Ah, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. You bring the whole group of family and friends together to eat a well-prepared meal…and then what? You have all these guests together and eating only takes so much time. Soon the meal is over, and then, you have people to entertain and kids to corral. Thanksgiving day can quickly turn into chaos. You need some simple, fun Thanksgiving games that will bring your family together! Games to play on Thanksgiving that will create family memories, laughter, bonding, and, of course, focus on gratitude. Look no further! We have scoured the interweb to find the best Thanksgiving game ideas and activities that everyone can enjoy. We have all of the Thanksgiving dinner games organized for you in one place so you can pick and choose the ones that will work best for your Thanksgiving crew!
Games to Play on Thanksgiving
There is a lot that goes into planning a Thanksgiving meal. So much planning, in fact, that anything else can easily be forgotten! But Thanksgiving is so much more than just a dinner. It is also a time to gather as family and friends. It is a time to give thanks and to make memories together that will last a lifetime! This Thanksgiving, bring your family together in a meaningful way by adding one (or several) of these fun Thanksgiving games to the mix. By doing so, the family will be able to enjoy not only the yummy food but also the quality time spent together while playing fun Thanksgiving party games!
In this fun Thanksgiving game category, you’ll find super fun Thanksgiving activity ideas that the whole family can enjoy or just the kids can participate in. From scavenger hunts to learning games, we’ve got a variety of Thanksgiving party games to keep everyone busy and capture the spirit of the holiday. We have done the hard part of gathering all the fun thanksgiving game ideas. Now you just have to choose one and get ready for a more meaningful Thanksgiving holiday with your loved ones.
This collection of Thanksgiving game ideas includes :
- Games for Kids
- Games for Adults
- Family Games
- Activities for at the Table
- Activities for a Month of Gratitude
Alphabet Turkey Match {I Heart Crafty Things} – Using a collection of bottle caps, create a darling turkey and have your toddler match the letters in the caps with the letters on the feathers for a perfect holiday themed educational activity.
Candy Corn Relay {The Inspired Tree House} – Have the kids race through a course holding a spoon full of candy corn. Whichever team gets more candy corn in their bowl at the end, wins!
Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt {The Dating Divas} – Clues and activities for a Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt the whole family can enjoy! Includes scavenger hunt ideas, riddles for adults and kids, and more!
November When {The Dating Divas} – Place one of these darling printables on everyone’s plate to allow them to share their favorite Thanksgiving memory. Then, use them as great conversation pieces over dinner!
Thanksgiving Coloring Pages {1+1+1=1} – A sure way to keep kids distracted during post-dinner clean up!
Thanksgiving Mad Libs {How Does She} – Who doesn’t love Mad Libs?! Also a fun activity.
Thanksgiving Mad Libs for Kids {24/7 Moms} – Here is an easier version of Mad Libs that allows the younger guests to participate.
Thankful From A-Z {The Crafting Chicks} – This is a great activity for elementary age and older! Ask everyone to list things they are thankful for, starting with each letter of the alphabet.
Blessing Bag {The Dating Divas} – Use our darling Blessing Bag printables to create a thoughtful gift bag and give it to a neighbor or friend.
Photobooth Props {The Dating Divas} – Set up a fun photo booth station in your house and grab some great pictures of the family!
Thanksgiving Conversation Cards {Happy Home Fairy} – A great set of activity cards that get the family together.
Turkey Feathers {The Idea Room} – Gather the kids around a die and the printable cards and see who can roll numbers 1-6 first!
You’ve Been Gobbled {The Dating Divas} – Fill a bag of treats and place it on the doorstep of friends or neighbors for a thoughtful surprise.
Thanksgiving RAOK {The Dating Divas} – We’ve created the ULTIMATE list of service ideas for the perfect “giving” time of year. Complete some of these tasks after dinner!
Thanksgiving Would You Rather {Classroom Freebies} – A game of “Would You Rather” is always telling. Learn more about your kiddos’ preferences.
Thanksgiving Thankful Letter {DGreetings} – Grab a card perfect for your friends or family and share it with them over the long weekend.
Thankful Treasure Hunt {A Girl and a Glue Gun} – Have your kids list things they are thankful for and then have them search for them while they wait for dinner, dessert or other activities.
Dancing Corn Science Activity {Little Bins for Little Hands} – Grab your science-loving kid and have fun with this experiment!
Candy Pumpkin Engineering {Lemon Lime Adventures} – Let your little builder build fun structures out of candy pumpkins and toothpicks.
Flying Turkey {Frugal Fun 4 Boys} – Have a house full of boys?! This activity is for you! Set up some “turkeys” and allow your kiddos to shoot them down with a nerf gun or even just a ball.
Pumpkin Ring Toss {Meaningful Mama} – A simple concept but so much fun! With some rings and pumpkins, you are all set!
Thanksgiving Cootie Catcher {Bren Did} – Cootie catchers are always the best! This one is just darling!
Our Favorite Thanksgiving Games for the Whole Family
Getting the family all together is what the holidays are all about. To maximize your time as a family, don’t let the Thanksgiving festivities end after dinner. No matter what you’ve got planned this Thanksgiving, we’ve got you covered with over 50 fun Thanksgiving games post dinner. Our Thanksgiving family games and activities are the best way to make lasting memories with those you love! After dinner, it’s time to work off some of that food! Beat the “tired” by getting the family involved in any of these fun Thanksgiving family games! We have so many awesome Thanksgiving dinner games that you’re sure to create lasting memories with those you love. With so many free printable Thanksgiving games for adults and children you will be so grateful! After all, that’s what the holidays are all about!
Thankful “FOUR” {The Dating Divas} – A fun game of Connect Four that allows you to share what you are thankful for.
Thanksgiving Traditions Bingo {The Dating Divas} – A version of Bingo that discusses Thanksgiving traditions.
Turkey Land {Modern Homemakers} – If you love Candy Land then you’ll LOVE Turkey Land!
Touch Football {Wall Street Journal} – A classic Thanksgiving game, touch football will burn off that pumpkin pie for sure!
Turkey Tag {Teach Beside Me} – Attach feathers to the tail of your shirt and play tag. The idea is to grab feathers off your opponent’s shirt. Once you’re out of feathers, you’re out of the game!
Roll a Turkey {Inspiration Made Simple} – This is an EASY game for young kids!
Thanksgiving Family Feud {Teachers Pay Teachers} – Who doesn’t love family feud?! Now, you have a Thanksgiving version!
Thanksgiving Board Game {Amazon} – Add this to your family traditions! The perfect game to enjoy during family time.
Turkey Baster Pom Pom Race {School Time Snippets} – This makes me chuckle. Drop some pom-poms on the floor and give each child a turkey baster to see who can blow the pom-pom across the floor the fastest.
Turkey Rockets {Growing a Jeweled Rose} – Your kids will LOVE this game. Adhere a turkey to a balloon and attach the balloon to a straw and rocket your balloon down a string!
Turkey Trivia {Craftaholics Anonymous} – Test your Thanksgiving knowledge with a little Turkey Trivia.
Racing Turkeys {Mom Inspired Life} – Develop motor skills and teach numbers by rolling a die and moving your clothespin turkey up the number line.
Stuff the Turkey {Kid Friendly Things to Do} – Create a darling turkey out of a brown paper bag and then toss paper balls inside!
Pumpkin Win It in a Minute Games {The Dating Divas} – This along with other ideas shared in this post are SURE to be a hit at your Thanksgiving get together.
Pumpkin Tic Tac Toe {Blue iStyle} – Spray paint some small pumpkins and create a DIY tic tac toe board gorgeous enough to use as a table centerpiece.
Don’t Topple the Teepee {The Inspired Tree House} – Tape together a number of pencils and have kids take turns removing one at a time. The first to make the “teepee” topple, loses.
Pin the Feather on the Turkey {Living Well Mom} – A simple DIY game of pin the feather on the turkey!
Thanksgiving Games For Kids
You are trying to make sure dinner is on the table and ready for your guests to arrive, but you have kids to corral and entertain. Now a possible recipe for disaster is NOT what you had planned on your Thanksgiving day menu. So, your solution is simple. You need thanksgiving dinner games! Before the big day, gather together a few of these simple Thanksgiving games for kids to keep the kiddos entertained giving you time for all of your preparations! With Thanksgiving activity ideas ranging from playing tag outdoors to simple table games for kids, you are sure to find fun Thanksgiving games that will fit your specific group’s needs. As a result, this will keep the kids happy and the chaos at a minimum.
Turkey Hunt – Hide these printable turkeys for the little ones to find. Keep them occupied and have a lot of fun.
The Gratitude Game – Punch a hole in the poster board to reveal Thanksgiving activities to complete.
Gratitude Photo Scavenger Hunt – Use the printable list to search for items in various categories. Add a camera to document your finds.
Kindness Cootie Catchers – Play the cootie catcher game to reveal which act of service/kindness you will do!
Don’t Eat Pete (the Turkey)! – A fun Thanksgiving spin on the game “Don’t Eat Pete”.
Turkey Feathers Game – Race to find the feathers to complete your turkey in time.
Thanksgiving Day Parade Bingo – Add a little extra fun while watching the traditional Macy’s day parade with this BINGO card.
Placemat Games – Several placemat options with loads of activities to keep the little ones occupied.
Thanksgiving I Spy Game – Search to find iconic Thanksgiving symbols and images.
Thanksgiving Joke Teller – Remember fortune tellers from your younger school days? This is a twist on those with some Thanksgiving jokes hidden inside.
Roll a Turkey – Roll the die to know what element to add to your turkey craft.
Turkeyland – A fun little twist on the game of Candyland with a Thanksgiving theme.
Thanksgiving Placemat – Keep the little ones busy by coloring their own table setting and completing various Thanksgiving-themed activities.
Thanksgiving Games for Adults
Holidays can bring so much focus on the little ones that adults can get left behind in the Thanksgiving activities for adults and children. They aren’t so much into “pin the feather on the turkey”, so they pass on the Thanksgiving activity. But Thanksgiving is about bringing the family together – the whole family. So, don’t leave out your adult family members. Here is our list of favorite Thanksgiving games for adults! While most of these have free printable thanksgiving games for adults, they also could also be played with the entire family (of all ages)! These are our favorite Thanksgiving games for adults that are bound to get you all gobblin’!
Friendsgiving Dinner – Celebrate the holiday with the “family you choose” – your friends! This link will take you to free customizable printables to organize and decorate for your own Friendsgiving!
Pie Night Tradition – So much food and so little time. Extend the holiday a little by having a night dedicated entirely to pies!
Thanksgiving Scattergories – Put your post-Thanksgiving dinner brain to the test with a fun twist on the game of Scattergories.
Thank’phone’ness Challenge – Pull out your phones for a fun Thanksgiving day photo scavenger hunt.
Thanksgiving Family Feud – Bring the family together for a little friendly competition. Face-off to answer Thanksgiving-themed questions.
The “Best” Thanksgiving Group Game – A hilarious group game in which teams must select someone to represent their team in a superlative such as the tallest or the fastest. The twist? No one knows the part that comes next!
Thanksgiving Minute to Win it Games – Silly Thanksgiving games with a competitive team spirit!
Thanksgiving Trivia Game – Gather family facts and see how well your family does. Great examples are included in this post.
Turkey Trot – Organize a little running race for your family before the big meal.
The Left-Right Game – Select a prize (or prizes) to pass around a circle. As you read the story, you will pass the prize to the left or right every time you hear that word.
Thanksgiving Family Games
Before and after the big meal, there is plenty of time for some Thanksgiving games family fun! So this is the ideal time to bring your family together for some Thanksgiving party games that bring bonding opportunities, laughter, and memories. We even have a few fun Thanksgiving activities that may even bring a little competitive spirit to the mix! We tried to find fun Thanksgiving games that would appeal to all ages and would encourage teams to work together. The following Thanksgiving family games provide a variety of activities that everyone can be involved in while playing! Now these Thanksgiving activities for adults and children will be a hit for the whole family!
Thanksgiving Bingo – A classic game that is perfect for large groups. Place your marker on various traditional Thanksgiving images.
Scavenger Hunt With Thanksgiving Activities – A unique scavenger hunt with Thanksgiving-inspired activities to complete before moving on to the next clue. So much fun for the whole family!
Turkey Bowling – It is a craft, it is a Thanksgiving game, and a whole lot of fun! These printables give you everything you need (minus the squash) to set up one of our favorite Thanksgiving games!
Shooting Turkeys – For the wildest of Thanksgiving activities, gather your nerf guns and aim at turkeys drawn on helium-filled balloons.
Flying Turkey – A little twist on the shooting turkey idea. Instead of balloons – use paper cups. Aim to knock the cups off the counter to make the turkey fly!
Thanksgiving Pictionary – Thanksgiving family games don’t get much better than this. A little bit of skill and a lot of guessing make this one so fun for the whole family.
Stuff the Turkey – A game of toss with this brown bag turkey will be a hit with the whole family.
Turkey Baster Relay – Race to get the turkey feather across the line using only a turkey baster.
Shake Your Tail Feather – Twelve hilarious Thanksgiving Games for adults and kids alike!
Candy Dice Game – Roll the dice to earn (or lose!) assorted candy pieces.
Pumpkin Stomp – Fill orange balloons with small prizes. Then, race to stomp and pop the balloons to get your prize.
Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt – Free printable clues to lead your group around the house in search of clues.
Turkey Tag – Get your family up and moving with this creative mixture of tag and flag football. Perfect for the whole family.
The Thanksgiving Board Game – This Amazon find looks awesome. Players experience different Thanksgiving Games such as ThanksGiving, ThanksGuessing, and ThanksSharing.
Photo Booth Props – Capture the memories of your family gathered together by adding these fun props.
The Gratitude Game: Pick Up Sticks – A fun twist to the game of pick up sticks. For each color that you pick up, follow the guide to answer a question about gratitude.
Thanksgiving Activities for at the Table
When we are thinking of Thanksgiving day, we often focus so much on what we eat at the table rather than Thanksgiving activity ideas. So what should you do around the table? You brought your family together for this occasion, so now it is time to make the most of it! With all of these Thanksgiving activities for adults and children, you are bound to find games to play on Thanksgiving! It doesn’t take a lot of effort to include some thoughtful but simple Thanksgiving Activities to your dinner especially when there are so many free printable thanksgiving games for adults and children listed below just for you! These Thanksgiving dinner games can bring laughter, conversation, and, of course, the focus on gratitude that your family will remember forever. Here are a few of our favorite Thanksgiving activity ideas that you can do together at dinner!
Gratitude Tree – Draw a large tree on butcher paper and fill it in with the things you are grateful for.
Coloring Tablecloth – Get those busy fingers coloring their own table decor. This tablecloth provides places for the kiddos to color as well as some fun Thanksgiving games and activities.
Engineer Print Tablecloth to Color – Engineer prints are a super inexpensive way to create a DIY giant coloring sheet for the little kid’s table.
Table Spinner – This is a little ‘spin’ on the game Spin the bottle. Spin the arrow to take turns answering questions.
Thanksgiving Conversation Starters – Get the conversation focussed on the meaning of Thanksgiving with these unique Thanksgiving conversation starters. Our favorite tradition.
Would You Rather? – These unique questions offer a fun game and lots of conversation for the Thanksgiving table.
M&M Gratitude Game – An awesome way to share what you are grateful for this year.
Thanksgiving Jokes – For a fun time, pull out some of these Thanksgiving jokes and embrace all of the laughter around the table.
Thankful Basket – In this activity, guests write something they are grateful for in advance and place it in a basket. Wow, how cute is this cornucopia? At the table, pass the basket around and have people randomly choose a paper to read aloud. Then, everyone tries to guess who wrote that paper!
Conversation Cards and Tasks – In addition to really unique questions to spark conversation, these printables include funny tasks for your family and friends to complete.
Thanksgiving Activities for a Month of Gratitude
Sometimes amidst all the family gatherings, the football, and the food – the focus on gratitude gets lost. I know in my home when the holiday has come and gone, I have a stuffed belly but a mere mention of gratitude. So this year I did a little countdown to our Thanksgiving day with family, and it really helped to bring the focus in and lead up to the big day. Here are a few of our favorite Thanksgiving activities that you can do any time during the month in preparation for games to play on Thanksgiving. While spending the holiday with your loved ones, check out these thanksgiving games for adults and children to play to help you focus on gratitude!
Thanksgiving Countdown – Two unique ways to countdown to Thanksgiving. Both are filled with Thanksgiving activities to make this month focused on gratitude.
Service Bucket Lists – Ideas for getting your family serving during the Thanksgiving holiday season. A great Thanksgiving activity to help your family remember to be grateful.
Holiday Bucket List – A whole list of ideas of classic and memorable Thanksgiving activities for your family to do.
Random Acts of Kindness – Printable tickets for your family to leave behind and they serve others in small ways. This post includes an amazing list of 101 simple ways to serve to offer some inspiration.
101 Ways to Say Thank You – This month is all about giving thanks. Here are a few (okay a LOT) of creative ways to express your gratitude.
Gratitude Journal – Share your gratitude in a very personal way with this gratitude journal.
27 Days of Gratitude Challenge – Ideas for activities to show your loved ones your gratitude for them throughout the month.
70 Ways to Teach Your Children Gratitude – The happiest people are the most grateful. Help your children build a strong sense of gratitude using any one of these ideas.
The Kindness Elf – Looking for an alternative to your Elf on the Shelf? Utilize him during the Thanksgiving season to be on the lookout for kind acts.
The Giving Jar – Start this jar with the intention of it getting passed on and on and on. Free printables explain this fun tradition!
Gratitude Posters – Five different poster options to hang on the wall and have your family and friends add to.
The 12 Days of Gratitude – Each day for 12 days leading up to Thanksgiving, these cards provide a simple activity that is great for teaching children thankfulness.
You’ve Been Gobbled – My favorite memories of Thanksgiving activities are those that involved service. Drop off some goodies to a neighbor in need for a special holiday.
The Turkey Ticket – Keep track of all of your many blessings and watch the list grow and grow and grow!
As you are planning your holiday season, don’t forget to add in some of these Thanksgiving games! We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and make many memories that might even become traditions in the future! Now that you have all of your Thanksgiving game ideas picked out, here is a little help for you to plan your meal! Check out our Thanksgiving Meal Planner as well as these delicious Thanksgiving Recipes.
very nice
I love these!
very nice ..i liked it
Emmily, so glad you liked it! Thank you for reading! XO
That Turkey Bowling Game (#35) is so stinkin’ CUTE!!!!