Top 14 Terrific Thanksgiving Games For The Entire Family
Football, turkey trots, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade — these time-honored traditions of our favorite pilgrim holiday are a great way for the whole family to come together and bond. To ensure that the whole day is filled with fun, it is always good to have a cornucopia of ideas in your bonnet.
Feast your eyes on these fantastic family games that everyone will be gobbling up!
Related: The Ultimate Fall Bucket List for Kids and Families
Indoor Family Thanksgiving Games
As your family and friends gather together, you better be-leaf that these Thanksgiving party games will keep everyone engaged and entertained before, during, and after the meal!
1. Thanksgiving Bingo
This is a fun Thanksgiving game for the whole family! Simply print out your bingo boards and drawing cards and you are ready to play! Your kids will love using marshmallows and candy corn to mark the images on their bingo cards and the first person to call BINGO can have the first slice of pie!
2. Gratitude Game
As you gather together to give thanks for your many blessings, why not make sure that your friends and family feel truly loved and cherished! When playing the Gratitude Game, everyone will write their name on a notecard and fold it in half. These names will get thrown into a hat and then everyone will draw a card.
Once you have received your person, you will write the three things that you love most about them on a new notecard. Finally, the guessing game begins!
Mix up the gratitude cards, and read each trio of compliments out loud. Guests must guess who these platitudes are about!
3. Thanksgiving Word Scramble
This is a wonderful way to keep your guests occupied while you put the finishing touches on your Thanksgiving feast. Every word sleuth loves a challenge.
Make a list of the top Thanksgiving words, mix up the letters, and see who can unscramble them the fastest! Winner doesn’t have to help with the dishes!
4. Would You Rather? (Thanksgiving Style)
This is a spectacular conversation starter! Would you rather walk around like a turkey for a week or dress up as a pilgrim for a day? Would you rather give a turkey a bath or drink a whole gravy boat?
Your loved ones will be laughing at the ridiculous responses to the funny questions you come up with and the reasons behind your choice!
5. Thanksgiving Trivia Questions
Who was the first President to pardon a turkey? How many Americans skip serving turkey on Turkey Day? When is Thanksgiving in Canada?
Test your family member’s knowledge of this feast-filled holiday in a game of trivia! You will be surprised at how fun this history lesson can be and what you can learn along the way!
Study up with our fun Thanksgiving Trivia Quiz!
6. Roll-A-Turkey
Similar to bingo, the intent of this dice game is to get all of your feathers filled first! Each number on the dice signifies a different color and each feather has different colored spots to fill. Etsy has an array of printable Thanksgiving game options for this simple board game.
7. Thanksgiving Charades
This classic party game comes with the twist of only using Thanksgiving-themed words and phrases! Choose from simple options like “turkey”, “pilgrim”, and “pumpkin pie” or go bold with “Mayflower”, “harvest”, and “gobble”.
Guests have to act out these terms without making a sound!
8. Thanksgiving Mad Libs
Print out some Mad Libs or make some of your own! Make it Thanksgiving-themed by making all of the word options related to the holiday. This can be a fun and engaging way to sneak in a grammar lesson and get some laughs along the way!
Outdoor Family Thanksgiving Games
If you’re looking for a way to burn off that second helping of stuffing or stretch your legs before the tryptophan sleepiness kicks in, these outdoor Thanksgiving activities are perfect palette cleansers!
1. Turkey Bowling
Everyone wants to get a turkey when bowling! Why not actually use one to knock down the pins? Turkey bowling is exactly the same regular bowling except you use a butterball to knock down the pins.
Don’t have regulation equipment? No problem! Use water bottles, solo cups, or soft drinks instead.
2. Turkey Tag
Forget about flag football! The Thanksgiving version of this classic game involves snagging the turkey feathers from your competitors. Best of all, this game starts with a DIY craft!
First, let your kids paint and decorate three clothespins each. These will be their tail feathers. Once dry, they can attach them anywhere on their clothing.
Then, the game of tag begins! Try and pull off all of your opponents feathers — once they lose all three, they are out of the game. The last one standing wins!
3. Corn Hole
For the families who love to spend time outdoors on this holiday, corn hole is another amazing alternative to touch football that the whole family can enjoy. All you need is two corn hole boards and two sets of bean bags and you will be set for hours of fun!
4. Giant Jenga
This is an additional outdoor activity that is great for Thanksgiving, Easter, the Fourth of July, and everything in between! Just make sure to keep the theme of the day going strong.
Each time a giant Jenga piece is successfully removed, the player must say something that they are thankful for in life.
5. Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt
This game can be done outside or indoors, depending on the weather and the hints you want to use. The premise is simple — find all of the Thanksgiving themed items on the list. Send your guests off to find pumpkins, scarecrows, acorns, fall colored leaves, and whatever other Autumn items that you have adorning your home!
6. Turkey Day Tic-Tac-Toe
Before the big day arrives, head on over to your local supermarket and pick up 10 little pumpkins — five white and five orange. These normally only cost one to two dollars apiece.
These will be your tic-tac-toe pieces. Double or triple this number if you want multiple games going at once. Then, on Turkey Day, take some sidewalk chalk and draw out your boards and you are ready to play!
Best Thanksgiving Activities for the Kids' Table
As the adults are giving thanks for good conversation, delicious food, and their many other blessings, the younger kids are likely looking for some form of entertainment throughout their Thanksgiving dinner. Here are some easy ways to keep them occupied!
1. I Spy Thanksgiving
This is a fun way to distract the kids as you are making the finishing touches on the dessert! Simply use common Fall items and decorations from our Thanksgiving Word Search, and have the kids look around the house to see how many they find.
If you want to really motivate your kids to find them all, purchase some holiday themed toys on Amazon and the first one to finish can win a prize!
2. Thanksgiving Themed Coloring Pages
Everyone loves to color! You can print Thanksgiving printable coloring pages to hand out or just lay out crayons, markers, stickers, and construction paper and see who can create the best holiday placemats for the meal!
Here’s a great Mayflower Coloring Page to get started!
Starting New Holiday Traditions
When deciding on the best Thanksgiving games for your family, make sure to consider the ages of your guests. The purpose of any game is to allow family and friends to connect and have fun, so if younger kids are involved, make sure to select options that will keep them engaged as well.
Additionally, remember that some of these games can only have a few participants playing at a time. Therefore, choose an array of games that your guests can be playing simultaneously.
If all goes well, your guests will be requesting that these Thanksgiving family games become a regular part of your holiday in the years to come!
3For even more Thanksgiving fun, don’t forget to check out the Family Education Thanksgiving Activity Book!
