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Whether you eat Thanksgiving Dinner early or late in the day, try to make some time to play.

There’s nothing like a good play session to put everyone in good spirits and either wake up the appetite or work off some of that turkey and mash potatoes you’ve eaten.

Whether before or after dinner, check out these fun games this Thanksgiving.

Active Games

1. Turkey Tag

How to play:

  1. Put three clothes pins on everyone’s back.
  2. Try to remove other people’s pins.
  3. The winner is the last person with a single clothespin.

2. Balloon Race

How to play:

  1. Blow up a balloon for every person.
  2. Every one puts a balloon between their knees and races to a finish line.
  3. The winner is the person who gets their first without popping or dropping their balloon.

3. Gratitude Scavenger Hunt

How to play:

  1. Go to this site to download the printable list of clues
  2. Divide people into teams with 2 – 4 people.
  3. Everyone takes a camera and goes looking for the things on the list.
  4. Take a picture of the item. Return and share pics and stories.

Seated Games 

These games are old favorites for a reason. They never go out of style.

4. Charades

How to play:

  1. Someone starts by thinking of a book, movie or tv show.
  2. Using only mime, they try to give clues about what they chose.
  3. The winner is the person who guesses correctly.
  4. Use a charades clue generator to keep things fresh.

5. Fortunately/Unfortunately

How to play:

  1. A version of Hot Potato where players take turns to add a sentence to a story.
  2. Players go around in a circle and alternate starting the sentence with either “fortunately” or “unfortunately”  switching between the two all the time.
  3. Warning: this game can get messy as people kill off each other’s characters and storylines so best to play with very mature people.
  4. You can make rules that say that no one is allowed to kill a character and the story must stay true to the genre.

6. Pictionary

How to play:

  1. Like charades.
  2. Players are split into teams.
  3. One person per team is the one who draws the clue and the other guesses the clue.
  4. Winning team guesses the most words correctly.

These games should keep friends and family busy and occupied all through Thanksgiving weekend. Happy Playing!