Thanksgiving is a time for good food, catching up with family and friends, and enjoying a day together without the usual rush of everyday life. Once dinner is finished and everyone has settled in, a few entertaining games can keep the celebration going. Whether your family enjoys friendly competition or prefers something that gets everyone laughing, Thanksgiving games are a great way to bring people together.
The best Thanksgiving games for adults don’t require a lot of space, expensive supplies, or complicated preparation. Many can be played right around the dinner table, making them perfect for Thanksgiving gatherings, Friendsgiving celebrations, or a relaxed evening with family. Some involve answering funny questions, while others challenge your creativity or ability to think quickly.
I’ve put together 15 fun Thanksgiving games for adults, including several with free printable game sheets to make hosting easier. You can choose a few favorites, mix competitive games with conversation starters, or keep several ready in case everyone wants to continue playing after dessert.
Printable Thanksgiving Games for Adults
Printable games are particularly convenient when you’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of spending time preparing questions, writing out clues, or explaining elaborate rules, you can have everything ready before your guests arrive. The following games offer a mix of word challenges, guessing games, and lighthearted competition, with downloadable materials that make them easy to organize.
1. Thanksgiving Trivia
Thanksgiving trivia is a great choice for guests who enjoy testing their knowledge, especially when the questions cover everything from holiday history and traditional foods to surprising facts about turkeys. Divide everyone into teams or let guests compete individually, with one person reading the questions aloud and awarding points for correct answers. You can keep the game casual or introduce a championship round with more challenging questions. My collection of 100 Thanksgiving trivia questions and answers includes several categories and a free printable, so there’s already plenty of material for a full game without creating another set.
2. Thanksgiving Would You Rather
Would You Rather is a fun conversation game that can lead to some surprisingly entertaining debates. Each question presents two choices, and everyone has to decide which one they’d prefer. The best questions are those where neither answer is particularly appealing, especially when guests have strong opinions about Thanksgiving traditions.
A few examples include:
- Would you rather cook the entire Thanksgiving dinner or clean up everything afterward?
- Would you rather give up Thanksgiving desserts or Thanksgiving side dishes forever?
- Would you rather host 30 guests or travel 10 hours to someone else’s Thanksgiving dinner?
- Would you rather have Thanksgiving dinner served two hours late or discover that someone forgot to make the turkey?
- Would you rather eat Thanksgiving leftovers for an entire week or never have leftovers again?
Let everyone explain their choices before moving to the next question. There are no winners or losers, but the conversations can be entertaining enough to keep the game going longer than expected.
3. Thanksgiving Bingo
Bingo isn’t just for kids, especially when there’s a little friendly competition and a prize involved. Thanksgiving Bingo replaces traditional numbers with holiday-related words such as turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, football, and pumpkin pie. Give everyone a different card and something to mark their spaces, then have one person draw and announce the words. The first player to complete a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line wins. For a longer game, continue until someone fills their entire card. Small prizes such as chocolates or coffee gift cards can make the competition more interesting, and the game is easy enough for everyone to join without lengthy instructions.
4. Thanksgiving Scattergories
Scattergories is perfect for adults who enjoy word games and thinking under pressure. Everyone receives the same list of Thanksgiving-related categories, and one letter is chosen for the round. Players then have two or three minutes to write an answer for each category that begins with that letter. When time runs out, compare answers and award one point for each valid response that nobody else wrote. Duplicate answers don’t earn points, which makes coming up with unusual responses part of the challenge.
Possible categories include:
- Something served at Thanksgiving dinner
- A reason someone might arrive late
- Something found in the kitchen
- A holiday tradition
- Something people are thankful for
- Something you might find on the dessert table
For example, if the letter is P, someone might write pumpkin pie for a Thanksgiving food or parade for a holiday tradition. The more creative the answers, the better your chances of scoring points.
5. Thanksgiving Charades
Charades becomes especially entertaining when the prompts involve familiar Thanksgiving situations rather than ordinary objects. Players take turns drawing a prompt from a bowl and acting it out without speaking while their teammates try to guess the answer. Give each player 60 seconds and award a point for every correct guess. Instead of easy words like turkey or pumpkin, use funny situations such as falling asleep after Thanksgiving dinner, discovering the turkey is still frozen, or trying to fit too many leftovers into the refrigerator. These prompts make the game more entertaining for adults, and you can play while seated or standing beside the table without turning it into a physical competition.
6. Thanksgiving Pictionary
If your guests would rather draw than act, Thanksgiving Pictionary is another entertaining option. Divide everyone into teams and give each team a few sheets of paper and a pen or pencil. One player selects a Thanksgiving-themed prompt and attempts to draw it while teammates guess, without speaking or writing words, letters, or numbers. Start with familiar items such as a gravy boat or pumpkin pie before introducing more difficult phrases like a burnt turkey, an overflowing dinner plate, or a disastrous Thanksgiving dinner. Artistic ability isn’t necessary, and the drawings that look nothing like the intended answer often get the biggest laughs.
7. Thanksgiving Most Likely To
This game is particularly entertaining when everyone knows each other well. One person reads a Thanksgiving-related statement, and everyone points to the person they think best fits the description. You can also have guests write down their choices if you prefer a little more suspense. The person receiving the most votes earns the unofficial title, and the explanations behind everyone’s choices are often the funniest part.
Try statements such as:
- Most likely to sneak a piece of pie before dinner.
- Most likely to fall asleep during the football game.
- Most likely to forget something important at the grocery store.
- Most likely to show up with three desserts.
- Most likely to take home the most leftovers.
Keep the prompts lighthearted and avoid anything that might embarrass guests. There’s no need to keep score unless you want to see who receives the most votes by the end.
8. Thanksgiving Word Scramble
A Thanksgiving Word Scramble adds a quick individual challenge to the celebration. Give each guest a sheet containing scrambled holiday-related words and set a timer for 6 minutes. Players race to unscramble as many words as possible before time runs out, with one point awarded for each correct answer. Include a combination of familiar words and more challenging Thanksgiving vocabulary so the game doesn’t end too quickly. If two players finish with the same score, use a difficult bonus word as a tiebreaker. This is also a convenient activity to leave on the table for guests who enjoy puzzles but aren’t particularly interested in group games.
Easy Thanksgiving Table Games Without Special Supplies
Not every Thanksgiving activity needs a printable or a collection of supplies. Some of the most entertaining games involve nothing more than a few questions, a little imagination, and guests willing to participate. These are particularly useful when you want to keep the gathering relaxed while still giving everyone something enjoyable to do.
9. Thanksgiving Two Truths and a Lie
Two Truths and a Lie is a great way to discover stories about friends and family that you may never have heard before. Each person shares three statements about past Thanksgivings, holiday traditions, or memorable family gatherings. Two statements must be true, while the third is made up. For example, someone might claim they once dropped an entire Thanksgiving turkey, celebrated the holiday on a cruise ship, and accidentally served a frozen pie. Everyone else tries to identify the lie. Encourage guests to choose believable statements rather than making the false answer obvious. The game works especially well when your gathering includes people who haven’t spent many holidays together.
10. Thanksgiving Secret Ballot
Thanksgiving Secret Ballot combines funny questions with a little suspense. One person reads a question, and everyone secretly writes down the name of the guest they think best fits the description. The answers go into a bowl and are read aloud, with the person receiving the most votes winning that round. Questions might include “Who would you trust to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people?” or “Who would survive the longest eating nothing but Thanksgiving leftovers?” Unlike Most Likely To, where everyone points and reacts immediately, the anonymous voting creates a different experience because nobody knows how the group voted until the answers are revealed. This works particularly well for larger gatherings where guests enjoy teasing each other in good fun.
11. Don’t Say Thanksgiving
This game runs quietly in the background throughout the gathering, making it a fun addition even when you have other activities planned. Choose a common holiday word, such as “Thanksgiving,” and challenge everyone to avoid saying it. Give each guest three tokens, such as pennies or small pieces of candy, at the beginning of the celebration. Whenever someone catches another player saying the forbidden word, the person who said it must surrender one token to whoever caught them. The challenge becomes increasingly difficult as guests discuss dinner, family traditions, and holiday plans. At the end of the evening, the person with the most tokens wins.
12. Thanksgiving Finish the Phrase
Finish the Phrase encourages guests to come up with funny or unexpected answers to unfinished Thanksgiving-related sentences. Give everyone a sheet of paper and read one prompt aloud. Players write their responses, which are then collected and read anonymously. Everyone votes for their favorite answer, and the person receiving the most votes earns a point.
Some entertaining prompts include:
- Thanksgiving dinner wouldn’t be complete without ______.
- The worst thing to discover on Thanksgiving morning would be ______.
- You know Thanksgiving dinner was a disaster when ______.
- The one person who should never be trusted with the turkey is ______.
- If Thanksgiving had an official warning label, it would say ______.
The funniest responses aren’t necessarily the most outrageous. Sometimes a perfectly ordinary answer becomes hilarious because everyone knows exactly who or what the person is talking about.
13. Thanksgiving Storytelling Game
A Thanksgiving Storytelling Game is a creative activity that can become increasingly ridiculous as everyone contributes. One person begins with a sentence such as, “Everything was going perfectly until someone opened the oven.” The next person adds another sentence, followed by the next guest, until everyone has contributed to the story. Each sentence must connect to what came before it, even if the story takes an unexpected turn. You might end up with a runaway turkey, an uninvited dinner guest, or a Thanksgiving disaster involving the family dog. For an extra challenge, give each person only 10 seconds to add their sentence. There’s no winner, but the finished story can be entertaining enough that everyone wants to start another round.
14. Thanksgiving Blind Ranking
Blind Ranking is a popular social media game that can be adapted for Thanksgiving gatherings. Players must rank five things without knowing what options are coming next. Choose a Thanksgiving category, such as side dishes, desserts, or holiday traditions, and tell everyone they’ll be ranking five items from favorite to least favorite. The catch is that each item is revealed one at a time, and once a player assigns it a position from one through five, that choice cannot be changed. For example, someone might rank mashed potatoes in second place, only to discover that stuffing, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potato casserole are still coming. By the final round, players may be forced to place a favorite food at the bottom of their list. Compare everyone’s rankings afterward and see who regrets their decisions the most.
15. Thanksgiving Who Am I?
Who Am I? is a guessing game that challenges players to identify a Thanksgiving-related word, object, or character by asking questions that can only be answered with yes or no. Write different prompts on slips of paper and give each player one without letting them see what’s written. Players can hold their slips against their foreheads or have someone else read their assigned word privately. Taking turns, they ask questions such as “Am I something you eat?” or “Would you find me in the kitchen?” until they identify their answer. Thanksgiving foods, holiday traditions, famous parade characters, and familiar seasonal objects all make good prompts. To keep the game moving, limit each player to 10 questions before revealing the answer.
Choosing the Best Thanksgiving Games for Your Gathering
You certainly don’t need to play all 15 games in one afternoon. In fact, I’d choose three or four that suit the people coming to dinner and keep a couple of extras ready in case everyone wants to continue playing.
| If Your Guests Enjoy… | Try These Games |
|---|---|
| Friendly competition | Trivia, Bingo, Scattergories |
| Funny conversations | Would You Rather, Most Likely To |
| Drawing and guessing | Pictionary, Charades, Who Am I? |
| Creative humor | Finish the Phrase, Storytelling |
| Quick individual challenges | Word Scramble, Blind Ranking |
| Relaxed games during dinner | Don’t Say Thanksgiving, Two Truths and a Lie, Secret Ballot |
For a gathering where everyone enjoys conversation, I’d start with Would You Rather or Most Likely To. If your guests are more competitive, Bingo or Scattergories can easily become the main event. And if the group includes people who love to laugh at themselves, Charades or Pictionary could be the most memorable part of the evening.
Make Thanksgiving About More Than the Meal
I love Thanksgiving traditions that bring everyone together without adding more work to an already busy holiday. After spending time preparing dinner, setting the table, and making sure everyone has enough to eat, it’s nice to have a few activities that don’t require another major production.
Some families enjoy competitive games, while others would rather sit around laughing at funny questions or sharing stories from past holidays. There’s room for both, and you don’t have to organize an entire afternoon of entertainment to make the gathering memorable. Even one good game can keep everyone talking long after the dishes are cleared.
If your guests enjoy a little extra holiday humor, a few funny Thanksgiving jokes can also keep the laughter going between games. The best Thanksgiving memories often come from the unexpected moments, whether that’s someone giving a completely ridiculous answer, discovering a hidden talent for drawing, or becoming far more competitive about Bingo than anyone anticipated.