Thanksgiving Games for Family (All Ages)

On this page

1. Games to play while the turkey cooks
2. Games for the kids’ table
3. Games to play at the table after dinner
4. Active games for after dinner
5. Quiet games for the end of the night
6. How to pick games for your crowd
7. Questions hosts ask

Thanksgiving has two slow stretches: the hour before the turkey comes out, and the hour after everyone has eaten too much. A game fills both. The trick is picking one that a 7-year-old and a 70-year-old can play together without anyone needing the rules explained twice.

Every game here is family-friendly and alcohol-free. The printable ones are free, and none of them ask for your email. They work just as well for Canadian Thanksgiving, which falls on the second Monday of October.

Games to play while the turkey cooks

Guests arrive, the kitchen gets crowded, and someone needs to keep the kids out from under the cook’s feet. These games work in a living room or at a table and can stop the moment dinner is ready.

1. Thanksgiving bingo (free printable)

The one above. Each card has 24 words like Stuffing, Wishbone, Pumpkin Pie and Nap, so no two cards match. Good for ages 5 and up, 15 to 30 minutes, and you’ll need markers such as candy corn or dried beans. Call words from the calling sheet or the Play screen, and have a small prize ready for each round.

2. Parade or game bingo

The Macy’s parade has been a Thanksgiving morning fixture since 1924, and plenty of families have football on in the afternoon. If the TV is on anyway, use the same bingo cards and only mark a square when you actually see or hear the word on screen. It’s slower and sillier. Kids get very serious about whether a cartoon pie counts as “Pumpkin Pie”.

3. Gratitude guessing game

Everyone writes one thing they’re thankful for on a slip of paper, anonymously, and drops it in a bowl. Someone reads them aloud one at a time while the family guesses who wrote each one. It takes 10 to 15 minutes and works for any group that can write (little kids can whisper theirs to a grown-up). Expect a mix of sweet answers and at least one “the dog”.

4. Thankful alphabet

Go around the room. The first person names something they’re thankful for that starts with A, the next takes B, and so on. Q, X and Z get creative, which is half the fun. No supplies, about 10 minutes, and it works for ages 4 and up if you let little ones have help.

5. Two truths and a fib

Each person says three things about themselves, and one of them isn’t true. Everyone else guesses the fib. It’s a good way for cousins who see each other once a year to catch up. Ask people to keep it to things from the past year to keep it fresh.

6. Guess the jar

Fill a clear jar with candy corn, acorns or wrapped caramels and count them before anyone arrives. Guests write a guess and their name on a sticky note. Closest guess wins the jar after dessert. It runs in the background all afternoon, so it suits a house with people coming and going.

Games for the kids’ table

The kids’ table needs something quiet enough that you can still hear the grown-up conversation. Paper games are the answer.

7. Thanksgiving word scramble (free printable)

Twenty-two holiday words, like CRANBERRY and CORNUCOPIA, with the letters jumbled. Best for ages 8 and up, or pair a young reader with an older one. It takes 10 to 15 minutes, and the answer key prints on its own page.

8. Tablecloth doodle challenge

Cover the kids’ table with brown kraft paper and set out crayons. Every 10 minutes or so, call out a drawing prompt: a turkey wearing a hat, the best pie in the world, what the dog would eat if it could. There’s no winner. It just keeps small hands busy until the food shows up, and the paper doubles as a keepsake.

9. Harvest spy game

One player picks something on the table or in the room and gives a color clue: “I spy something orange.” Everyone else guesses. It suits preschoolers and needs no setup, which makes it the right game for the last ten minutes before the meal.

10. Story chain

Start a story with one sentence (“A turkey woke up on Thanksgiving morning and decided to run away”), then each kid adds a sentence. It goes off the rails fast. For older kids, add a rule that each sentence has to include a food on the table.

Games to play at the table after dinner

Nobody wants to move after the meal. These games work from your chair.

11. This or That cards (free printable)

Draw a card, read both choices, and everyone points to their pick at the same time: Pumpkin pie or apple pie? Parade or football? Stuffing inside the bird or in a pan? The people in the smallest group have to defend their answer. It suits every age, runs as long as you like, and gets the whole table talking.

12. Thanksgiving trivia

Read questions aloud and let teams write their answers on scrap paper. Mix easy ones for the kids with harder history questions for the grown-ups. Our Thanksgiving trivia questions and answers come with the answers right there, so you can play straight from your phone.

13. Survey game

Split the table into two teams. The host asks a question like “Name something you’d find on a Thanksgiving table” and teams try to guess the most popular answers. Our survey game questions and answers come with point values ready to go.

14. Would you rather, Thanksgiving style

Would you rather eat only side dishes or only dessert? Would you rather host every year or never host again? Take turns asking. Let the kids write a few of their own; they tend to be the strangest ones.

15. Name five

One person names a category (pies, things that are orange, words that rhyme with “turkey”) and the player on their left has 10 seconds to name five. For little kids, drop the count to three; for teens, cut the time to 5 seconds. No supplies, and every round takes seconds.

Active games for after dinner

Once the food settles a bit, the kids will want to move. Here’s where the living room or backyard comes in. Clear breakables first, and keep the rough games for kids of similar size.

16. Paper turkey hunt

Before guests arrive, cut out 20 to 30 small paper turkeys (or print leaves) and hide them around one or two rooms. Kids get a bag and three minutes to find as many as they can. Make a few gold ones worth extra points. It suits ages 3 to 10, and older kids can do the hiding for the little ones.

17. Pumpkin bowling

Set up empty plastic bottles or paper towel tubes as pins on a hallway floor or a flat patch of lawn. Players roll a small pie pumpkin to knock them down. Use pumpkins that are small enough for kids to hold with two hands, and keep the lane away from glass doors. Each player gets two rolls a turn; count pins like regular bowling.

18. Pin the feather on the turkey

Draw a big featherless turkey on poster board and cut paper feathers with a bit of tape on each. Blindfolded players spin once and try to stick their feather on the tail. Closest wins. It’s gentle enough for toddlers and funny to watch at any age.

19. Hot gourd

Sit in a circle and pass a small gourd while music plays. When the music stops, whoever is holding it is out (or, for small kids, has to name something they’re thankful for and stays in). Five to ten minutes, and all you need is a phone to play the music.

20. Leaf pile relay

If you have a yard and some leaves, split into two teams with a rake each. On “go”, teams race to build the tallest leaf pile in three minutes. Then everyone jumps in. Check the pile for sticks and rocks before anyone jumps.

21. Backyard touch football

A family classic for a reason. Keep it to two-hand touch, mix ages across both teams, and let the youngest kids play quarterback on every other down. Set the boundaries away from the driveway and the street.

Quiet games for the end of the night

22. Card games and a deck of cards

Spoons, Go Fish, Crazy Eights and War all need just one or two standard decks and suit different ages. Spoons gets loud and a bit grabby, so play it at a table with a grown-up in charge of the spoons. For older relatives who’d rather sit, a long game of rummy is hard to beat.

How to pick games for your crowd

Say you’re hosting 14 people from age 4 to 82. Pick one game for each stretch of the day and stop there:

• While the turkey cooks: bingo, since everyone can play at once and it stops cleanly when dinner’s ready.
• At the kids’ table: the word scramble and tablecloth doodles.
• After dinner, sitting down: This or That cards or trivia.
• When the kids get restless: the paper turkey hunt, which takes five minutes and burns off a surprising amount of energy.

Three or four games is plenty. A packed schedule turns into a chore, and the best parts of Thanksgiving tend to happen in the conversation between rounds.

If you’ve got a big crowd

With 25 or more people, stick to games where everyone plays at once: bingo, the jar guess, and table trivia with teams. Turn-based games like charades drag once more than about 12 people are waiting for a turn.

If it’s mostly grown-ups

Swap the turkey hunt for trivia and the survey game, and let the This or That cards run long. For a Friendsgiving crowd, our game night ideas for adults have more to choose from.

Want to plan ahead for December too? Our Christmas party games for families use the same all-ages approach, and you’ll find every Thanksgiving printable we make on the Thanksgiving games page.

Questions hosts ask

By the Party Game Book editors. Every game here is free to print for personal, classroom and non-commercial use. How we make and check our games.