Thanksgiving Games for Kids
Thanksgiving can feel like a really long day when you’re a kid. Everyone is cooking, family is coming over, and somehow the kids start asking when it’s time to eat before half the food is even ready.
Having a few Thanksgiving games for kids planned gives them something fun to do while they wait. I like having a mix because sometimes they need to get up and move around, and other times you just need something that will keep them busy at the table for a little while.
Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt
A scavenger hunt is always an easy one because you can make it work with whatever you already have around the house.
Send the kids looking for Thanksgiving and fall things like a pumpkin, something orange, a family photo, a football, fall leaves, something brown, or something that smells like cinnamon.
If you have older kids playing too, make a few of the items harder to find or give the harder ones more points. You can also pair younger kids with an older sibling or cousin and let them work together.
Roll a Turkey Dice Game
Give each child a piece of paper and a die, then assign a different part of the turkey to each number.
1 = Body
2 = Head
3 = Eyes
4 = Feet
5 = Wings
6 = Feathers
Each time they roll, they draw the part that matches their number. Keep going until everyone has finished their turkey.
The turkeys usually end up looking completely different from each other, which is half the fun.
Thanksgiving This or That
This is a good one when you need something you can start without setting anything up.
Ask the kids Thanksgiving This or That questions like:
Pumpkin pie or apple pie?
Turkey or ham?
Mashed potatoes or mac and cheese?
Hot chocolate or apple cider?
Watch football or play football?
Help cook or help clean up?
Take a nap or play a game?
Thanksgiving dinner or Thanksgiving dessert?
You can have everyone call out their answers or make it more active by having kids move to different sides of the room depending on their choice.
Turkey Hunt
Hide a little turkey somewhere in the house and send the kids looking for it.
It can be a toy turkey, a paper one you printed out, or even a turkey you quickly draw and cut out. If you have several kids playing, hide multiple turkeys and see who can find the most.
For little kids, keep them somewhere they can actually spot them. Older kids can handle some harder hiding places or clues leading them from one turkey to the next.
Thanksgiving Minute to Win It Games
If the kids have been sitting around for too long, this is when I’d pull out the Minute to Win It games.
Set a timer for one minute and give them a simple challenge. They could race to stack plastic cups, move pom-poms from one bowl to another with a spoon, toss small balls into cups, or see who can build the tallest cup tower before the timer goes off.
You don’t need a whole bunch of challenges either. Two or three is enough to get everyone moving for a while.
Thanksgiving I Spy
Thanksgiving I Spy is a good one to save for when everyone needs to settle down a little.
Give each child an I Spy page and have them find and count all of the Thanksgiving pictures. It’s something they can do at the kids’ table while dinner is being finished or later in the day when everyone needs a quieter activity.
For younger kids, let them work together instead of making it a competition.
Thanksgiving Candy Dice Game
This one is especially fun if you already have leftover Halloween candy around.
Everyone starts with a few pieces of candy and takes turns rolling a die. Depending on the number they roll, they might take candy, give a piece to someone else, put one back in the middle, or skip their turn.
Your printable Candy Dice game starts everyone with four pieces and gives each number on the die its own action. The first person to collect 10 pieces wins.
Just be prepared for this one to get surprisingly competitive once candy is involved.
Thanksgiving Word Race
Write THANKFUL at the top of a piece of paper and see how many smaller words the kids can make using only those letters.
Give everyone a few minutes and then compare answers when the timer goes off.
For older kids, you can make it more competitive by crossing out any words that two or more people wrote. The person with the most unique words left wins.
What’s Your Turkey Name?
This one is silly, but I can see the kids having a lot of fun with it.
Each child uses the first letter of their first name and their birth month to find their turkey name. The printable mixes names like Henny, Snood, Gobbler, Gravy, Puffy, and Peep Peep with endings like Long Legs, Fancy Tail, Wing Flapper, McTurkey, Four Feathers, and Yamster.
Once everyone knows their name, go around the room and let them share. You could also give them paper and have them draw what they think their turkey would look like.
Thanksgiving Think Fast
For Think Fast, give the kids a category and have them come up with three answers as quickly as they can.
Try things like Thanksgiving foods, types of pie, things that are orange, Thanksgiving activities, fall colors, or parts of a turkey.
Kids can play individually or pair up if you have younger and older kids together.
Thanksgiving Trivia for Kids
Thanksgiving trivia is another one that works well when everyone is already sitting around together.
Ask questions about Thanksgiving, turkeys, fall, and Thanksgiving traditions. If some of the questions are too hard for younger kids, put them on teams with an older sibling, cousin, or adult.
The Thanksgiving printable game bundle has a 10-question multiple-choice Thanksgiving Trivia game along with an answer key.
You don’t have to make it super competitive. Sometimes it’s more fun just seeing what everyone thinks the answer is.
Thanksgiving Word Unscramble
Give the kids a list of scrambled Thanksgiving words and see who can figure them out first.
Younger kids can work with a partner while older kids try to finish the list on their own.
Thanksgiving Riddles
Riddles are easy to pull out when everyone is already sitting around the table and you want something the kids and adults can laugh about together.
Read one at a time and let everyone guess before giving the answer. You can keep score if your kids like a little competition, but you definitely don’t have to.
Sometimes the completely wrong guesses end up being funnier than the actual answers anyway.
Thanksgiving Word Search
A word search is one of the quieter options on this list, so I’d save this one for when you actually want the kids to sit down for a little while.
The Thanksgiving word search in my Thanksgiving Game Bundle has words like celebration, November, pilgrim, wishbone, gratitude, Thanksgiving, cranberries, pumpkin, turkey, stuffing, tradition, fall, and feast. It also includes an answer key.
Set a few copies and pencils on the kids’ table and they can work on them whenever they want.
Make Thanksgiving Easier with Printable Games
If you want some of the games already made for you, I put together a Thanksgiving Family Games Printable Bundle with several games that work well for kids too.
For the kids, I’d choose from games like Thanksgiving A-Z Race, Scattergories, Finish the Phrase, Word Unscramble, Candy Dice, This or That, the THANKFUL Word Game, Think Fast, What’s Your Turkey Name, I’m Grateful For, Thanksgiving Trivia, Fact or Fiction, Thank You Around the World, Word Search, and Thanksgiving Riddles. Many of the games that need them also come with answer keys.
You definitely don’t need to print everything. Since it’s a family game bundle, I’d pick a few of the kid-friendly pages ahead of time and keep another one or two ready in case you need something else to do later in the day.
Thanksgiving A-Z Race
For another word game, give each child a sheet with the alphabet from A to Z and have them come up with a Thanksgiving-related word for every letter.
Some letters will be really easy, and then they’ll get to letters like Q and X and realize this is a little harder than it looked.
For younger kids, let them work in teams so they can help each other with the harder letters.
Thanksgiving Fact or Fiction
Read a Thanksgiving statement and have everyone decide whether they think it’s true or false.
Kids can call out their answers, write them down, or move to opposite sides of the room for FACT and FICTION.
Don’t reveal the answer until everyone has picked. It’s much more fun when someone is completely confident and then finds out they were wrong.
I’m Grateful For
After all the games, this is a nice quieter activity to pull out.
Give each child a page and have them write about some of the things they’re thankful for. Younger kids could draw pictures instead if they don’t want to write very much.
There’s a lined I’m Grateful For page included in the Thanksgiving printable game bundle that you can use for this.
A Few More Thanksgiving Activities for Kids
Not every Thanksgiving activity has to turn into a full game. If the kids need something quieter to do, put out coloring sheets, let them make place cards for dinner, or set out some paper and crayons so they can draw their own turkeys.
And I wouldn’t try to plan something for every minute of Thanksgiving. Pick two or three games that you think your kids will actually enjoy, have a quieter activity ready for the table, and keep one extra game tucked away in case everyone starts getting restless.
That gives you enough to keep them busy without making Thanksgiving feel like another day you have to completely schedule.
