Thanksgiving Games for Family: 100+ Fun Ideas for Thanksgiving Day & Dinner

Family Games for Thanksgiving Dinner

These games work without anyone leaving their seat, so you can play between courses, while the turkey rests or over pie. Most need nothing more than paper, a pen and the food that is already on the table.

• Question Under the Plate. Before guests sit down, tape a slip with a question under each plate. Between courses, people flip their plates and answer, and the table picks the best answer. Works for all ages. For mixed generations, try questions like “What was Thanksgiving like when you were a kid?”, “What’s one piece of advice you’d give to younger family members?”, “If our family wrote a cookbook, what recipe would you contribute?” or “What was your favorite toy growing up?”
• The Forbidden Word. Ban one word for the whole meal, for example “pie.” Every time someone says it, they get a tally mark on their slip of paper. The person with the fewest marks at dessert wins.
• Two Truths and a Tall Tale. Each player shares three things about their year, and one of them is made up. The table votes on the fake, and you score a point for every person you fool. For a Thanksgiving version, tell stories about cooking disasters, awkward family moments or heartwarming holiday memories.
• Sniff Test. Hide five scented things in foil-covered cups: cinnamon, sage, rosemary, orange peel and lemon. Players sniff each cup and write down a guess. Most correct guesses wins.
• Stack the Marshmallows. Put a small round base in the middle of the table (a drink coaster works) and a bowl of marshmallows next to it. Players take turns adding one marshmallow without knocking any off. You can stack on top or next to each other, and setting a marshmallow on its side makes it harder for the next person.
• Thanksgiving Mad Libs. One person reads out the prompts for a Thanksgiving story and writes down the answers without showing anyone the story. Then the finished story is read aloud. The sillier the answers, the better.

• Table Talk Jar. Fill a jar with printed conversation starters, like which historical figure you would invite to dinner or the weirdest side dish you have ever tried. Conversation cubes such as TableTopics, with 135 questions, do the same job and help you get to know extended family better. More prompts for a table of all ages: “What’s the best piece of advice you ever got from your parents or grandparents?”, “What’s a job you had that taught you something important?”, “What family tradition do you hope never disappears?”, “What invention has changed your life the most?” and “What’s a story about our family that everyone should hear?”
• Thanksgiving 5 Second Game. Draw a card, read the prompt and name three things before the five seconds run out, for example three things you’d eat for Thanksgiving dinner or three things that rhyme with turkey. It is fast, it works while everyone is seated, and the silly answers are half the fun.
• Dinner Table Bingo. Make cards with squares such as “Football’s on” or “Pumpkin pie appears,” customized to your own family’s habits. Mark squares as they happen during dinner. The first player with five in a row shouts “Gobble!” instead of “Bingo.”
• Mystery Pie Tasting. Blindfold the tasters and give them small bites of different pies: pumpkin, pecan, apple, sweet potato. Keep score and crown a “Pie Pro.”
• Gobble-a-thon Story Chain. Go around the table and add one sentence each to a group story, with no planning. Start with something like “Once upon a time, a turkey named Reginald had a plan...”
• Storytime Circle. Take turns sharing favorite memories from this or past Thanksgivings. No supplies, no winners, just stories.

Thanksgiving Gratitude Games

Gratitude games turn the classic “say what you’re thankful for” moment into something people actually look forward to. Most of them are not competitive, which makes them a good fit for dessert.

• Gratitude Jar (Guess Who’s Grateful). Throughout the day, everyone writes something they are thankful for on a slip of paper, without signing it, and drops it in a jar. Before or after dinner, each person draws a slip, reads it aloud and guesses who wrote it. You can score correct guesses or just keep the slips as a keepsake of the day.
• Thankful ABCs. Go around the circle naming something you are thankful for, each starting with the next letter of the alphabet. For a harder version, every player repeats all the earlier items before adding a new one, and a miss knocks you out. A short timer per letter keeps the pace up, and Q and X will stump somebody. It works in the car, too.
• Gratitude Dice. Give each number on a die a theme: 1 a person, 2 a place, 3 a food, 4 a laugh, 5 a lesson, 6 anything. Everyone rolls twice and shares something they are grateful for on that theme. Nobody loses.
• M&M’s Gratitude Game. Hand out M&M’s and give each color a category of things to be grateful for. Each player picks a candy and shares something from that category. Easy to play at dessert.
• Pass the Pumpkin. Hold a mini pumpkin, thank someone at the table for something specific, then pass the pumpkin to that person. The goal is for everyone to hold it at least once.
• Thankful Circle With a Twist. Go around the table sharing what you are thankful for, but change the rule each round: answer in a rhyme, no repeats allowed, or one word only.
• Gratitude Question Round. Go around the table with a gratitude question everyone answers: What’s one small thing you’re thankful for this year? Who made your year better, and how? What’s one challenge you faced this year that ended up being a blessing? What’s something you’re looking forward to in the year ahead? What’s a tradition you’re thankful our family has kept alive? Who inspires you the most, and why? What’s the nicest thing someone did for you this year? What’s one way you gave back this year? What everyday convenience are you most grateful for? What’s one lesson from this year that you’ll carry into the future?
• Harvest Memory Jar. Before dinner, guests write a favorite memory from the past year and drop it in a jar. The host reads them aloud before dessert.
• Thankfulness Time Capsule. Each guest writes three things on an index card: one thing they are thankful for, one goal for the coming year and one prediction about next Thanksgiving. Seal the cards in an envelope, label it with the year and open it next Thanksgiving.
• Thankful Turkey and Gratitude Garland. Guests write what they are thankful for on paper feathers for a big paper turkey, or on paper leaves that you hang across the room on string or ribbon. By the end of the day you have a display made by everyone.

Funny Thanksgiving Questions

Funny questions about Thanksgiving are the easiest game of all: no cards, no scoring, just someone reading a question out loud. Start with a round of Thanksgiving Would You Rather:

1. Would you rather eat only turkey or only mashed potatoes for a week?
2. Would you rather watch the parade or the football game?
3. Would you rather have pumpkin pie or apple pie?
4. Would you rather cook the whole dinner or clean up after it?
5. Would you rather be a turkey or a pilgrim?
6. Would you rather eat an entire pumpkin pie or a gallon of cranberry sauce?

Lighthearted questions for the whole table:

1. What’s your must-have Thanksgiving dish, and what could you skip?
2. If you could invite any celebrity or historical figure to dinner, who would it be?
3. What’s your funniest Thanksgiving memory?
4. Which pie team are you on: pumpkin, pecan or apple?
5. If you had to cook the entire Thanksgiving meal by yourself, what would happen?
6. What’s your favorite holiday movie to watch after Thanksgiving dinner?
7. If you could swap turkey for another main dish, what would it be?
8. What food combo on your plate shouldn’t work, but somehow does?
9. What’s the weirdest food you’ve ever tried at a holiday meal?
10. If Thanksgiving were a song, what would it sound like?

Then keep the laughs going with silly icebreakers:

1. If you could only eat one side dish forever, which would it be?
2. If Thanksgiving had a mascot, what would it look like?
3. Who at the table is most likely to sneak a second piece of pie?
4. If turkeys could talk, what would they say today?
5. What would you name the turkey if it were a family pet?
6. If you had to wear food as an outfit, what would you choose?
7. What’s the silliest thing you’ve ever seen happen at Thanksgiving?
8. Who at the table tells the best jokes?
9. If you could design a Thanksgiving float for the parade, what would it feature?
10. What would happen if we celebrated Thanksgiving in the summer?

Questions for kids and teens:

1. What food would you add to the Thanksgiving menu if you could?
2. What’s your favorite family tradition?
3. If you had to trade chores for extra dessert, what chore would you pick?
4. What made you laugh the hardest this year?
5. If you could invent a new holiday, what would it celebrate?
6. Which is better: leftovers or fresh-from-the-oven?
7. What’s your favorite way to spend a long weekend?
8. If you could decorate the table any way you wanted, what would it look like?
9. If you had a magic wishbone, what would you wish for?
10. What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard at Thanksgiving?

Ask questions that include everyone from the youngest kids to the grandparents, let the kids come up with a few questions of their own, and mix the silly ones with a couple of heartfelt ones. If you want a bigger stack of dilemmas, the Would You Rather game lets everyone vote on their own phone and shows how the table split. The rules are on the Would You Rather game page.

Thanksgiving Charades, Pictionary and Word Games

Guessing games are the backbone of most family game nights, and every one of them gets a Thanksgiving twist with the right prompts. Write the words on slips, drop them in a bowl and reuse the same slips for charades and Pictionary.

• Thanksgiving Charades. A player draws a slip and has one minute to act it out without talking or making sounds while everyone else guesses. Prompts can be activities, movies, songs or phrases: carving a turkey, making mashed potatoes, watching football, napping after dinner, baking pumpkin pie, a pilgrim walking, corn growing, falling leaves. Adults can add “food coma,” “awkward dinner conversation” or “football game meltdown.” For a team twist, set a time limit and count how many words each team gets.
• Reverse Charades. Flip it around: the whole team acts out a phrase, like “carving the turkey,” while one teammate guesses. The team that gets the most in 60 seconds wins. Best with six or more players.
• Thanksgiving Pictionary. Split into two teams. One player draws a Thanksgiving word on a whiteboard or large pad while their team has one minute to guess. No talking and no writing letters. Word ideas: cornucopia, harvest, stuffing, cranberries, football, parade, pilgrim hat, wishbone, cranberry sauce, grandma’s stuffing, turkey nap, Black Friday shopping, burnt stuffing, Black Friday chaos. If you have a TV, an app-based version like Pictionary Air 2 puts the drawings on the big screen.
• Plate on Your Head. Everyone holds a paper plate on top of their head and draws a turkey on it without looking. The group votes for the funniest drawing.

• Danger Words (Thanksgiving Taboo). Each card has a word to describe and a list of forbidden “danger words” you cannot say, usually against a timer. Try describing “turkey” without saying “Thanksgiving,” “bird” or “stuffing.” Expect a lot of gestures and accidental slips. More rules and word ideas are in our Taboo game guide.
• Thanksgiving Heads Up. Make cards with Thanksgiving and fall words and phrases. Play it charades style, where a player acts out the card, or Heads Up style, where a player holds the card to their forehead and guesses it from everyone’s hints.
• Who Am I? Write a holiday item, like a gravy boat, a wishbone or leftovers, or a famous name on a sticky note and stick one on each player’s back or forehead. Players ask yes-or-no questions to figure out who or what they are. The first correct guess wins.
• 20 Questions. One person thinks of an object in the room. Everyone else gets 20 yes-or-no questions to guess it. If they fail, the thinker wins.
• Thanksgiving Categories. Pick a letter and five categories, such as a side dish, a kitchen tool or something you’re thankful for, then give everyone two minutes to write an answer for each. Only answers nobody else wrote score a point.

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Thanksgiving Party Games for Large Groups

When the whole extended family is in one house, you need games that work for a crowd, split easily into teams and don’t take long to explain.

• What’s Your Turkey Name? An icebreaker for arrivals. Set up a station with a turkey-name poster in a picture frame, name tags and pens. Guests figure out their silly turkey name and wear it for the day. It is great when not everyone knows each other, and it keeps guests busy while you finish cooking.
• Thanksgiving Family Feud. Before the party, survey your guests with five questions, for example the top side dishes. After dinner, split into two teams and have them guess the most popular answers, scoring a point for every vote an answer got. Use buzzers to make it feel like the TV show, or spoons if you have no buzzers.
• Guest Bingo. Best with 12 or more players. Fill bingo squares with prompts like “made a pie.” Players mingle and get a different guest’s name for each square. The first full row wins.
• Thanksgiving Bingo. Play regular bingo with turkeys, pumpkins and pilgrims on the cards and candy corn or candy pumpkins as markers. The winner shouts “Gobble Gobble” instead of “Bingo” and gets first pick of dessert or a pumpkin pie.
• Parade Watch Bingo. While the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is on, guests mark squares for giant balloons, marching bands, celebrity guests and Santa’s sleigh.

• Thanksgiving Escape Room Hunt. A puzzle treasure hunt: players solve clues and decode secret messages with a cipher wheel, one after another, until they find the Thanksgiving “treasure.”
• Left-Right Pass. Everyone sits in a circle and one wrapped prize goes around. Read a story packed with the words “left” and “right,” and pass the prize in that direction every time you hear one. Whoever holds it at the end keeps it.
• Rock, Paper, Scissors Cheer Tournament. Everyone pairs up for rock, paper, scissors. Losers become cheerleaders for the person who beat them, so the crowd behind each player grows. The final two play best of three.
• Guess the Gobble. A blindfolded player listens as family members take turns making turkey gobbles and has to guess who is gobbling.
• Harvest Cooking Challenge. Teams compete to make a unique side dish from local ingredients within a time limit.

Want the game show without printing cards and keeping score by hand? Our Family Feud game runs the board in the browser, with teams, face-offs and a final round.

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Thanksgiving Trivia

Turkey trivia is a quiz about the history, food and traditions of the holiday. Split the family into teams, ask the questions and give the highest-scoring team the title of trivia champion. Customize the questions to what your group actually knows, so the kids and the history buffs both get a fair shot.

One fun way to build the quiz is to ask each person to look up a few Thanksgiving trivia questions before the holiday and bring them along, then see how many each guest can answer.

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Fun Family Games for Thanksgiving Day

Active games burn off some of that energy before dinner and some of those calories after it. Most of these are one-minute challenges you can play indoors with things you already have.

• Stuff the Turkey. Make a turkey from a large brown paper bag and toss in paper “stuffing” balls: white for onions, green for celery, brown for bread. Whoever gets the most in before time runs out wins. You can also build a cardboard or paper-bag turkey with an open mouth and have kids toss in beanbags, mini plushies or crumpled paper balls. For a harder version, players carry newspaper balls one at a time with kitchen tongs, and the most in 60 seconds wins.
• Shake Your Tail Feathers. Thread pantyhose, a belt or a scarf through an empty tissue box and tie it around a player’s waist like a tail. Fill the box with feathers or paper balls, put on music and have players shake them all out without using their hands. The fastest player wins.
• Pie in the Face. Fill a pie tin per player with whipped cream and hide small items in it, like candy pumpkins or cranberries. Players dig for the items without using their hands. Most items found before the timer goes off wins. Warning: it gets messy.
• Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest. Contestants race to finish a slice of pumpkin pie with no hands.
• Turkey Bowling. Set up 6 to 10 empty water bottles, toilet paper rolls or plastic cups as pins in a triangle. Decorate them as turkeys with paper faces and feathers if you like. Players roll a small pumpkin or a ball from a line and count the pins knocked down. Highest total after three rolls wins. Play it in a hallway or the yard, and add team relay rounds for big groups.
• Pin the Feather on the Turkey. Tape a turkey poster (a hand-drawn one is fine) to a wall or door. Blindfold each player, spin them gently twice and let them tape a paper feather with their name on it. Closest to the target wins. You can also play Pin the Tail on the Turkey or Pin the Hat on the Turkey, where players try to stick a small pilgrim hat on the turkey’s head.

• Ring Toss. Throw rings onto small pumpkin stems, onto paper or cone pilgrim hats, or onto a turkey hat. Rings can be rope, paper plates with the middle cut out, pipe cleaners or glow sticks. Toddlers throw from up close and adults from farther back. Most rings in four throws wins. In the team version, one player per team wears a turkey hat and the other team throws cardboard rings onto its “neck,” and the turkey can run around to dodge.
• Baster Race. Two players each get a turkey baster and a cotton ball. Using only the air from the baster, they push the cotton ball across the table. First across wins.
• Feather Float. Keep a feather or a piece of tissue in the air using only your breath. The longest float, up to 60 seconds, wins.
• Hot Potato. Pass a raw potato around the circle while music plays. Whoever holds it when the music stops sits out. The last player left wins.
• Musical Turkeys. Like musical chairs, but with turkey pictures on the floor. Put down one fewer turkey than players. When the music stops, anyone without a turkey is out, and you remove one more turkey each round.
• Turkey Tag. One player is the “turkey” and chases everyone else. Tagged players freeze until someone tags them free. Switch the turkey every five minutes, and have players hop instead of run indoors. In the Feather Chase version, everyone clips a clothespin “feather” to their sleeve and tries to grab other players’ feathers while keeping their own. Most feathers wins.
• Turkey Hunt and Scavenger Hunt. Before guests arrive, hide paper turkeys, candy or mini prizes around the house, and set a 15 to 20 minute timer. Make a separate list or game board for each age group, decide which rooms are off-limits and adjust the hiding spots to the kids’ ages. Whoever finds the most wins. Active players can hunt printed turkeys with Nerf guns instead, with a point value on each turkey.

Outdoor Thanksgiving Games for Family Fun

If the weather cooperates, send everyone outside before dinner. These backyard games need a bit of space and very little equipment.

• Turkey Trot Relay. Split into two teams. Players waddle to a marker and back with a balloon or a rolled-up pair of socks held between their knees, then hand it off. Drop it, and you start over. In another version, players race while balancing a balloon on a spoon. Younger kids can just carry the balloon, and older kids can go backwards or hop on one foot. Inflate the balloons right before the race.
• Football. The classic Thanksgiving game. Divide into teams, agree on your own rules and use touch or flag rules for mixed ages. For a smaller version, play Quarterback Target Toss: everyone gets three throws of a soft football into a laundry basket from an age-appropriate line. On a rainy day, throw a paper football into buckets with different point values or across lines on the floor.
• Corn Hole. Set the boards 10 to 15 feet apart, closer for younger kids. A bag in the hole scores 3 points and a bag on the board scores 1. First to 21 wins. Run a family bracket, and the winner gets bragging rights until Christmas. No boards? Cut holes in cardboard boxes.

• Capture the Pumpkin. Two teams of four or more each guard a mini pumpkin on their side of the yard. Carry the other team’s pumpkin back to your side without getting tagged to win.
• Leaf Pile Treasure Dig. Rake a big pile of leaves, clear out any sticks and hide ten pine cones inside. Diggers get 60 seconds, and the most cones found wins. Or just let the kids, and the kids at heart, jump in the pile.
• Gratitude Scavenger Hunt. Send players outdoors or around the house to find things or moments they are grateful for.
• Festive Family Photoshoot. Set up a photo corner with fall leaves, pumpkins, hay bales and potted mums, and take pictures of the whole family.

Easy Thanksgiving Games for Kids

These games keep the little ones busy while the adults finish cooking. Most are calm enough to play in the next room.

• Roll a Turkey. Each roll of the die adds a part to your drawing: 1 is the head and body, 2 the eyes, 3 the feet, 4 a feather, 5 the beak and 6 the wattle. The first player to draw a complete turkey wins.
• Thanksgiving Memory Game. Lay matching cards face down. Players flip two at a time and keep any pair they find. Most pairs wins. Use 8 to 10 pairs for younger kids and 15 to 20 for older ones.
• I Spy Tray. Fill a cookie sheet with small Thanksgiving items, cooking utensils and fall decor, and cover it with a towel. Uncover it for 30 seconds, then cover it again and have everyone write down every item they remember. Check the lists against the tray.
• Word Search and Puzzles. Thanksgiving word searches, crosswords and word scrambles. Set a 10 to 15 minute timer and see who finishes first, or solve them together as a family team. A quiet pick for before dinner or for winding down after it.
• Coloring Contest. Hand out Thanksgiving coloring pages or placemats, set a time limit, then display the finished art in a family gallery.
• Turkey Joke Teller. Fold a paper cootie catcher and fill it with Thanksgiving jokes.

• Gobble, Gobble, Turkey. A Thanksgiving duck, duck, goose for ages 3 to 8 and six or more kids. One child walks around the circle tapping heads and names a “turkey,” who gives chase. Reach the empty spot without getting tagged to win.
• Four Corners, Harvest Edition. Label the four corners of the room corn, pumpkin, apple and squash. The caller closes their eyes and names a corner, and everyone standing there sits down. The last player standing wins. Works for any class size.
• Who Took the Feather? One child faces away while another hides a feather. The guesser has three tries to name who took it.
• Hot and Cold Pumpkin. An older partner hides a mini pumpkin and guides the little seeker with quiet gobbles when they are far away and loud gobbles when they are close.
• I Spy Colors and Feed the Turkey. Two games for toddlers and an older partner. In I Spy Colors, the older player calls out a color and the little one points to something that color. In Feed the Turkey, the little one tosses rolled socks into a laundry basket from a close line and the adult from a far one.
• Crafts. Set up a station for handprint turkeys and leaves, paper turkey hats or fall bracelets and necklaces. It is an activity rather than a game, but the handprints make a nice gift for grandparents.

Thanksgiving Dinner Games for Adults

Once the kids are in bed or the teens take over the TV, the grown-ups can play something with a little more bite. Start with these:

• Turkey Tag for Adults. Give each guest three clothespins or Thanksgiving stickers. All evening, players try to secretly clip them onto other people. If you get caught, you take your pin back. The player with the fewest pins at the end of the gathering wins.
• Fishbowl. Every player writes three names or things on slips. Teams guess the same slips over three rounds: first by describing them, then with one word only, then by acting them out. Most slips guessed wins. Best with six or more players.
• Photo Scavenger Hunt. Teams of two to four, one phone each, race to shoot ten photos from a list, like an old cookbook or three generations of hands. First team back with all ten wins. A good pick for teens and tweens while dinner is in the oven.
• Five-Second Song. A teen DJ plays five seconds of a song from any decade. The first team to name it scores. Play to ten.
• Guess the Year. Pass around old family photos. Everyone writes down the year each one was taken, and the closest guess scores. Then the person in the photo tells the story behind it.
• Potluck Awards. Hand out paper ballots and vote for best side, most creative dish and best dessert. Winners get a wooden spoon tied with a ribbon.
• Most Likely To. Read a prompt, like who is most likely to start talking politics at dinner or fall asleep on the couch. On three, everyone points at one person. The person with the most fingers pointing at them gets a point, and the first to five wins. Find more prompts in our Who’s Most Likely To game.

For a Friendsgiving or an adults-only table, add a few drinking games:

• Never Have I Ever. Everyone starts with five or ten fingers up. Players take turns saying something they have never done, ideally Thanksgiving-related, like “Never have I ever burned the turkey,” “fallen asleep during the parade,” “gone back for thirds” or “gotten drunk on Thanksgiving.” Anyone who has done it puts a finger down and drinks. More prompts are in our Never Have I Ever game.
• Drink If... Prepare a list of prompts before the party, like “Drink if you’re too full to move,” and read them aloud. Anyone the prompt applies to drinks.
• Most Likely (drinking version). Ask “Who’s most likely to...” questions: start talking politics at dinner, eat another piece of pie, fall asleep on the couch, get drunkest tonight. Everyone points at one person, and each vote equals a sip for that person.
• Who Am I? (drinking version). Play the sticky-note guessing game, and take a sip of your drink for every “no” answer you get.
• Drink Every Time... Before dinner, the group writes a list of things that are bound to happen, like “Grandpa mentions politics,” “Someone says, ‘I’m so full’” or “Someone drops food.” Everyone drinks whenever one of them does.
• I’m Thankful For... Take turns naming something you are thankful for. Repeat an answer or hesitate for more than three seconds, and you drink.
• Categories. Choose a Thanksgiving category, such as pies, fall drinks or holiday movies, and take turns naming items. Anyone who repeats an item or runs out of ideas drinks.
• Thanksgiving Beer Pong. Set up ten cups in a triangle at each end of a long table and fill each about a third of the way with fall drinks like spiked apple cider, pumpkin ale or cranberry cocktails. Teams of two take turns tossing ping pong balls. When a ball lands in a cup, the other team drinks and removes it. The first team to clear the other side wins.
• Drunk Jenga. Write dares or rules on Jenga blocks: “Do your best turkey impression,” “Take two sips,” “Give out five sips,” “All girls drink,” “Name 3 Thanksgiving sides in 5 seconds or take a shot.” Whoever pulls a block does the dare before placing it on top. Whoever knocks over the tower takes a shot.
• Thanksgiving Movie Drinking Game. Pick a cozy movie such as Fantastic Mr. Fox or Addams Family Values, make rules for moments that keep coming up, and drink every time one happens. With The Lord of the Rings, for example, drink when there is a close-up of the ring, when someone says “Hobbit,” when Gollum says “My precious” and when Sam says “Mr. Frodo.”
• Picolo. No time to prepare because you are busy cooking? The Picolo app gives you random prompts and dares for a drinking game.

Family Board Games and Card Games for Thanksgiving

For the quiet stretch after dinner, bring out the cards and the board games.

• Kitchen Table Card Tournament. Pick a card game everyone knows, set up a bracket with short rounds and play a final for the title.
• Paper Tablecloth Games. Cover the table with kraft paper, hand out crayons and draw tic-tac-toe and dots-and-boxes grids at each seat. Play best of three with your neighbor.
• Catan. For 3 to 4 players (more with expansions). Collect and trade resources to build settlements, roads and cities, and be the first to 10 victory points. Warning: blocking roads and stealing resources gets very competitive.
• Taboo. Describe a word without saying the taboo words on the card, against the timer.
• Pictionary. Teams race the timer to draw and guess the card. Use holiday prompts for a themed version, or the classic cards if you are short on prep time.
• Off Topic. Roll the die for a letter, draw a category card and write answers that start with that letter before time runs out. Duplicate answers don’t score. Make up Thanksgiving categories like stuffing ingredients or things you are thankful for.
• Exploding Kittens. Players draw cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten, unless they have a defuse card. Skip, peek and attack cards add strategy. Fast and easy to learn.
• Coup. For 2 to 6 players. Each player has two hidden roles with special powers. Collect coins, call out bluffs and stage a coup. The last player standing wins. Good for a smaller group that likes bluffing.
• Cards Against Humanity and What Do You Meme? For the adults’ table. One player reads a prompt or shows a photo, everyone else plays their funniest answer card, and the judge picks the winner of the round. Best for groups who enjoy edgy humor.
• Thanksgiving Movie Marathon. When nobody can move anymore, set up a cozy viewing area and put on A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving or Home for the Holidays.

Virtual Thanksgiving Games

Some family members will join on a video call, others will spend half the day in the car, and a few games work just as well through a screen or a car window.

• Show Me Something. The host calls out something to find, like something orange, something soft or something older than you. The first household to hold one up to the camera scores. Play to five. Works with any number of screens.

• Drawing Dash. Pictionary with holiday words and no letters allowed, where a drawer gets one point for every word their team guesses in 60 seconds. Hold the paper up to the camera, and it works on video.
• Road Sign Alphabet. For family members still on the road: find the letters A to Z, in order, on signs outside the car. Play as one team against the clock, or the left side of the car against the right. No supplies needed.
• Phone-based party games. The RoomPlay quiz and Family Feud run in a browser room that everyone joins by link or QR code from their own phone, whether they are at the table or across the country.

Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving Games

• Count heads and ages first. With fewer than 8 guests, play table games. With more than 15, choose team games where nobody has to wait for a turn.
• Plan three, play two. One seated game, one moving game and one quiet game is plenty for the day.
• Get everything ready before guests arrive. Print, cut and bag the materials for each game in advance, and check the pens, timers and buzzer batteries.
• Mix up the games. Use icebreakers while guests arrive, competitive games once everyone is together and scavenger hunts for energetic kids. Alternate active games with calm ones.
• Keep the rules simple. If a game takes more than two minutes to explain, it is too complicated. Adjust the rules as you go.
• Have backup options. Not every game lands, so keep one or two extra ideas ready.
• Let kids help set up. Hiding scavenger hunt items or setting up the bowling pins keeps them busy and makes them feel included.
• Run stations for a lot of kids. Split into teams or set up stations where different games run at the same time, with an older kid or an adult as the “referee” at each one.
• Mix the ages. Younger kids can team up with older ones and play at their own level. Corn Hole, Pictionary and Charades are more fun when the adults join in, and it gives the cooks a break from the kitchen.
• Give everyone a role. Offer a shy child a helper job, like timekeeper or scorekeeper, or a team to join, and never force anyone to play. For a relative with limited mobility, pick seated games or make them the clue giver or judge. For a relative with limited hearing, turn the music down, face them when you speak and write the prompts on paper.
• Include everyone. Pick games and questions that work for young kids and grandparents alike, and steer clear of sensitive or polarizing subjects at the table.
• Offer a little prize. It doesn’t have to be candy: the first slice of pie, choosing the movie, skipping dish duty or bragging rights until Christmas make the competition sweeter. And don’t stress about who wins.

To plan the day around the meal and the kids’ sleep, use this simple schedule:

• Nap time: Guest Bingo or cards for older kids and adults, so the house stays calm.
• During dinner: one table game and one gratitude game, short and easy to pause.
• Before dessert: outdoor games or 60-second challenges for fresh air while the food settles.
• After dessert: Reverse Charades, then a quiet game to ease toward bedtime.
• After bedtime: Fishbowl or Guess the Year, away from the sleeping kids.

Looking for more? Try our Christmas party games for next month, or browse all RoomPlay games.