22 Fun Thanksgiving Activities for Families to Dig Into

Shila:  Playing a lively board game has been a long-standing family Thanksgiving tradition in my parents' house for years. Every Thanksgiving, we play a different game into the night! I'm partial to family board games like Taboo, Pictionary, or Apples To Apples because they're best enjoyed by multiple players and appropriate for all ages to play. Plus, they're so fun.

Sue Krawitz Tandoc:  Kids love to help out in the kitchen and making dessert together is a fun way to get them involved in the meal preparation. Try a new recipe or have the kids help choose something that says Thanksgiving to them. You could also use a generations-old family recipe and teach them how it's important to your family.

Sarah Calamita:  I love this easy, cute and festive recipe!

Sarah Calamita:  Do Thanksgiving crafts together! I love the thankful turkey.

Vanessa M.:  We've enjoyed the tradition of creating a Thankful Pumpkin the past few Thanksgivings, and it has become something my whole family looks forward to doing together on Thanksgiving Day. Using permanent markers, have each person write what they are most thankful for on a pumpkin. It is a wonderful visual reminder of all we have to be thankful for, and makes a great table centerpiece.

Shila:  One of my fondest activities for Thanksgiving growing up was watching the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. Even if nobody was in the room sitting and actually watching, it was still on for our family to hear all the excitement and cheer. The parade typically showcases popular musicians, Broadway talent, gigantic floats and more. My kids enjoy the extra TV time, and I try to sit down for a minute with them to enjoy it too.

Shila:  Two lucky members at the table each grab a side of the wishbone and pull. Whoever gets the larger piece of the bone gets to close their eyes and make a wish! If you want to skip the 2-3 day wait time for a dry and brittle wishbone that snaps nicely instead of bends, you can pop it into the still-warm oven while you eat and it should be ready by dessert!

Kelly R:  For a fun spin on the ugly holiday sweater contest, try a silly socks contest instead! Have everyone come to Thanksgiving dinner wearing the craziest pair of Thanksgiving socks they can find.

Kelly R:  With a white tablecloth or runner on your table, have everyone present for the Thanksgiving dinner write something they are thankful for in Sharpie or fabric marker and sign their name. Carefully launder the tablecloth, and you can bring it out again each year to repeat as an annual Thanksgiving activity and enjoy looking back on past years!

Alexandra F.:  In the days leading up to Thanksgiving we break out our poster paints and paint a big tree, minus the leaves, on big sheets of paper. We also cut out large leaves using colorful construction paper and put the tree up in a prominent area with a big pile of paper leaves nearby. Throughout Thanksgiving, we each write down things that we’re grateful for on a leaf to add to the tree (and invite any guests to do the same) - it’s such a fun and visual way to see and recall the many things we have to be thankful for!

Shila:  Watching football is one of the essential Thanksgiving activities for many families, and I like to create football bingo sheets or football squares to place fun, no pressure bets on. Earn points on which team scores the first touchdown, what the score is by halftime, heads or tails on the coin toss, etc.

If you have kids or family members in the house that aren't necessarily interested in the game itself, but still want to enjoy the company of others that do, this is a great way to engage everybody in the room on an activity together.

Shila:  Have a mini pumpkin "egg" hunt! Buy a dozen of those adorable mini pumpkins and hide them throughout your home for a fun thing to do this Thanksgiving. Hide them inside, outside, high and low. Kids can hunt for them and win prizes. Later, use the pumpkins as dinner table décor!

Kristy Pepping:  One of our favorite fun things to do on Thanksgiving is to go on a walk around the neighborhood or a nature preserve to help digest all that food. Depending on the weather, this could be a short couple block walk or a longer stroll. Either way, it's a fun way to unwind after dinner and get some exercise at the same time.

Kristy Pepping:  Expressing gratitude on Thanksgiving is a great lesson for kids. For a fun Thanksgiving activity, assign one family member each year to give a toast. Even younger kids can get in on that fun by giving them a turn to lead. And kids love to clink the glasses once it's over too!

Kelly R:  We have had a lot of fun filling out Thanksgiving Mad Libs stories together! The kids like taking charge of this Thanksgiving activity and surveying the adults for funny words to fill in the blanks.