Thanksgiving Games for the Whole Family (Before, During and After Dinner)

A plan for the day

The host is in the kitchen for most of the afternoon, so the games have to run themselves or be run by somebody else. Give the job to a teenager, a grandparent who would like an excuse to sit down, or the relative who always asks how to help.

• As guests arrive. Hand every person a Thanksgiving bingo card and a pencil. It is played all afternoon with no caller, so the game is on from the first hello.
• Kids' table, the hour before dinner. A stack of easy puzzles and the kids' bingo, with crayons in a cup. Quiet, needs no grown-up, keeps small people out of the kitchen.
• While the turkey rests, about 30 minutes. The scavenger hunt for the children and anyone who wants to stretch, around the house and yard.
• At the table. The gratitude round, before or after the meal, takes five minutes and is the part people remember.
• After pie. One game everyone plays together: a bingo round with a caller, or draw and guess with the whole family in two teams.

Decide the end of the game day in advance. When the dishes are done and the youngest are drooping, stop while people are still enjoying it.

The games, ranked

Ranked by how well they work for a table that seats a four year old next to a great-aunt. The first two can cover the whole day on their own.

1. All-afternoon Thanksgiving bingo

Every guest gets a card with 24 squares such as gravy boat, a nap on the couch, somebody asks for the recipe and a toast. Instead of calling words, people cover a square when they see or hear it happen, and the first full line announces it quietly to the host. Print cards from Thanksgiving bingo, which has 48 squares about food, family and thankful moments. Time: runs all afternoon; a called round after dinner takes 10 minutes. Ages: 8 and up to play alone, younger with help. Materials: one card per guest, pencils or dried corn kernels as markers.

2. Thanksgiving scavenger hunt around the house

Thirty finds around the table, the house and the yard: a cloth napkin folded in a fancy shape, a pine cone, the guest who traveled farthest. It keeps children busy for exactly as long as the turkey rests and gets the grown-ups talking, because half the items involve asking somebody a question. The Thanksgiving scavenger hunt prints a two-column checklist with points; set Copies to the number of teams. Time: 20 to 30 minutes. Ages: 4 to 12, with a reader on each team. Materials: one sheet and one pencil per team.

3. The gratitude round

No printable, no materials, five minutes. Go around the table and each person names one thing they are thankful for that happened since last Thanksgiving. For a shy family, pass a small object such as a pine cone, and only the person holding it speaks. For children, offer a prompt: a person, a place, a food. Time: 5 to 10 minutes. Ages: everyone, including the two year old who says "pie".

4. The kids' table set

Three quiet printables that need no grown-up. The Thanksgiving bingo for kids has 36 short words such as turkey, pie and leaf in large print on a 4 by 4 card, so a cousin of seven can read the caller sheet to the five year olds. The easy Thanksgiving word search hides 12 short words across and down only, and the Thanksgiving word scramble suits the 8 to 12 year olds with its word bank turned on. Time: about 15 minutes each. Ages: 4 to 12. Materials: printed sheets, crayons, the answer keys for whoever is judging.

5. Draw and guess, Thanksgiving edition

Split into two teams. One player draws a word while their team guesses within a minute: stuffing, parade, wishbone, football, leftovers. No printable is needed, but the bingo word list on this site makes a ready supply of words; write them on slips and drop them in a bowl. Time: 20 minutes. Ages: 6 and up; let young children draw with a partner. Materials: a pad or a whiteboard, a marker, a timer.

6. Fall walk with a checklist

Between dinner and dessert, get everyone outside for twenty minutes. Take the fall scavenger hunt with its 30 autumn sights, from a red leaf to a squirrel, and let the youngest tick while the oldest set the pace. Spot and tick rather than collect, so the yard and the park stay as you found them. Time: 20 to 30 minutes. Ages: everyone who can walk the route. Materials: a sheet, a crayon, warm coats.

7. Friendsgiving bingo

If the table is friends rather than relatives, swap the family squares for potluck ones: store-bought pie proudly served, somebody brought the same dish twice, a dish nobody can name. Friendsgiving bingo has 44 of them and plays the same all-afternoon way. Time: all evening. Ages: adults and teens. Materials: cards, pens.

Small table, big house, many generations

• Six to eight people. One bingo card each, one scavenger hunt team of children, the gratitude round at the table. The host can run it all with a stack of printouts by the door.
• Fifteen to twenty people. Two or three hunt teams, bingo cards printed two per page, and a named game captain who is not cooking. Our bingo card generator makes up to 30 unique cards at once.
• Thirty or more, or a church or community dinner. Run bingo as a called game after the meal with the caller sheet, and open the online bingo caller on a laptop so the current word is big on a screen. Let several winners share the prize so a big room does not wait on one line.

Mixed ages are the point, not the problem. Seat grandparents with toddlers and let them share a card: the grandparent reads, the toddler covers, and both have a job.

Including everyone at the table

• Grandparents. Turn on large print and one card per page so the squares can be read at arm's length, and keep the room lit. A pencil is easier to hold than a dried bean.
• Toddlers. Small round markers are the problem, not the game. Whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, hard candy and marshmallows are on the pediatricians' list of choking hazards for children under four, and balloons are a risk up to age eight, so give the littlest players big buttons, torn paper or a crayon instead, and keep the candy corn bowl out of reach.
• Guests new to the holiday. The kids' bingo and the scavenger hunt need no background knowledge: a pie is a pie in any language. Ask a newcomer to be the caller and they are in the middle of things within a minute.
• A hard year. If the day is delicate for someone, keep the competition low and the prizes sweet, and make the gratitude round optional. A game is a kind distraction; it should never put anyone on the spot.
• Dishes from your own table. Every list is editable. Add tamales, pierogi or your grandmother's noodle dish before you print, and the cards will match the meal.

Printing the night before

Print on cream or soft orange paper if you have it and the cards double as place settings. Print the caller sheet even if you plan to play without a caller; it settles arguments about whether a roll counts as bread. Keep a spare set in the pantry for the surprise guest.

If you host every year, the frogsdream Mega Pack has the Thanksgiving bingo set as 40 finished cards with a caller sheet, the word search at easy and challenge levels with answer keys, and the scavenger hunt in two layouts, all as PDFs in Letter and A4. The free sampler on that page includes the Thanksgiving word search, so you can test it on your own printer first. For one dinner, the free generators are plenty.