How to Decorate a Mailbox for Thanksgiving

Show everyone how excited you are to spend time with friends and family over the holidays with this seasonal mailbox.

As the days get crisper and the nights get cooler and longer, celebrate the fall and the upcoming holiday season by decorating your mailbox for Thanksgiving. While many people decorate their mailboxes for birthdays, births and parties, you will be unique with this clever turkey mailbox that will let everyone know that you are ready for the season and thankful to be here.

Things You'll Need

• Poster board in red, brown, yellow, and orange
• Scissors
• Wax paper
• Iron
• Black marker
• Glue
• Pipe cleaners
• Clear packing tape

Instructions

1. Cut out a large number of turkey tailfeathers. They should be at least a foot long, and you should use all four colors of posterboard.

2. Glue two pairs of feathers together to form wings, and the rest of the feathers together in a large fan. Use a fair amount of glue to make sure that they stick together. All the colors should be facing the same way.

3. Cut a turkey head and neck out of brown posterboard, a red wiggly wattle out of red posterboard and a yellow triangle beak out of yellow posterboard. You will need two of each of these shapes so that they have color from both sides.

4. 

   Glue the shapes you just cut out together so that the white insides of the posterboard are facing each other and only the colored sides are visible.

5. Draw large eyes on your turkey. There should one on each side of his head.

6. Glue the shapes together to form a turkey neck and head with a wattle and beak, and a pipe cleaner on each side of the neck. The pipe cleaners should extend about two inches off the edge of the neck.

7. Protect the posterboard from the elements by encasing it in waxed paper. You should put a large piece of wax paper on either side of the posterboard tail, wings and head. Then, use a hot iron to melt the wax paper onto the posterboard and to itself where there is no posterboard. You can use high heat for this, but you must not let the iron sit on the posterboard or wax paper or it will start to burn. Keep the iron moving.

8. Secure the turkey body parts to the mailbox. Use the clear packing tape. Tape the tail securely to the back of the mailbox and the wings to the sides. Make sure that you do not cover up your address numbers or impede the movement of the flag. The head should be held in place at the top of the front of the mailbox by extending a pipe cleaner on either side of the box and taping the pipe cleaners down securely. Make sure that you do not prevent the box from opening and closing.

Tips & Warnings

• This decoration will last one to two weeks, depending on the weather.