Thanksgiving Games For The Whole Family
Thanksgiving is a day for togetherness, but after the first thirty minutes of small talk with your distant Aunt whose name you can’t remember, one day a year may feel like one too many. Luckily for you, we’ve put together a list of family friendly Thanksgiving games to keep you entertained in between dinner courses. There are mind-boggling strategy games, testing trivia questions and some downright bizarre takes on traditional board games. There’s bound to be something for everyone, even the fussy ones.
Snakesss
Ruin everyone’s good spirits - go on, it’s a special occasion.
If your family prides themselves on keeping the peace over the Thanksgiving table, Snakess is the ultimate test. Snakess is a social deduction game, where players are asked a question as a group and must discuss the answer. However, some players have been handed a Snake card - who’ll secretly try and sabotage the discussion and mislead the other players. If the players of Snakesss know each other well , Thanksgiving can become the site of betrayal, deceit and cunning deception.Just don’t blame us if you’re no longer on speaking terms after family game night.
Herd Mentality
Thanksgiving traditions may start to grow stale, but with Herd Mentality, it pays to be predictable.
This one’s so simple, you’ll pick it up even in the throws of a post-turkey coma. Players are asked questions and get rewarded for coming up with the same answer as the other players. Home Alone may not be your favourite Christmas film, but if you know it’s your parents’ favourite, you can tell a cheeky white lie to gain points. If you’re stuck with the same old relatives telling the same old stories, Herd Mentality is the perfect way to exploit their predictability.
Incohearent - Family Edition
A game where you try to make sense of gibberish. I SAID, A GAME WHERE YOU TRY AND MAKE SENSE OF GIBBERISH, GRANDMA.
Incoherent is a great icebreaker game for those who don’t mind sounding ridiculous. Cards have a combination of words that appear to be total nonsense, but sound like hidden phrases when read aloud. Players compete to guess as many phrases before the timer runs out. Depending on your Thanksgiving attendee list, there’s a NSFW version and a family edition available. Whatever you do, don’t confuse the two or you could end up watching Grandma utter some obscenities that may spoil your dinner.
Colorbrain
The trivia game for families that hate trivia games.
No one likes a know-it-all, and we know that trivia games can lead to familial rivalry. Luckily for you, Colourbrain takes all the competitive fun of a trivia game but allows everyone to get involved, no matter the ability. Players are asked colour related questions and respond with one of 11 colour cards in their hands. This could be anything from ‘what colours are the olympic rings’ to ‘what colour are all the Power-Rangers? ’If you’re more of a ‘street-smart’ cunning type, you also get rewarded points for questions other players get wrong. Take the family know-it-alls down a peg!
Bounce off
No need to overthink it, just bounce your troubles away.
If you’re tired of complicated strategy games or battles of the brains, 9 out of 10 doctors recommend bouncing balls onto a grid to create shapes. All players need to do is flip over a challenge card to determine a pattern, then race to recreate the pattern by bouncing balls onto a grid. The super simple objective makes this one perfect for younger children, just as long as Mum’s special occasion china is out of harm’s way.
Blockbuster
The Citizen Kane of movie trivia games (that’s a good thing by the way).
When faced with a motley crew of friends and relatives at Thanksgiving, a game involving shared film knowledge may not be an obvious choice. Grandma hasn’t watched anything made after 1972 and your Gen-Z cousin only watches anime. So what if I told you there was a movie based trivia game where everyone can use their own pool of film references? That game is Blockbuster. The game involves working in teams to pit the family against each other. No matter your taste, everyone can let their inner film-buff run wild.
Just One
For once you’re all on the same side!
Make peace after an intense dinner table debate with Just One, a co-operative word game where all players work together to discover as many mystery words as possible. Players give one word clues to help their teammates guess a word, but you’ll need to be inventive as identical clues don’t count. A game that relies on logic and problem solving rather than opinion or strategy is the perfect antidote to the intense dinner table debate that often breaks out over Thanksgiving.
Wits & Wagers - Party Edition
For when blind confidence runs in the family.
We all have that one stubborn family member, who’d bet their left leg on the fact Sydney is the capital of Australia only to be proved wrong. Now you can see how much they're willing to gamble with Wits and Wagers. Players are asked questions, then place bets on the right answer depending on how sure they are and bet on other player’s answers if you reckon they’re onto something. You can get surprisingly far making random guesses on other player’s answers. See the smug sense of pride drain from Uncle Steve’s eyes when he loses everything - good wholesome family fun.
Cranium
More stimulating than small talk with Great-Aunt Gertrude, that’s for sure.
If your Thanksgiving dinner isn’t the most exciting of occasions, wake up your brain with Cranium. The party game involves four different sections, each stimulating a different part of that big old brain of yours. With a creative round, a data round, a words round and a performance round, every family member can excel in different areas. Serving suggestion: enjoy cranium after the main course, as there’s enough variety to keep you awake until dessert.
Mean Girls
Get in loser, we’re ruining Thanksgiving.
If you can hear your inner Regina George calling to you over a polite family gathering, now is your chance to unleash pure chaos. The Mean Girls game acts as a real life burn book from the hit teen movie, where no one's secret is safe. Tear a page out of the burn book and answer scandalous questions about each other - all anonymously. Everyone then takes turns to read out the answers and guess who said what and wait for the catfight to ensue. Make sure all players are down for some light public ridicule, or one of you could end up wearing a neck brace to prom.
Cockroach Poker
Poker Face without the poker.
If you’re intrigued by the poker faces and double bluffs of traditional poker, but aren’t keen on the wading through the complicated rules, Cockroach poker is a great place to start. No need for antiquated kings, queens and aces, in this game the cards show cockroaches, rats and stink bugs. All you need to do is collect four of a kind through strategic thinking and an impenetrable poker face. Better still, the game only lasts fifteen minutes so even the kids can get involved. Now why do people play real poker again?
Throw throw burrito
A card game meets dodgeball, expect you’re dodging burritos. Obviously!
Have you ever sat round a table playing cards and thought to yourself, ‘this could be improved with flying burritos’? Of course you have. Players collect certain cards to earn points, but in order to steal points from one another, a Burrito dodgeball battle will ensue. Throw throw burrito is perfect for those who struggle to sit through a traditional card game, but approach with caution if the mention of dodgeball still gives you PE lesson flashbacks.
Hues and Cues
A whole new way to disagree with your family.
If you’ve ever been cornered by an armchair philosopher, you’ve probably been asked, ‘What if the colour I see as blue isn’t what you see as blue?’ Hues and Clues is the game to finally put that question to bed. Using only one and two-word clues, players try to get others to guess a specific hue from the 480 colors on the game board. Simple enough, but it won’t be long before you’re arguing over which shade of red is ‘the Coca-cola one.’ A great visual memory exercise and an even greater reason to disagree with your loved ones over something other than politics.
So the turkey was dry, the pumpkin pie was burnt and nobody remembered to bring any alcohol before the stores closed. Lets be thankful you came with such a bountiful selection of Thanksgiving games for the whole family to enjoy - or this year could have been a disaster. With the Holidays around the corner, there’s no doubt you’ll get some extra mileage out of this selection. If not, there’s always next year.
