12 Best Thanksgiving Activities for Families
With the holiday season just around the corner, most families are gearing up to meet their loved ones and make the most of their celebrations. While preparing traditional menus and meals can take up a lot of your time, making it a fun-filled and unforgettable event doesn’t have to! Check out these 12 easy, fun, and hilarious Thanksgiving party games you can play with your loved ones, regardless of age.
Pumpkin toss
Swap out your old ring-toss game for something more holiday-friendly. All you need is some poster board, foam brush, paints, and ping-pong balls. You can draw pumpkins on the poster board, cut and paint them, and start playing; the first player to roll or throw three balls into the pumpkin’s mouth wins!
Feed the turkey
Make a super easy ‘feed the turkey’ game to keep your toddlers busy and, at the same time, help them develop their motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Decorate a plastic jar or bottle with paper feathers to make it look like a turkey, giving it a festive look. Set up pom-poms around it and give your child a pair of plastic tongs for a fun, upbeat, grab-and-drop activity.
Thanksgiving charades
Play the classic charades game with a holiday twist. Swap out movie names and common actions for Thanksgiving terms like ‘Wishbone’ and ‘Carving the turkey,’ and watch your whole family join in on the fun.
Family photographer scavenger hunt
Challenge everyone to get photos of family members and holiday-themed items with tricky clues on Thanksgiving day. You can also set up a regular scavenger hunt for younger children and ask them to look for festive items such as pumpkins, leaves, feathers, turkeys, and more.
The Thanksgiving game
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to reflect on the year gone by and express your gratitude. Round up the family and express gratitude for a person, place, activity, food, and/or thing. One can make this game more interesting by adding interesting twists to it.
Sack race
It is one of the most common Thanksgiving games everyone enjoys, regardless of age. Use traditional sacks, or opt for festive Thanksgiving-themed bags that you can DIY or purchase online for traditional family-friendly fun.
Festive word scramble
One can buy this printable Thanksgiving game online or make your own to keep everyone busy while you prepare the food. Let your family scratch their heads as they compete to be the first ones to decode all the Thanksgiving-related words/phrases.
Pin the feather
Craft your own Thanksgiving turkey with construction paper, blindfold the family, and ask them to pin the feather on it. If you want to save time and effort, various kits are available online and in stores.
Face the pie
Get ready to laugh your belly out as your family competes to find candy letters hidden in their whipped-cream-covered dishes and use them to spell out the word ‘Pie,’ but without using their hands!
Turkey bowling
Give some plastic cups a makeover and turn them into turkeys. Set it up in an area similar to a bowling rink, and use mini pumpkins as your bowling balls to knock over as many turkeys as you can.
DIY Pumpkin twister
Make the game of Twister more fun by swapping the colors out for pumpkins and other holiday-friendly items.
Feather float
Get some small, fake feathers, and give each participating member one. The game’s goal is to keep the feather in the air for as long as possible by blowing it up in the air. Then, play against the clock, or turn it into a head-to-head challenge where the last one standing wins.
These games are appropriate for people of all ages. However, if you have toddlers running around and want to keep them more engaged through the night, get some printable Thanksgiving coloring pages to keep them busy. Set up a separate coloring station at the kids’ table so they can stay occupied while the rest of the family competes in the other games or sits down for dinner.