If you are looking for Thanksgiving Game Ideas to play with the extended family on Thanksgiving, I hope these games will be just what you are looking for. All are versions of popular games – so you can be sure they will be fun and enjoyed by everyone.
1. Thanksgiving Bingo
This can be enjoyed by all ages. You can choose to make them educational or just fun. You can download ready-made ones – or put a bit more effort it and use a Bingo Creator to make your own. We did this a few years ago and the kids had a blast.
2. Thanksgiving Pictionary
You can make your own Pictionary cards but if you like crafts, you might want to copy this idea of using craft stick ‘feathers’ on a turkey to store the words that have to be drawn. If you need some help coming up with words to use, here is a great Thanksgiving Word List I found online. Divide your group up into 2 or more groups and let the group members take it in turns to be the drawer. You can either play as a big group with groups taking turns competing, or all groups can get the same set of cards and you give the groups a set amount of time to see how many words can be guessed.
If you don’t have time to create your own, spend 99c on our Thanksgiving Draw game. You can find it here.
3. Thanksgiving Charades
You can use the word list above for this, or you can get the participants to contribute their own ideas. You can add Thanksgiving movie titles here as well if you are movie buffs (I confess I hadn’t heard of most of these).
4. Thanksgiving Pyramid Game Show
Do this similarly to the first rounds of the Pyramid Game show. Make cards with 6 words on a card (once again you can use the word list in number 2) . Players must team up and take it in turns to describe the words on the card (think Catchphrase) without using any part of the word. Score as many words as each partner guesses in 30 seconds. See which pair scores the highest.
5. Thanksgiving Jeopardy
This is perfect for a competitive family! Again you can make your own, or just hook up your laptop to a TV and use this one.
6. Thanksgiving Hangman
Play the well-known game with 2 twists – hang a turkey instead of a man and the words chosen must be related to Thanksgiving somehow. Here’s an online one, but of course you could just as easily play it with pen and paper.
7. Thanksgiving 20 Questions
Once again, just put a Thanksgiving twist to this classic game. You can take turns choosing the word to be guessed, or you can use the Thanksgiving word list linked to above and you pick all the words and let the players be in groups who compete to see who guesses first. Don’t know how to play 20 Questions? Click here for a great explanation.
8. Thanksgiving Kahoot
If you have never played Kahoot before, one adult needs to go to their website and create an account. Then type “Thanksgiving” in the search bar and scroll through to find a quiz that will work for your family. Preferably hook up your computer to your TV to make it easier for everyone to see, but we have also done it by just all gathering around the laptop.
Select a quiz, click “Play” and “Classic” and instructions will appear on the screen so that everyone can join in. All players need a device – smartphone, laptop, iPad – anything works. Players select a username and when everyone is in the virtual room, click start and all the players try to select the correct answer as fast as possible.
Fun background music, a leaderboard after each question and an easy game to set up will make this a firm favorite.
Those are my ideas for some fun this Thanksgiving. Do you know any other games that would work with a large group? Leave a comment if you do.
And if you want more ideas, listen to episode 309 of the Vintage Homeschool Moms podcast. Felice Gerwitz shares her Thanksgiving game ideas.
Meryl van der Merwe
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