47 Turkey-rific Thanksgiving Party Games for Adults and Kids

Want to max out the fun with your loved ones this holiday season? These Thanksgiving party games for adults and kids will entertain and engage everyone!

What You Don’t Want to See at Your Thanksgiving Gathering

You don’t want to see all of your family members sitting quietly and staring at their phones. You want to see loved ones telling stories, laughing, maybe even arguing about the best sports team, and growing closer together.

I know. You’ve already got too much work preparing the meal to organize games too. Here is a list of fun Thanksgiving games to give you a head start.

You can purchase some of the games to minimize your prep. You’ll find plenty of games to include the whole family and a few Thanksgiving party games for adults. Place someone else in charge of games so that they feel included, and you have one less thing to do!

Many fellow bloggers have graciously made Thanksgiving Party games easier by offering free printable Thanksgiving games! I’ll include links where available.

13 Thanksgiving Games For Kids

Candy Corn Relay Race

Are you looking for a good excuse to buy a bag of candy corn? Then, by all means, include a Candy Corn Relay race at your next holiday gathering.

What you need for Candy Corn Relay Race:

• A homemade obstacle course
• 24 bowls
• a big spoon
• Candy Corns

How to play Candy Corn Relay:

1. Place two bowls containing several candy corns at the beginning of the obstacle course. Place two empty bowls at the end of the obstacle course.
2. Have the relay teams line up at the start of the course.
3. Give a person on each team a spoon.
4. Say, “Go!”
5. The person with the spoon scoops up 1 Candy Corn into the spoon.
6. They navigate the obstacle course as quickly as they can.
7. If they drop the Candy Corn, they stop,  go back through the course, and scoop another Candy Corn.
8. When they reach the end of the course with the Candy Corn, they drop the Candy Corn into the bowl.
9. Run back through the course and pass the spoon to the next racer.
10. The next racer repeats.

There are a couple of ways to determine the winner. One way is the first team with all members to take a Candy Corn wins. Another way is the team that transports all their Candy Corns from one bowl to the other wins.

You could also have full bowls of Candy Corns. Racers carry entire scoops through the course. Determine the winner by the first to finish or which team drops the fewest candies. It’s completely up to you!

Turkey Tag

Turkey Tag is the Thanksgiving version of Freeze Tag. All you need are clothespins. They’re the turkeys. Pin a few turkeys to each player’s shirt. You can decide the number of turkeys based on the kids.

The kids chase each other and try to remove each other’s tags. The last person with at least one turkey still pinned wins Turkey Tag!

If you want to double the fun, you can also enjoy the arts and crafts aspect of making the turkeys. Find small eyes to glue on the pins, paint them various colors, let them dry, and you’ve got cute little turkeys to pin to your clothes.

Gratitude A – Z

Gratitude A – Z is similar to the road game in which you go through the alphabet, pointing out things you see on your drive that start with each letter.

Go around the room and through the alphabet. The first person starts with A and names something they’re grateful for that begins with the letter A. The next person says something they’re thankful for that starts with the letter B. Everyone is a winner!

How About a Turkey Day Turkey Hunt?

I’m not talking about hunting turkeys!  Thankfully, turkey season is in the spring. Turkey Hunt is another fun way to incorporate Thanksgiving crafts into the game.

Let the kids enjoy drawing and coloring turkeys. You decide the level of crafts you want for your gathering.

One option is letting kids enjoy making their turkeys out of construction paper. Another option is printing pages with turkeys and letting the kids color them. A third option is to give each child a piece of paper and let them draw turkeys.

Let the kids cut out the turkeys. Perhaps cut out the turkeys for the younger kids or if you don’t have enough scissors.

Then hide the turkeys around the house or yard and let the kids hunt for them. Yes, this is exactly like an Easter Egg hunt. You can also play this game with candy. Candy pumpkins are a great option for indoor games.

Consider setting a time limit to add a little intensity to the game.

Name That Baby!

Dig out some old baby pictures. You may have to get guests to text or email you some photos. Show the baby pictures to your guests and let them guess who the baby is in the picture. The person who guesses the most baby pictures correctly wins!

Candy Corn Toss

Do you still have those leftover trick-or-treat buckets? You can use those or a bowl with a bag of Candy Corns. Put two teams on opposite sides of a room with a bowl or bucket.

Each team tosses as many Candy Corns as they can into the bucket on the other side of the room. The team that makes the most candies into the bowl wins!

Pumpin Hunt

A Pumpkin Hunt is exactly like a Turkey Hunt (Or an Easter Egg Hunt), except you use small pumpkins. A bonus is that you can use the same mini pumpkins for a Pumpkin Hunt and a Pumpkin Toss (see below).

Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin Rolls will require bigger pumpkins. The bigger, the better! You can split into teams for smaller kids (or bigger pumpkins). You can also have tournaments, in which the winners of each round race each another.

1. Racers start at one end of the yard, park, or field with a large pumpkin.
2. Roll the pumpkin to the finish line on the other side of the yard, park, or field. Since pumpkins aren’t perfectly round, they’ll meander off course as you try to roll them.
3. The racer or team who crosses the finish line first wins the prize or proceeds to the next round.

Roll a Turkey

A fun game for kids involving M&Ms, dice, and printable turkeys! The kids roll dice, place M&Ms on the corresponding colors on printable images of turkeys. The first to fill their turkey wins!

Roll a Turkey has game has free printables.

Pin the Tail on the Turkey

You can purchase this twist on the classic donkey version on Amazon [*]. Instead of placing tails on donkeys, you place turkey feathers on turkeys.

Turkey Tic-Tac-To

Use tape to make a Tic Tac Toe on the surface of your choice. Use cheaper tape so that it doesn’t stick as much. Give the kids candies, mini pumpkins, or pieces of fruit to use instead of Xs and Ox.

Table Top Pumpkin Bowling

All you need are plastic cups and mini pumpkins. For extra arts and crafts fun, decorated the cups for Thanksgiving. Set the cups up like bowling pins on a table. Roll a mini pumpkin (or a small ball) at the cups and knock over as many as you can.

Stuff the Turkey Game

Stuff the Turkey is another game that involves crafts. You make a turkey out of paper bags and other materials. Then step back a few stops and attempt to toss items into the turkey’s opening.[1]

22 Thanksgiving Games For the Entire Family

When the grandparents are around, kids lose interest in their parents. There is no better way to give everyone a chance to spend quality time together than a few fun thanksgiving family games. Even the older kids will enjoy most of these games.

A Pick-up Football Game

I’m starting with football because it was my favorite as a kid. I loved when my cousins got together so we could play football. We did it almost every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Depending on the yard and who was playing, we played tackle, flag, or touch. Perhaps because I’m older, I recommend playing flag or touch football to protect those precious pumpkins sitting on your shoulders.

Board Games

You probably have a few board games on hand already. Why not bust them out for hours of fun? If you don’t already have board games, 21 Best Adult Party Board Games details great suggestions for you!

Pumpkin Pie

As a kid, I bobbed for apples without a second thought. Watching Bobbing for Apples as an adult disgusted me. All that hair and who-knows-what-else falling into the water, followed by the next person bobbing. Nope.

The pumpkin pie game is a more sanitary version of Bobbing for Apples. You need few supplies:

• Candy pumpkins
• Whipped cream
• Disposable pie pans

You can easily find most of these at your local grocery store. Since I have had trouble finding the pumpkins in the past, you can find candy pumpkins on Amazon.

The instructions are simple, if not potentially messy.

1. Place candy pumpkins in each pie pan. Place the same number in each pie pan.
2. Cover the candy with whipped cream.
3. Each player gets one of these quick “pumpkin pies.”
4. Each player sits with their hands behind their back, or you can have them sit on their hands.
5. Give the players the signal to start.
6. Using only their mouths (and faces), the players dig around in the whipped cream to find the pumpkins.
7. Using only their mouths, the players fish out the pumpkins and place them on the table.
8. The first person to find all their pumpkins wins the game. Also, let them keep the candy pumpkins because gross.

Pumpkin Toss

Pumpkin Toss is a perfect game for nice days outdoors! Buy several of the small pumpkins from the produce section. Don’t purchase the Jack o’ lantern-sized pumpkins, but the smaller baseball-sized or egg-sized pumpkins.

1. Split the players into pairs.
2. Form two lines, a player from each team in each line, facing their teammates.
3. Pick a side to start with the pumpkins. Each player in the Throwing line tosses the tiny pumpkin to their teammate in the other line.
4. If the catcher misses or drops their pumpkin, that team is eliminated. Give each team two or three misses before they’re eliminated.
5. All of the players who threw the pumpkin remaining in the game take one step backward.
6. The players who now have the pumpkins toss them to their teammates.
7. The teams who miss or drop the pumpkins are eliminated.
8. Continue stepping back a step, tossing the pumpkins, and catching them until one team remains.

Thanksgiving Trivia

Everyone will enjoy a little Thanksgiving Day trivia. Test your guests’ knowledge of parades, turkeys, pumpkins, and history! A great option for you is are these Funtastic Thanksgiving Trivia Questions!

Thanksgiving Bingo

Bingo is a fun game. Why not try one of these Thanksgiving-themed Bingo games? Amazon has several options of Thanksgiving Bingo to choose from.[*]  Add treats to your Thanksgiving Bingo and use candy to park the called squares.

Guess the Number of Candies

Fill a medium to large-sized bowl or jar filled with candies and place it out for everyone to see. Place a sheet of paper next to it. Guests write their names on the sheet of paper and guess how many candies are in the bowl or jar.

The person with the closest guess wins a prize.

Thanksgiving Mad Libs

The classic game of Mad Libs has several Thanksgiving-themed versions. You can find some on Amazon. One example is Gobble Gobble Mad Libs. for kids. Likewise, My Bleeping Family Mad Libs (Adult Mad Libs) looks like a fun version for adults.[*]

Remember to plan. Don’t wait until the week before Thanksgiving to order your Thanksgiving day supplies and risk items being sold out or not shipping in time.

Thanksgiving Gratitude Game

There are different versions of this game. My favorite is this one played with M&Ms. Why? Mostly for the M&Ms, but also the gratitude.

1. Everyone gets a game card (printable from the website).
2. You can either hand out packs of M&Ms or have a bowl.
3. The first person selects an M&M without looking.
4. Whichever color of M&M they pick is the color they use on the game card. For example, on the card, the color blue is “name a skill your thankful for.” If you draw a blue M&M, you name a skill you’re grateful for.

(I’m thankful to Kara for ending the phrases with “you are grateful for” instead of forcing the awkward and supposedly grammatically correct “for which I’m grateful.”)

The Thanksgiving Gratitude Game has free printables.

Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt

Although we typically think about kids when we think about a scavenger hunt, a Thanksgiving scavenger hunt can also be a fun game for adults. If you all teams, it’s a great way for loved ones to spend quality time working and playing together.

You can make the clues and hunted items more risque for adult-exclusive parties. If you are hosting too many kids for risqueness, add an adult to each team to help make sure the adults are having fun and not looped into talking politics.

Turkey Bowl

Turkey Bowling is a fun DIY game if you have a smooth surface. Purchase ten butternut squashes and a medium-sized pumpkin. Paint the butternut squashes to look like turkeys or bowling pins for a little arts and crafts fun.

Line up the squash as you would bowling pins in a bowling alley and roll the pumpkin like a bowling ball to see how many pumpkins you can knock over.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Fun for any family gathering or assembling them solo, a couple of jigsaw puzzles will make engaging additions to your Thanksgiving activities. We typically a puzzle on a table and work on it over a couple of days.

Pumpkin Checkers

Pumpkin Checkers is a good way to play a simple, classic game and finding another use for those mini pumpkins. Acquire at least 12 mini pumpkins of the same color for two colors. For example, make sure you have 12 white pumpkins and 12 orange pumpkins.

Use those colored pumpkins with a standard (or slightly larger) checkerboard to play the classic game with holiday flavor.

Parade Bingo

Pass out bingo cards before watching the parade. When you spy these items in the parade, mark them on your card. The first person to fill their card wins.

This Parade Bingo game has free printables.

Holiday Family Feud

Family Feud will work better with large groups so that you have enough on each team.

Free Holiday Family Feud printables are available.

Cobbs Castle

Cobbs Castle is one of the traditional native American games allegedly during the first thanksgiving. [2] The Wampanoag and Pilgrim children used stones for this game. If you don’t have stones, pumpkins are a great alternative.

First, make the castle. Arrange three pumpkins close together and place the fourth pumpkin on top of them. After you construct this castle, take a few steps back and toss other pumpkins at it. The first player to topple Cobbs Castle wins.

The Missing Piece

The Missing Piece is a memory/attention game that would make Henry Spenser proud! For the items, you can use pumpkins, cranberries, toys, or anything you have that’s related to Thanksgiving.

1. Arrange 10 – 20 Thanksgiving-related items on a tray. Allow the age of the players to determine the number of items.
2. Have the contestants study the tray for 30 seconds. Set a timer to ensure they focus.
3. The contestants turn around so they can’t see the tray.
4. Remove one item from the tray, being careful not to move any other items.
5. The players turn back around to view the tray.
6. The first player to figure out the missing item wins!

Piping-Hot Pumpkin!

Hot Pumpkin is the like Hot Potato, only with a small to medium pumpkin instead of a potato. For another Hot Potato twist outdoors, play the game with a raw egg.

Thanksgiving Words Mix-up

This word-scramble game will be fun at the dinner table after your feast. See who can unscramble their list first or let the kids show off their word-unscrambling skills for their grandparents.

Although you can easily make your own Words Mix-up game cards and print them, a Harvesting Sunflower Thanksgiving Word Scramble game cards pack is available on Amazon. [Disclosure]

Thanksgiving Would You Rather

Get a few laughs will you bond by answering a few Thanksgiving “Would You Rather” questions. You can find lists of “would you rather questions online”[3] and print them yourself or purchase sets from Amazon and Etsy. [Disclosure]

Turkey Shoot

Do you have a few Nerf guns? Turkey Shoot will be a blast! You can play this game with Helium balloons or regular balloons.

1. Blow up several balloons.
2. Let the kids draw turkeys on the balloons.
3. If you’re using helium balloons, tie them to something with string, so they float at whatever height best suits you.
   If you’re using regular balloons, tape them to a table.
4. Line up the balloons and let kids shoot the balloons with the Nerf guns.

I know their Nerf guns. Still, eye protection may be a good idea, and the kids might think they’re fun to wear. You can purchase eye protection glasses at home improvement stores and on Amazon. [Disclosure]

Thanksgiving Outburst

Enjoy a Thanksgiving version of the card game. For each topic, players or teams try to guess ten words associated with the topic.

Thanksgiving Outburst has free printables.

12 Thanksgiving Party Games for Adults

Whether they’re empty nesters or don’t have children, many enjoy Friendsgiving gatherings and other adults-only parties. Enjoy these 12 Thanksgiving party games for adults.

Adult Thanksgiving Bingo

Everybody has that cousin or friend (or me) who thinks they’re too cool holiday or family gatherings. They’ll point out all the great reasons not to get together with family. I’ve mentioned a few times about the annoying uncle talking politics.

Jennifer Lewis over at Flavorwire has come up with a brilliant way to gamify annoying friends and relatives. She developed a version of Thanksgiving Bingo that you can only win if the wheels fly off your gathering. You’ll be looking forward to your crazy cousin (me) finally drinking too much!

“Drink If…” Friendsgiving Party Game

Did you know that Thanksgiving Eve is the busiest night of the year for bars? I did. I may have helped establish that statistic in my 20s and early 30s. It was like Friday on Humpday! Thanksgiving Eve starts a four-day weekend for us working stiffs.

“Drink If…” is a Thanksgiving drinking game. Who would have thunk it? The game consists of 24 cards that offer you the opportunity for a sip if the card is true for you. And maybe if the card isn’t true for you.

Make up your own list or purchase this list from Etsy. Don’t wait until November to order this game. Order it sooner to make sure it arrives on time.

Card Games

Yes, you can enjoy card games on any occasion. If you want to keep things simple and not bother with arts, crafts, or mini pumpkins, then break out a deck of cards and enjoy your favorite card game.

“Family Fails” Drinking Game

Although I’m not suggesting that you drink to cope, this is another way to gamify and reframe dealing with relatives doing odd things.  Make a list of the things that annoy you about certain members of your family. Include things that annoy you about people in general.

Each time someone commits one of those acts, you take a drink. Just be mindful that you don’t end up being the annoying drunk uncle. The Druncle, if you will.

That’s just a start. It may also be the List of Things to Stop Doing that my wife gave me last Thanksgiving. Personalize it for your gathering.

Macy’s Parade Drinking Game

Why do adult games so often involve drinking? Probably the legal drinking age has something to do with it.

This Chicago Now Blog Post has a list of things to watch for. When you see those things happen, take a drink!

The Macy’s Parade Drinking Game has free printables.

Mexican Train

My daughter gave us this game recently. It uses colored dominos and is based on the dominos game but with a twist. Mexican Train is available on Amazon.[*]

Thanksgiving Conversation Cards

You can buy card games that start conversations or find free downloads online. Whether you need something to get the conversation started or steer the conversation in a different direction, everyone will appreciate conversation cards.

You can bring these cards out before or after your Thanksgiving meal. They’ll help you learn more about and get closer to one another.

Free printables are available.

Candy Corn Beer Pong

You should play this game outdoors. Each player gets a cup of beer and a few Candy Corns or Candy pumpkins. Players hold up their cups while other players try to toss candy into their cups. Whenever a player tosses candy into your cup, you take a drink.

Everybody wins.  Let me know how beer-soaked Candy Corns taste.

Puzzle Pie

Puzzle Pie adds fun twists to the beloved pie-in-the-face routine. You’ll need:

• Gummy letters
• Whipped cream
• Disposable pie pans

Amazon sells Gummy Letters.[*] I’ve never seen them in a local store, not that I frequently shop for gummy things.

1. Select a Thanksgiving-themed word.
2. Find gummy letters that spell your selected word.
3. Place gummy letters that spell that word into the pie pans. Add a few extra letters for an extra challenge.
4. Cover the gummy letters with whipped cream.
5. Each contestant searches their puzzle pie for the letters and places them into an empty pie pan using only their mouths.
6. The first contestant to decipher the secret word wins!

For added fun, soak the gummies in vodka. Just don’t get vodka-soaked whipped cream in your eyes.

Egg Toss

Egg Toss is exactly like Pumpkin Toss with one major difference. You toss eggs instead of pumpkins. Egg Toss has a few options.

Egg Toss: The Raw Egg Version

First, if you don’t mind the mess, play with raw eggs. The players are encouraged to be mindful and gentle of their throwing and catching, less they have a raw egg broken in their hands!

Egg Toss: The Boiled Egg Version

If you don’t want the mess, then use boiled eggs. The eggs are heavier, and there’s no mess. However, you miss out on the fun of players breaking eggs when they catch them.

Egg Toss: The “Easter Egg” Version

In the “Easter” Egg version of Egg Toss, boil all but one egg. Leave that one raw. Hopefully, the team who draws the raw egg won’t figure out that it’s not boiled until they catch the egg and it breaks in their hands. It’s a great practical joke if you don’t mind the mess.

Charades

This classic game requires no cards or boards. In fact, you can use Charades if you’re having a remote Thanksgiving Party and want to play an online game.

Gratitude Photo Scavenger Hunt

Using your phone or digital camera, take photos of things you’re grateful for. Set some ground rules for where you can/can’t go or how far you can drive. Print the Gratitude Scavenger Hunt list.

Go out and take photos of the items you can find from your list. An example is “Something I’m grateful for that smells amazing.” Return to home (base) and share your photos.

Gratitude Photo Scavenger Hunt has free printables.

Free Printable Thanksgiving Games

I listed in one place all the games mentioned above with printable versions.  Enjoy!

• Roll a Turkey.
• Thanksgiving Conversation Cards.
• Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Drinking Game.
• Adult Thanksgiving Bingo.
• Gratitude Photo Scavenger Hunt.
• Holiday Family Feud.
• Thanksgiving Gratitude Game.
• Thanksgiving Parade Bingo.
• Thanksgiving Outburst.

Question: Which are your favorite Thanksgiving party games for adults?

Affiliate Disclosure

Many of the links in this post contain affiliate links. If you make purchases via those links, I will receive a small commission.

Related Posts

• If you’re planning your fall social calendar, you need to know 89 Scary Clever Adult Halloween Party Names (for 2021).
• Since I mentioned board games as one of the options, don’t miss this huge list of the best board games.

References

• [1] How to make a paper turkey for Stuff the Turkey.
• [2] https://www.scholastic.com/parents/family-life/parent-child/games-played-first-thanksgiving.html
• [3] 50 Thanksgiving “Would You Rather” questions.