Fun Thanksgiving Family Games

In our family, we love playing games. And we love traditions. On Thanksgiving, the tradition in our gabled home is playing games with a turkey/pumpkin theme. It is super fun for both kids and adults – and it’s not about eating.  Even better, they are free and there’s no clean-up.

Traditions are great.  I love thinking back to our family traditions which form a lot of my childhood memories.  They often go like: “On Christmas eve, my parents always made us kids go for a walk.”  Obviously, we weren’t so thrilled about that pre-present outing.  But now as an adult, I think back to those times with a smile.  So much that we made our kids go for a walk before Christmas eve 😂.
Traditions give a family structure.  They can be yearly traditions, seasonal, monthly, weekly (Sunday traditions), daily (such as a bed time routine), for instance.   The good thing is that you can always add them if you don’t have any or add more!

Thanksgiving Trivia

This is one of our favorites.  Kids need to be old enough to read and write but younger ones can team up with older kids or adults.  Even though some of the questions are tough, it’s fun to think about them.  Most of us love winning so we give it our best shot (how many feathers does a turkey have? 3500? too many to count?) but the stakes are low.  In our family, the winner gets the first piece of pie and to serve everyone else.  You can assign one person to either find turkey and Thanksgiving trivia or find them online. Check them out here: https://icebreakerideas.com/thanksgiving-trivia/

Thanksgiving Madlibs:

This is another super fun one!  Again, kids need to be old enough to read and write or team up with someone who does. After all, it’s all about bonding and having fun as a family (or with your guests). On the back of each page you write down specific adjectives or words and hand it to the next person. This person fills in the words on the front. We take turns reading it out loud. Oftentimes, the results are beyond hilarious.
Here are some free ones: https://www.happinessishomemade.net/thanksgiving-mad-libs-printable/

Thanksgiving Bingo:

Who doesn’t love a good game of bingo?  Now you can play it with a Thanksgiving theme.  Find some good inspiration and boards here:
https://fun-squared.com/thanksgiving-bingo/

Pumpkin Hunt:

This is great even for younger kids. Someone hides a mini pumpkin somewhere in the house and everyone searches for it.  Alternatively, you can hide 10 mini pumpkins (and turn it into a Thanksgiving “egg hunt”).  It’s great to have a “prize” such as the first piece of pie.

Check out these website for more ideas:

https://www.thespruce.com/thanksgiving-games-for-kids-and-families-1356366
https://www.housebeautiful.com/entertaining/holidays-celebrations/g3901/thanksgiving-family-games/

Do you have any family traditions?  Have you tried any of the above mentioned?  Let me know in the comments – and Happy Thanksgiving 🍁🎃🦃!