Activities for Thanksgiving Day
I love Thanksgiving! (Which isn’t surprising because let’s be honest.. I love most holidays!) That being said, there are moments of downtime where my mind goes… okay… now what? Maybe it’s before Thanksgiving dinner is served at your house… when the kids are just sitting around waiting to eat. Or maybe it’s after… when you need something to entertain the kiddos while the adults take a well-deserved nap. Either way, I’ve got you covered. Here’s this year’s list of Thanksgiving fun for your entire family! I hope you enjoy. :)
1. Turkey Races: If you’re on Instagram, I shared this one last week! It’s a simple one, that older kids might roll their eyes at. But trust me when I say, they’ll get into it. Especially if there’s a prize or bragging rights involved. Use this printable to cut out a turkey and tape it to an upside-down plastic cup. Then, take a string and attach one end to the cup and the other end to the pencil. As you wind the string onto the pencil, the turkey will move across the table, racing your opponent. The person who can wind their string the fastest, wins! See video explanation, here.
Supplies Needed: Turkey printable, plastic cup, string, pencil, tape
2. Thanksgiving-themed Name Game: The name game is one of our family’s favorite games. I don’t actually know if it’s called “The Name Game” but somewhere in time it got nicknamed “The Name Game” and it just stuck. But this week, we’re changing it to “The Thanksgiving Game!”
Here’s how to play:
You’ll need a group of at least 6+ people. The more the better for this one. Pass out a small piece of paper to each person playing. Have each player write something Thanksgiving-related on the paper. It can be anything! (i.e. turkey, grateful, stuffing, cranberry sauce, black friday, family, eat, etc.) Just one thing is written by each player on their individual piece of paper. Then, the designated reader will collect all of the pieces of paper. (You will need one person to be the reader each round. The reader does not play, or submit their own paper. They just collect all of the papers at the beginning of the game). Once everyone’s submissions are collected by the reader, he/she will read them out loud. They’ll read them twice through. After this, the reader can not re-read or remind the players of the submitted words.
Players will take turns guessing who wrote what. The reader selects who goes first. If the reader selects “Emily” to go first. Emily will then choose someone to direct her guess towards. “Heather, did you write “Turkey?”” If Heather did write turkey and Emily guessed correctly, Heather would now join Emily’s team and they’ll take another guess until they guess incorrectly. If Emily had guessed turkey incorrectly, then it would now be Heather’s turn to direct a guess towards a person of her choice. The game continues until there is one winning team leader.
Supplies Needed: Paper & Pencils
3. Don’t Eat Pete:
Okay okay, this one’s an oldie, I know! But my son played it at Preschool last week and he could not stop talking about it! He loved it!! So if you’ve got some younger ones at your Thanksgiving table this year, be sure to steal a few minutes for “Don’t Eat Pete”! They’ll be stoked!
If you can’t remember how to play, here’s a refresher: “Don't Eat Pete" is a simple and entertaining game where players take turns removing small treats from a grid of spaces while one person, designated as the "guesser," has their eyes closed or is turned away. The goal is to avoid picking up the particular treat, that was previously assigned to be "Pete”. Whoever’s turn it is will pick up candy from each square until they’re stopped by the rest of the group yelling “Don’t Eat Pete” as soon as they try to lift the pre-designated “Pete”. Use this link to download my FREE Don’t Eat Pete grid.
Supplies Needed: Don’t Eat Pete Grid, Small pieces of Candy like M&M’s or Smarties
4. Table-Top Coloring: A favorite tradition from when I was a kid was our annual “Thanksgiving Table Cloth”. Okay as I’m typing this, I’m realizing how silly it sounds. But as a kid, it was so exciting! We had this paper tablecloth that got pulled out every year, and we’d color and add to it! We loved tracing our hands, looking at past year’s drawings, and writing what we were thankful for!
As a parent, I don’t have an established Thanksgiving tablecloth, but anytime I’m in charge of decor, I am sure to carry on the tabletop coloring tradition. I love covering the kids’ tables in butcher paper and sprinkling crayons across it. It’s perfect because it entertains them throughout the day and throughout dinner. PLUS- it takes care of some of the kid’s table decor as well! It’s a win-win!
Supplies Needed: Butcher Paper & Crayons
5. Shoot the Turkey (balloons): I hesitated to include this one because I didn’t want to offend anyone… but… it might help your kids answer some questions about the reality of where their dinner came from. (kind of kidding… kind of not. 😆 Either way.. you can be the decider of whether this one will work for your family! My kids were obsessed).
Simply blow up some balloons and draw a turkey on them using a Sharpie. Be sure to add a point value as well! Then tape your balloons to the wall and take turns aiming and using your Nerf gun to try and knock the turkey down. Whoever knocks the turkey off the wall, gets the points!
Supplies Needed: Nerf Guns, Balloons (Or you can use your turkey cups from the turkey races above), Sharpie, Tape
6. Thanksgiving Scattergories: Challenge your family's quick thinking and creativity with a Thanksgiving-themed game of Scattergories. Create a list of categories related to the holiday, such as "Thanksgiving foods," "Family traditions," or "Things you're thankful for." Set a timer, select a letter, and have each participant come up with unique answers for each category that start with the designated letter. Compare answers and award points for creativity and originality: one point for each answer you wrote down that was not written down by anybody else. If someone else wrote the same thing as you, you both cross out your answer and do not receive a point for that answer.
Supplies Needed: Pens, Paper, Thanksgiving-themed categories
7. Thanksgiving Pictionary: Inject some artistic flair into your Thanksgiving celebration with a round of Thanksgiving Pictionary. Create a list of Thanksgiving-related words or phrases, such as "turkey dinner," "cornucopia," or "fall leaves." Divide the family into teams and take turns drawing and guessing. It's a fantastic way to showcase everyone's creativity and add a playful element to the festivities. You could also use the same words to play a round of Charades!
Supplies Needed: Pens/Pencils, Paper, List of Thanksgiving Words
As I’ve been writing this blog post, I’ve thought of so many additional games and activity ideas that would be fun Thanksgiving Day additions! But, I’m already rambling on so I guess I’ll save those for part 2 - next year. :) In the meantime, have the happiest Thanksgiving!! And thank YOU so much for being here. It means the world to me and my little ones to be able to share some of our holiday fun with you!
Cheers,
Meg
BONUS GAME:
It’s not Thanksgiving related but it’s been a go-to lately, and it’s another one that’s fun for all ages, and can be played with as many players as you’d like! Perfect for a large family get-together. To play, go to the app store and download the FREE app “BANK”. Not to be confused with the hundreds of results you’ll get when you search BANK, Here’s what it looks like in the app store:
The instructions will be in the app but basically, players will take turns rolling 2 dice and adding the value of their roll to that round’s running total. At any time during the round, anyone can “bank” the current total to lock in their score for that round. But the running total keeps climbing for everyone else. That is, until someone rolls a 7 and resets the bank, giving anyone who did not lock in their points, a score of 0 for that round. It’s so fun! and free! So be sure to try it out!
Okay, that’s all for real! :) Happy Thanksgiving!!
