Thanksgiving party games for adults can turn the quiet stretches between dinner, dessert, and leftovers into some of the best parts of the gathering.
This list includes funny group games, Thanksgiving table games, easy icebreakers and Friendsgiving activities.
Most require little preparation, so you can choose a few favorites without turning game night into another major holiday project.
Thanksgiving Dinner Table Games
These easy Thanksgiving games can be played around the dinner table without clearing space or gathering many supplies.
Thanksgiving Would You Rather
Prepare a list of Thanksgiving-themed choices and take turns answering them around the table.
Questions could include:
- Would you rather give up turkey or pie?
- Would you rather cook the entire meal or wash every dish?
- Would you rather attend a formal Thanksgiving dinner or a casual Friendsgiving?
- Would you rather eat Thanksgiving leftovers for a week or never have them again?
- Would you rather watch football or the Thanksgiving parade?
Players can simply explain their answers or vote by raising their hands. Add a few ridiculous questions to keep the conversation from becoming too predictable.
RELATED: 50 Thanksgiving Would You Rather Questions to Turn Into a Game
Thanksgiving Trivia
Divide guests into teams and test their knowledge of Thanksgiving traditions, foods, history and pop culture.
Include a mixture of easy and challenging questions so everyone has a chance to contribute. Categories could include:
- Thanksgiving history
- Holiday movies and television
- Food and cooking
- Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
- Football
- Fall traditions
Award one point for each correct answer. The team with the most points at the end wins.
Thanksgiving Bingo
Create bingo cards featuring words or pictures associated with Thanksgiving, such as turkey, pumpkin pie, football, gravy, cranberry sauce and fall leaves.
Call each item randomly and have guests cover the matching spaces. The first person to complete a row wins.
You can also create a Thanksgiving dinner bingo game based on things likely to happen during the gathering. Spaces might include “someone asks for seconds,” “a dish is forgotten in the kitchen” or “someone falls asleep after dinner.”
Thanksgiving Price Is Right
Choose several Thanksgiving groceries and household items before the party. Display the products one at a time and ask guests to guess the current price.
Possible items include:
- A frozen turkey
- A can of cranberry sauce
- A box of stuffing
- A pumpkin pie
- A bag of potatoes
- A jar of gravy
The player whose guess comes closest without going over earns a point. The person with the most points after the final item wins.
Two Truths and a Thanksgiving Lie
Each guest shares three Thanksgiving statements about themselves. Two must be true and one must be false.
For example:
- I once burned the Thanksgiving turkey.
- I have never watched the Thanksgiving parade.
- Pumpkin pie is my favorite dessert.
The rest of the group votes on which statement is the lie. This works particularly well as a Thanksgiving icebreaker when guests do not all know one another.
Thanksgiving Conversation Bowl
Write conversation prompts on slips of paper and place them inside a bowl. Pass the bowl around the table and let each person answer one question.
Try prompts such as:
- What Thanksgiving food could you happily skip?
- What is your favorite fall memory?
- What dish would you add to the traditional Thanksgiving menu?
- What is the funniest thing that has happened at a family gathering?
- What is one small thing you’re grateful for this year?
Use a combination of funny, thoughtful, and nostalgic questions to keep the conversation varied.
Funny Thanksgiving Group Games
These funny Thanksgiving games for adults work best after dinner when everyone is ready to move away from the table and laugh.
Thanksgiving Charades
Write Thanksgiving foods, traditions, and activities on individual slips of paper. Divide everyone into teams and take turns acting out the prompts without speaking.
Ideas include:
- Carving a turkey
- Making mashed potatoes
- Watching football
- Falling asleep after dinner
- Fighting over the last dinner roll
- Marching in a parade
- Baking pumpkin pie
- Shopping on Black Friday
Give each player one minute to help their team guess as many prompts as possible.
Thanksgiving Pictionary
Thanksgiving Pictionary follows the same basic idea as charades, but players must draw each word instead of acting it out.
Use a dry-erase board, large sketchpad or sheets of paper. The artist cannot speak, use gestures or write letters and numbers.
Simple prompts such as turkey, pie and football are easy to draw, while gravy boat, wishbone and Thanksgiving parade make the game more challenging.
Who Am I? Thanksgiving Edition
Write the name of a Thanksgiving person, food, object or character on each sticky note. Place one note on every player’s forehead without letting them see it.
Players mingle and ask yes-or-no questions to determine their identities.
Possible answers include:
- A turkey
- Pumpkin pie
- A parade balloon
- A football player
- Cranberry sauce
- A pilgrim
- The Thanksgiving host
- A Black Friday shopper
The first player to correctly identify their answer wins, or continue until everyone solves theirs.
Thanksgiving Categories
Choose a Thanksgiving-related category and have players take turns naming something that belongs in it.
Categories might include:
- Thanksgiving foods
- Things found on a dinner table
- Fall activities
- Reasons to be thankful
- Foods made with pumpkin
- Things seen in a parade
- Thanksgiving words beginning with a specific letter
Anyone who repeats an answer, gives an incorrect response or takes too long is eliminated from the round. The last remaining player wins.
Forbidden Thanksgiving Words
Choose three to five common Thanksgiving words that guests are not allowed to say during the party.
Forbidden words could include:
- Turkey
- Dinner
- Thankful
- Pie
- Football
Give every guest three clothespins, bracelets or tokens at the beginning. If someone hears another player say a forbidden word, they collect one of that person’s tokens.
At the end of the designated playing time, the guest with the most tokens wins.
Thanksgiving Telephone
Have everyone sit in a circle. Whisper a Thanksgiving sentence to the first player, who then whispers it to the next person.
Continue until the message reaches the final player. That person announces what they heard before the original sentence is revealed.
Start with detailed messages such as, “Uncle Joe dropped the pumpkin pie while dancing beside the Thanksgiving table.” The longer and stranger the sentence, the funnier the final result usually becomes.
Friendsgiving Party Games for Adults
These Friendsgiving games add more personality to a casual dinner with friends, coworkers or other adult groups.
Friendsgiving Awards
Create funny award categories and let guests anonymously nominate one another.
Categories could include:
- Most Likely to Bring Store-Bought Pie
- Best Thanksgiving Plate
- Most Likely to Take Home All the Leftovers
- First Person Ready for Christmas
- Most Competitive Game Player
- Best Friendsgiving Outfit
- Most Likely to Fall Asleep After Dinner
Count the votes and announce the winners near the end of the party. Simple paper certificates or inexpensive prizes can make the results feel more official.
Never Have I Ever: Holiday Edition
Players take turns reading Thanksgiving and holiday-themed “Never Have I Ever” statements. Anyone who has done the activity raises a hand or earns a point.
Examples include:
- Never have I ever burned part of Thanksgiving dinner.
- Never have I ever pretended to like someone’s cooking.
- Never have I ever eaten pie for breakfast.
- Never have I ever forgotten to thaw the turkey.
- Never have I ever hidden from a holiday guest.
- Never have I ever gone shopping on Thanksgiving night.
- Never have I ever taken home leftovers without asking.
Keep the prompts light enough for the group and avoid questions likely to make guests uncomfortable.
Guess Who Brought It
This Thanksgiving potluck game works best when several guests contribute dishes.
Assign each dish a number and ask everyone to guess who prepared or purchased it. Guests can inspect and taste the food, but the cooks cannot reveal which dish belongs to them.
Award one point for each correct guess. You can also add bonus categories for the most surprising dish, best presentation or most popular food.
Active Thanksgiving Party Games
A couple of active games can help revive the party after a large meal.
Pumpkin Sweep Race
Give each player a small artificial pumpkin and a broom. Mark a starting line and finish line across the room or yard.
Players must sweep their pumpkins through the course without touching them with their hands. Because pumpkins do not roll evenly, they often travel in unexpected directions.
Race individually or divide everyone into teams and turn it into a Thanksgiving relay.
Turkey Bowling
Decorate six or ten empty plastic bottles to look like turkeys, then arrange them like bowling pins.
Players roll a small artificial pumpkin or ball from behind a marked line. Give each person two attempts and record the number of pins knocked down.
The player with the highest score wins. For a larger Thanksgiving party, run several rounds and let the top scorers compete in a final game.
Choosing Games for a Thanksgiving Dinner Party
The best Thanksgiving party games depend on the group and the amount of time available.
Conversation games, trivia and bingo work well during dinner or dessert. Charades, Pictionary and active games are better once guests have moved away from the table.
For a relaxed gathering, choose two or three games instead of trying to play the entire list. One table game, one funny group game and one active challenge will give the party plenty of variety.
Thanksgiving Games for Large Groups and Office Potlucks
Team games are usually easiest for large Thanksgiving gatherings because fewer people need to take individual turns.
Thanksgiving Trivia, Charades, Pictionary and Categories can all be played in teams. Forbidden Thanksgiving Words can run quietly in the background throughout an office party or Thanksgiving potluck.
For groups that do not know one another well, begin with Thanksgiving Would You Rather or Two Truths and a Thanksgiving Lie before moving into more competitive games.
A few simple Thanksgiving games can give guests something to do, make introductions easier and keep the party going long after dinner is finished.
