*Check out THIS POST and THIS POST for more Thanksgiving game ideas!*
Getting the whole family together for Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to try out some super fun games! I’ve compiled a list of my top favorite that are sure to inspire lasting memories and lots of laughter!
You’ll be playing them year after year! 🙂
1. Turkey Hunt – Print out some pictures of turkeys (I found some great ones HERE). Cut them out. The leader sends the hunters (the kids) out of the room. Hide the turkeys. Then the hunters return and begin their hunt! As each turkey is found, it is brought to the leader who corrals them in separate piles for each hunter. When all the turkeys have been found, the hunter with the most turkeys is the winner and then becomes the leader for the next round. Don’t forget to tell the kids to hunt quietly – they don’t want to scare the turkeys away!
2. Thankerchief – Arrange all players in a circle. Pass around a “Thankerchief” (handkerchief) as everyone recites this poem:
Thankerchief, thankerchief, around you go —
Where you’ll stop, nobody knows.
But when you do, someone must say,
What they are thankful for this day.
The player holding the “Thankerchief” when the poem ends must say out loud one thing they are thankful for. Keep playing until every player has had a turn!
3. Where Did the Turkey Lay Its Egg? Have one player (the farmer) leave the room while a hard-boiled egg is hidden. When the player returns, he/she must search for the turkey’s missing egg. The other players give clues to the egg’s location by gobbling like a turkey. If the farmer is far away from the turkey, the other players gobble very quietly. As the farmer gets closer to the turkey, the other players’ gobbles will increase in volume until the turkey’s missing egg is found!
4. Cross the Sea – This idea comes straight from Family Fun. First, pick one person to represent the New World (America), and have her stand on a chair at one end of the room. Next, choose someone to be the Mayflower; have him stand blindfolded at the other end of the room. Everyone else plays “rocks,” standing, sitting, or lying on the floor in random spots between the two. The New World calls out directions to guide the ship (who can’t talk or peek) safely across the rocky sea to its final harbor: the chair upon which the New World stands.
5. Name That Turkey Tune – Another great idea from Family Fun! Have each player take turns crooning familiar songs, replacing all the lyrics with the word gobble. Choose a category for each round (Christmas carols, Beatles tunes, or TV theme songs, for example) and see who among the non-warbling guests can be the first to make out each melody.
6. Pin the Feather on the Turkey – A fun and simple game from Parents!
7. Roll-a-Turkey – Do you remember the Roll-a-Pumpkin Game I shared in October? A Lemon Squeezy Home created a fun Thanksgiving twist on it – with a FREE Printable!
I hope you have fun playing some of these fabulous games with your Happy Home this Thursday!
Happy Thanksgiving Game-ing! 🙂
Shelly H.
There are some fabulous game ideas here. Thanks so much. We just finished playing “Name that Turkey Tune”. We about fell out of our chairs laughing.