Thanksgiving is officially upon us, as hard as that is to believe. Feels like this year has flown by! For some lucky people, Thanksgiving day means back-to-back football games, endless snacks, and long naps. For the less fortunate, it can mean hours and hours of trying to entertain family and friends. If you’re in the second boat, you’re probably going to need some ideas to keep those guests happy. That goes tenfold if you have little ones running around.
Hosting a holiday get-together is never easy. Of course, you can always just let the kiddies run amuck and destroy your house while you’re trying to get a turkey out of the oven. But all that screaming and chaos isn’t exactly the best atmosphere for trying to multitask in the kitchen. So, it’s best to have some activities on hand for when the crazy gets out of control.
If you’re a board game person, you probably have a plethora of those laying around, which is always a good plan with large groups. Or there’s always the fall back of binge-watching Netflix. But why not mix it up for the holiday? Do something different? Something that’s uniquely Thanksgiving?
Thanks to PureWow for hooking us up with some ideas for family fun on Thanksgiving. We took some of our favorites from their list to share. These activities are so much fun for the family, they might just become a new tradition. Don’t worry football lovers, you can still watch the game.
These ideas are for youngin’s and…oldin’s, I guess, alike. Make a plan to stop by the craft store and do a little prep work a few days before Thanksgiving and you’ll be all set. You might even have people talking about your party for more than just the food.
–Wendy Rush, 96.3KKLZ Las Vegas
1. Turkey Bowling
Pick up a plastic bowling set like this and you can make adorable turkey bowling pins. All you need is some felt and feathers and the kiddos will be entertained for hours. Here’s the tutorial.
2. Turkey Trivia Night
With just a little prep time and a printer, you can make a fun trivia night that will have all your little turkeys thinking. Here are the instructions.
3. Fall Harvest 'I Spy' Game
What kid doesn’t love ‘I Spy’? This one is season-appropriate with all things fall-related. Here’s a printable version.
4. Leaf Contests
Using leaves are one of the cheapest ways to entertain your littles during Thanksgiving. Use this tutorial to make a leaf-measuring contest, or have kids race to see who can fill up a bucket with leaves first. And bonus, you don’t have to rake them later.
5. M&M Gratitude Game
Okay I LOVE this one. Showing gratitude every day improves our mental health and makes us happier. Plus it’s Thanksgiving, so…And putting it all into a game with M&Ms is just genius. Thank you karacreates.com for this.
6. Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe
After Halloween, you’ll see a lot of those little pumpkins on sale at the grocery store. Grab a few of those and either draw a giant tic-tac-toe board or use rope and let the kids play!
7. Make Corn Mosaics
Dye batches of unpopped popcorn sometime before Thanksgiving day and you’ll have a great assortment of corn for the family to make corn mosaics. This tutorial tells you how.
8. Turkey Balloons
Grab some helium balloons and simple craft items and have your family make turkey balloons for your very own Thanksgiving day parade. Here’s how.
9. The Name Game
This one is super simple. Just write some Thanksgiving-related words on a bunch of post-its. Put them in a hat and invite each person in your party to put one on their forehead without reading it. Then everyone walks around and asks yes or no questions to guess what their word is. This one always gets a lot of laughs.
10. Thanksgiving Charades
Write Thanksgiving-related words or phrases on pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. Then take turns acting them out for the crowd to guess. Remember the clue-giver can’t say anything to help. Do turkey noises count as talking?
11. Make Pinecone Turkeys
This one is super fun for the kiddos. Have them burn off some time (and pie) gathering pinecones. Then use some popsicle sticks and other craft items to make cute little turkeys out of them. Here’s the tutorial.
12. Thanksgiving Bingo
This website has free printable bingo cards for Thanksgiving. Just hand one out to all your guests when they walk in the door and see who gets bingo first.
13. Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are a fun activity for kids and adults alike. All you have to do for this one is make a list with boxes to check off and put things on it that relate to Thanksgiving. Like “nutmeg”, “something a pilgrim might need”, “something brown like a turkey”. Let your imagination go wild.
14. DIY Turkey Tag
This one is not only fun, but a great way to burn off some energy (or turkey calories). You can either have the participants paint their own turkey tags or have them premade ready to go. Once they’re done, just pin them on your clothes and try to be the last one standing. Use this tutorial for instructions on how to make the tags and play the game.
15. Make Turkey Rice Krispy Treats
No, these aren’t Rice Krispy Treats with turkey in them. Because…yuck. These adorable little treats are a fun activity for kids to do and a great way to use up old Halloween candy! Thanks to kidcraftroom.com for the tutorial.
16. Thanksgiving Coloring Placemats
This is like you’re at a restaurant with kids meals! But even adults are coloring now. It’s a great stress reliever. So use this website to print out some colorable placemats and let your guests make their own while they wait for dinner.
17. Turkey Fingerprint Napkin Rings
These. Are. Adorable. With just some paint, cardstock and a few other craft supplies, you can have the kids make napkin rings for the big dinner. Get the tutorial here.
