24 Thanksgiving Games for Girls and Boys

The Thanksgiving holiday season is full of plans for the big day. We obsess and become quite occupied with preparing the delicious feast but then forget about the eventual thanksgiving downtime. Therefore, this is the perfect time of year to pull out the best Thanksgiving games!

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While we gather together with the whole family for this special dinner (or lunch), we eat, visit, and then what? What do we do after we’re done at the dinner table? Adults love to catch up, reminisce, and laugh while we relax. The kids, however, create a bit of chaos.

And as quickly as children eat you’re sure to need a few games on hand to gather them right after that Thanksgiving meal is done.

The good news is there are so many great Thanksgiving party games and fun Thanksgiving activities to occupy small children and older kids. In fact, there are some great Thanksgiving family games you can play together.

Make a New Thanksgiving Tradition with Old and New Thanksgiving Dinner Games

Thanksgiving day is not just about the Thanksgiving feast and pumpkin pie, as much as we love it. You can make it an extra special happy Thanksgiving for your little turkeys with some of these fun game options.

24 Thanksgiving Games for Kids of All Ages

Whether you have a group of kids or a group of adults that act like kids it’s fun to try some new games. I love conversation as much as the next person, but it is a great bonding opportunity to play together!

12 Fun Thanksgiving Games for Kids

On this turkey day, make sure to take a few extra moments (doesn’t take much time at all) to pick out the best options for you and your loved ones. Whether you’re playing outdoors or in your living room, there are some great options for both!

1. Thanksgiving Mad Libs

Who doesn’t love a good mad lib? They are great laughter inducers for adults and children alike. The best part is they’re a good activity if you can’t be outdoors and they can keep kids occupied at the table!

2. Free Printable Thanksgiving Games

There are just about limitless possibilities for free thanksgiving games, especially free printables. It’s a great thing about the online world, you can find just about every idea for activities under the sun.

Whether it’s a craft, a game printed on a piece of paper, or game rules for physical games to play you can find ideas to have a great time.

• Thanksgiving Thankful Turkey Craft
• Thanksgiving Trivia with Fun Facts
• Thanksgiving I Spy

3. Thanksgiving Bingo

Bingo is definitely a classic game that can be adjusted to fit every age from 0-100. In fact, is an excellent way to entertain one or a dozen kids at a time. Or a whole family, for that matter!

Another excellent example of a free printable Thanksgiving game is this adorable bingo game with several different bingo cards included. Another great option for younger kids is this fall-themed bingo game.

These printables are available as a free download in the Wonderland Subscriber Library. By simply entering your email address and subscribing you get full access. Please remember these are for personal use only.

4. “Turkey Hunt” A Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt

There are many different creative ways to do a scavenger hunt, I personally love a good hunt with clues. This game is particularly fun because it challenges you to think outside the box and problem-solve.

• Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt Using Free Printable Cards
• A Zoom Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt (for kids and family members far away!)
• Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt with Clues

5. Game of Turkey Tag

If you have the ability to let the kids loose in a yard this game would be an excellent choice! A game of Turkey Tail Feather Tag is an excellent way to spend an hour on Thanksgiving day.

It’s a mix of red light, green light, and that baby shower game where you try not to say the word “baby”. But of course, way more chaotic and a lot of running involved! To start all you need is turkey feathers, clothes pins, a hot glue gun, and glitter if you’re brave enough (I was not).

1. Pin 1 or 2 clothes pins on each child’s back.
2. Then the adult in charge yells “Run, Turkey, Run!”
3. Periodically the adult will yell “Stop, Turkey, Stop!” And the children have to freeze.

The Premise

The children are trying to get all the feathers off of the other children’s backs. While running and trying to avoid losing their feathers. The first child to get all the feathers wins.

Note: Make sure to glue your feathers in the correct way. I accidentally glued mine backward and had to do them over.

6. Candy Corn Relay Race

Such a fun activity to start the kids burning some of that pent-up energy. And a fun way to get the kids to work together as a team. It’s also a great game to work on fine motor skills!

1. First, set up a relay course using construction paper wrapped around plastic cones to look like a piece of candy corn.
2. Then, place a bowl of candy corn at the beginning of the course. And an empty bowl at the end of the course.
3. To start, the first person will take a handful of candy corn and maneuver through the course, and dump their candy in the empty bowl at the end.
4. The next will do the same and each subsequent child until you have an empty bowl.
5. Whichever team empties the bowl first, wins.

Variations

• If you have a single player use a time limit.
• Make it more challenging by using a spoon and a single piece of candy corn. Maneuver through the course without dumping your corn!

You can get all the details at the Inspired Tree House.

7. The Gratitude Game

A game inspired by the price is right but very much in the spirit of the holiday. This is a fun craft to do with your kids to prepare as well. You will want a box, an X-Acto Knife, Styrofoam Cups, Spray Paint or Acrylic Paint, Tissue Paper, and Fun Family Gratitude Activities for each day leading up to Thanksgiving.

1. Trace circles in your box for each day in your countdown.
2. Carefully cut them out using your craft knife.
3. Paint the box in whatever color suits your fancy.
4. Inside the box, behind the holes, glue pieces of tissue paper to cover each of the holes.
5. Then place an “activity” paper strip in each styrofoam cup.
6. At this point, glue your cups against the tissue paper.
7. So when you “punch through” the tissue paper on the other end your hand will feel in the cup and have access to the paper.

Variations

• Start the game before November rolls around and do it as a fun month-long countdown to Thanksgiving. Or do it a week before, two weeks before, etc. The countdown timeline is entirely up to you!

8. Pumpkin Ring Toss

This is such a simple, but fun game to put together for the kids! The gist of it is you make a straight line of pumpkins and use embroidery hoops as the rings. Naturally, this game is far more fun if there is a prize at the end!

9. Candy Pumpkin Engineer

This is another great game for occupying children indoors for a long period of time. All you need to play this game is candy pumpkins (or other candies) and toothpicks! Then let your kids build all kinds of structures by connecting the candies with the toothpicks! You can read more about building structures with candy for a fun and delicious Thanksgiving game.

10. Flying Turkey Nerf Targets

If you have nerf guns then this game is definitely going to be for you! There are so many possibilities for variations of this game. But by itself, as a simple target shooting game is very fun as well.

Variations

• For large groups of kids, do teams and designate someone as the “turkey”. Put the target on them and let them run and hide. My kids would have such a great time with this. In fact, make an adult the turkey and the kids get to hunt them with the nerf guns.
• Another team idea is to make one team the turkeys and each child gets a turkey sticker to identify them. They hide while the first team tries to hunt them down.

11. The Pumpkin Roll

Grab yourself a couple of large pumpkins and a finish line for this game! You can do it with two kids or a whole group of children as a relay race. In fact, it’s not just for kids!

The basis of the game is to roll your pumpkin from one end to the other across the finish line first! And pumpkins, as you know, are don’t perfectly round and won’t roll a straight line! So, it’s sure to be a hilarious hit.

12. Roll-A-Turkey Dice Game

This free printable game is just the game to keep kids, or groups, entertained. Give each child their own printable, and to play they roll the dice. Then the first person to roll a complete turkey wins the game!

12 Fun Family Thanksgiving Games

When your family gathers together to share a big meal it’s a great opportunity to make the time you spend quality time.

Best Thanksgiving Game Ideas for the Entire Family

You don’t need anything fancy or complicated to have fun with your family. But it is an awful lot of fun to turn family members or friends into team members. Of course, there are always the basic popular games like board games, card games, or fun thanksgiving crafts.

Also, a great way to incentivize participation is to use treats for correct answers!

• Play a game of Thanksgiving Trivia with a list of Thanksgiving Fun Facts.
• Take the time to create a Photo Scavenger Hunt with easy variations for children or adults to have fun in this game.
• Join in with the kids in this Family Scavenger Hunt.
• Spend some moments expressing thankfulness with these great Gratitude Activities for Thanksgiving.
• Get outside and play a few outside sports games like a friendly game of touch football or a fun obstacle course.
• Make a couple of teams and play a deliciously fun game of Family Feud.
• Work off some of those Thanksgiving calories in laughter with these 15 Minute to Win-It games.
• Get out a couple of pairs of dice and play this simple Thanksgiving Dice Game. And then let the people around you know exactly who, why, or what you’re grateful for this year.
• This game actually does encourage the use of candy while you play it. Just another way to play a game and say what you’re grateful for!
• Another great classic game that is always fun with big groups is a good game of charades. Here is some great Thanksgiving Charade prompts to get you started!
• A puzzle game or just a puzzle is actually one of my favorite Thanksgiving activities.

More Great Thanksgiving Activities to Do with your Family

Thank you so much for stopping by and letting me share these great family activities you can do with your kiddos and other loved ones this Thanksgiving. I hope you feel inspired and equipped to pull together the most epic Thanksgiving this year!

Julie