Thanksgiving Games for Family: 26 Ideas for Kids and Adults

The best Thanksgiving games for family gatherings work for a 6-year-old and a 76-year-old at the same table, take a minute to explain, and fit around the meal instead of fighting it. Below are 26 Thanksgiving games with players, ages, time and supplies for each: games that need nothing at all, active games for kids, minute-to-win-it challenges, adult and Friendsgiving picks, outdoor games and game-show style games for the TV.

Pick three: one table game while the turkey rests, one active game to burn off the kids' energy, and one bigger game after dinner when everyone wants to sit.

A Thanksgiving trivia board on the TV. Teams buzz in from their phones and the board keeps score.

Jump to: Crowd picker · Games that need nothing · Kids · Minute to win it · Adults and Friendsgiving · Outdoor · On the TV · Free printable bingo · Game plan · FAQ

Pick the right Thanksgiving game for your crowd

Every family is different. Use this table to find two or three games, then jump to the rules.

A rule of thumb that works at almost any table: put a kid, a teen and a grown-up on every team. The kid gets the easy questions, the grandparent gets the history, and nobody runs away with it.

Thanksgiving games that need nothing

These need nothing but the people already sitting down. Good for the 20 minutes between "everyone's here" and "dinner's ready."

1. Thankful Alphabet

• Players: 3+ | Ages: 5+ | Time: 5–10 minutes

Go around the table. The first person names something they're thankful for that starts with A ("apple pie"), the next takes B, and so on to Z. Stuck players can get help from the table. For older kids and adults, add a memory rule: repeat every answer before yours.

2. I'm Bringing the Turkey

• Players: 4+ | Ages: 6+ | Time: 10 minutes

A memory chain. The first player says, "I'm bringing the turkey." The next says, "I'm bringing the turkey and the mashed potatoes." Each player repeats the whole list and adds one dish. Miss an item and you're out. The last player standing gets the first slice of pie. For little kids, let them use hand motions as hints.

3. Two Truths and a Lie, Family Edition

• Players: 4+ | Ages: 8+ | Time: 10–15 minutes

Each person says three things about themselves: two true, one made up. Everyone else votes on the lie. Old stories work best (a first job, a childhood disaster, a celebrity you once met) because even close relatives learn something new.

4. Thanksgiving Would You Rather

• Players: 2+ | Ages: 5+ | Time: As long as you like

Ask food-themed choices and make everyone defend their answer. A few to start:

• Would you rather give up pie or stuffing forever?
• Would you rather eat Thanksgiving dinner for breakfast, or breakfast for Thanksgiving dinner?
• Would you rather carve the turkey or wash every dish?
• Would you rather have only mashed potatoes or only rolls as your side?

A nice touch: write the questions on paper leaves and tuck one under each plate before guests sit down.

5. Most Likely To

• Players: 6+ | Ages: 6+ | Time: 15 minutes

The host reads a prompt: "Most likely to fall asleep before pie," "Most likely to start the dishes without being asked." On three, everyone points at someone. The person with the most fingers on them wins the title. Keep the prompts kind so nobody leaves the table hurt.

6. Who Am I? (Sticky Notes)

• Players: 4+ | Ages: 8+ | Time: 15 minutes
• Supplies: Sticky notes, a pen

Each player writes a famous person, cartoon character or relative on a sticky note and sticks it on the forehead of the player to their left. Take turns asking yes-or-no questions to figure out who you are. Adding family members ("Am I Uncle Dave?") is where the laughs come from.

Thanksgiving games for kids

Get the kids moving while the turkey rests. These work in a hallway, a basement or the yard. One safety note: keep the active games out of the kitchen. The National Fire Protection Association recommends keeping children at least 3 feet away from the stove, and Thanksgiving is the peak day of the year for home cooking fires.

7. Pumpkin Bowling

• Players: 2+ | Ages: 3+ | Time: 15 minutes
• Supplies: A small pumpkin with a short stem, 10 toilet paper rolls or empty plastic bottles

Set the "pins" in a triangle in a hallway or on the driveway. Kids roll the pumpkin underhand, two rolls per turn, and count the pins. Move the line closer for toddlers. Decorating the rolls as turkeys beforehand keeps early arrivals busy.

8. Pass the Pumpkin

• Players: 5+ | Ages: 3–10 | Time: 10 minutes
• Supplies: A mini pumpkin or gourd, music

Sit in a circle and pass the pumpkin while music plays. When the music stops, whoever is holding it is out. For younger kids, skip the "out" rule and have them answer a silly question instead, like "What would a turkey say if it could talk?"

9. Pin the Feather on the Turkey

• Players: 3+ | Ages: 3–8 | Time: 10–15 minutes
• Supplies: A turkey drawn on poster board, paper feathers, tape, a blindfold

Tape the turkey to a wall. Blindfold each child, spin them gently three times and let them stick a feather where the tail should go. Write names on the feathers so you can crown whoever got closest.

10. Turkey Says

• Players: 4+ | Ages: 3–8 | Time: 10 minutes

Simon Says with a gobble. "Turkey says flap your wings." "Turkey says waddle to the couch." If the leader doesn't say "Turkey says" first and you move, you're out. Let the winner be the next turkey.

11. Fall Scavenger Hunt

• Players: 2+ | Ages: 4+ | Time: 20–30 minutes
• Supplies: A handwritten list, a bag per team

Make a list: a red leaf, a yellow leaf, an acorn, a pinecone, something round, something that crunches, a feather, a stick shaped like a letter. Pair little kids with an older cousin. The first team back with everything gets first pick of dessert. If the weather turns, switch to an indoor list (something orange, a spoon, a sock with a pattern).

Minute to win it Thanksgiving games

Each challenge lasts 60 seconds, so you can run a handful of them as a tournament while the table gets cleared. Set a phone timer and let each winner pick the next challenge.

12. Feather Float

• Players: 2–6 at a time | Ages: 4+ | Supplies: Craft feathers

Everyone gets one feather. On "go," keep it in the air only by blowing on it. Last feather to touch the ground wins.

13. Candy Corn Chopsticks

• Players: 2–6 at a time | Ages: 7+ | Supplies: Chopsticks, candy corn, small bowls

Move as many pieces of candy corn as you can from a shared bowl to your own bowl in one minute, using only chopsticks.

14. Cranberry Stack

• Players: 2–6 at a time | Ages: 6+ | Supplies: Fresh cranberries, a plate per player

Stack cranberries into the tallest tower you can in a minute. Round berries roll, so it's much harder than it sounds. Ties go to whoever's tower is still standing after a three-count.

15. Face the Pie

• Players: 2–4 at a time | Ages: 6+ | Supplies: Disposable pie tins, whipped cream, gummy candies

Hide three gummies under the whipped cream in each tin. Hands behind your back, find them with your mouth only. Have towels ready and keep this one far from Grandma's good tablecloth.

Thanksgiving games for adults and Friendsgiving

These lean on wit, memory and a bit of friendly trash talk. They're also good Friendsgiving games for guests who don't all know each other yet, because people learn about each other while they play.

16. Know Your Crew

• Players: 4–20+ | Ages: 10+ | Time: 20–40 minutes
• Supplies: A TV and phones

This is the Thanksgiving game about the people in the room. With Know Your Crew, you type in two teams and send each person a link by text. Before dinner they spend about three minutes answering funny questions about themselves on their phone, like their worst job or the food they could never give up. After dinner, the answers show up on the TV and the other team guesses who said what. There's a baby-photo round too.

Setting up Know Your Crew: name the game, pick the Family vibe and type in each team.

It works especially well when in-laws, new partners or Friendsgiving guests are meeting for the first time. Pick the Family vibe for holiday-safe, all-ages questions.

17. Thanksgiving Charades

• Players: 6+ | Ages: 8+ | Time: 15–30 minutes
• Supplies: Slips of paper, a bowl, a timer

Write prompts on slips: carving the turkey, watching the parade, the dog stealing a roll, falling asleep on the couch, burning the rolls. Two teams take turns acting them out silently, one minute per turn. For an adult round, add movie titles and family inside jokes.

18. Thanksgiving Danger Words

• Players: 4+ | Ages: 10+ | Time: 15–20 minutes
• Supplies: Index cards, a timer

Like the board game Taboo. Each card has a target word and three "danger" words you can't say. "Stuffing" might ban bread, turkey and dressing. Your team has one minute to guess as many cards as you can. Make the cards the night before or let each team write a stack for the other.

19. The Gratitude Guessing Game

• Players: 6+ | Ages: 8+ | Time: 10–15 minutes
• Supplies: Slips of paper, a bowl

Everyone writes one thing they're thankful for this year without signing it. The host reads them out one by one and the table guesses who wrote each. It's a gentler cousin of Know Your Crew, and it gets a few honest answers you won't hear otherwise.

Outdoor Thanksgiving games

If the weather cooperates, an hour outside before dinner is the best thing you can do for a house full of restless kids and the cook who needs them out of the way.

20. Backyard Turkey Bowl

• Players: 6+ | Ages: 8+ | Time: 30–45 minutes
• Supplies: A football, cones or shoes for end zones

Family flag football is a Thanksgiving classic. Use two-hand touch or flags, no tackling, and one house rule: every player must touch the ball before a team can score. Keep it to 30 minutes so nobody limps to the table.

21. Turkey Football Toss

• Players: 2+ | Ages: 4+ | Time: 15 minutes
• Supplies: A foam football, a hula hoop or laundry basket

Hang a hula hoop from a tree branch or set a laundry basket on its side. Players throw from three distances worth 1, 2 and 3 points. Kids can step up a few paces.

22. Leaf Pile Relay

• Players: 6+ in two teams | Ages: 4+ | Time: 10 minutes
• Supplies: Two rakes, or bare hands

Each team gets a rake and a patch of lawn. In relay fashion, each player rakes leaves toward the team's target for 30 seconds, then hands off. The bigger pile wins, and the yard gets cleaned up for free.

Thanksgiving family games on the TV

After dinner, when everyone has settled onto the couch, a game show on the TV pulls the whole room into one game. It's also the easiest way to include a big group.

23. Thanksgiving Trivia Night

• Players: 2–4 teams | Ages: 6+ | Time: 30–40 minutes

Put the free Thanksgiving Trivia board on the TV. It has 25 questions in five categories: History, The Feast, Parade and Football, Turkey Talk and Fall Fun. Players scan a QR code and buzz in from their phones with no app and no account, or you can play "take turns" or "hands up" with no devices at all. The board keeps score and has a Bonus Wager tile so a trailing team can catch up at the end.

Prefer to read questions aloud? Our list of 100 Thanksgiving trivia questions and answers is sorted easy to hard and comes with a free printable answer key.

24. Guess the Song, Grandparents vs. Grandkids

• Players: 4+ | Ages: 8+ | Time: 15–30 minutes

Music works across generations better than almost anything. On Guess the Song, you pick genres and decades, and 30-second song previews play until someone buzzes in with the title. Let Grandma choose the 1960s round and the teens choose current hits, then switch.

25. Family Game Night Board for Leftovers Night

• Players: 2–4 teams | Ages: 8+ | Time: 30 minutes

If family stays through the weekend, save a second game for Friday. The Family Game Night board covers Movie Night, Food Fight, Around the House, Sports and Wild World, so it works on any night of the year.

To get any of these on the TV, open the board on a laptop and plug in an HDMI cable, use AirPlay from a Mac, or open gameshowly.com in your smart TV's browser. The how to play page walks through each setup.

Free Thanksgiving bingo you can make in 5 minutes

26. Thanksgiving Day Bingo

• Players: Any | Ages: 5+ | Time: All day
• Supplies: Paper, pens

Instead of calling numbers, the squares are things that happen during the day. Draw a 5×5 grid on paper for each player, mark the center square FREE, and have everyone fill the other 24 squares in any order from this list. Cross off squares as they happen. First to five in a row wins.

1. Someone says "I'm so full"
2. The dog (or cat) begs at the table
3. Someone falls asleep on the couch
4. A kid asks "when's dessert?"
5. Someone takes a photo of the turkey
6. A touchdown is scored on TV
7. Someone asks for the gravy
8. A drink gets spilled
9. Someone mentions the weather
10. Someone asks for a recipe
11. A phone rings during dinner
12. Someone goes back for seconds on pie
13. A baby or toddler cries
14. Someone talks about traffic
15. The smoke alarm goes off
16. Someone says what they're thankful for
17. Leftovers get packed in containers
18. Someone breaks the wishbone
19. Whipped cream from a can
20. Someone wears a football jersey
21. A story starts with "Remember when..."
22. Someone changes into sweatpants
23. Cranberry sauce with can ridges
24. Someone offers to do the dishes

Kids love playing this one with a grown-up partner. For a printed game with questions and an answer key, the free PDF on our Thanksgiving trivia questions page is ready to go.

A simple Thanksgiving Day game plan

You don't need 26 games. Here's a timeline that covers the whole day with four or five:

If you want guests to play Know Your Crew after dinner, send the links a day or two before so everyone can answer before they arrive.

Hosting tips for Thanksgiving family games

• Assign a game captain. One relative runs the games so the cook isn't also the emcee. Teens love this job.
• Set up the night before. Draw the turkey poster, cut the paper slips, and test the TV connection while the house is quiet.
• Prizes can be free. First slice of pie, picking the movie, skipping dish duty or holding the TV remote all work.
• Keep every round short. Ten to fifteen minutes, then switch. Leave people wanting another round rather than checking their phones.
• Have a no-device option ready. Almost every game on this list works without a phone (Know Your Crew is the exception), and trivia plays fine in hands-up mode.

For more game ideas for every holiday, see our party games guide.

Sources

Safety guidance comes from the National Fire Protection Association's Thanksgiving safety tip sheet. The NFL's Thanksgiving tradition (three games, with the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys hosting the afternoon games) is covered with sources in our Thanksgiving trivia post.

Thanksgiving family games FAQ

What games can you play at Thanksgiving with no supplies?

Thankful Alphabet, I'm Bringing the Turkey, Two Truths and a Lie, Would You Rather and Most Likely To all need nothing but the people at the table. They fill the wait between appetizers and dinner without anyone leaving their seat.

What are good Thanksgiving games for kids?

For ages 3 to 8, Pass the Pumpkin, Pin the Feather on the Turkey, Turkey Says and Pumpkin Bowling are easy wins. Kids 8 and up do well with a scavenger hunt, minute to win it challenges and trivia on a mixed-age team.

What are fun Thanksgiving games for adults?

Know Your Crew, Thanksgiving Danger Words, Charades with harder prompts and a grandparents-vs-grandkids Guess the Song round all work well. Games built around the guests' own stories tend to get the biggest laughs.

How do you play games with a big family at Thanksgiving?

Split into two to four mixed-age teams and choose games where teams take turns, like trivia on the TV, Charades or the Turkey Bowl. Bingo is the easiest big-group game of all, because everyone plays at once all day.

What football games are on Thanksgiving Day?

The NFL plays three games on Thanksgiving. The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys host the two afternoon games every year, and a third game is played at night. Check the NFL schedule for this year's matchups and kickoff times.