your waist.

Though pumpkins are traditionally used as Halloween decorations, they are also common fare at the Thanksgiving table in the form of pumpkin pie.  A pumpkin costume uses two large sections of orange fabric sewn together with a space for your head, arms and legs.  By stuffing the fabric with pillow stuffing it becomes a round pumpkin and by wearing an orange sweat suit underneath you’ll complete your look.

Costume elements and accessories can be purchased if you’d like to have a classier approach to your Thanksgiving wardrobe including accessories like these:  Colonial Socks, Samuel Black Adult Shoes, Deluxe Pilgrim Hat, Colonial Jabots and Cuffs, Ben Franklin Glasses, Silver Colonial Shoe Buckles and much more.