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Dinner is the big focus on Thanksgiving, which often leaves us with a “Now what?” feeling after all the plates have been cleared. Many families break off into groups of those who retire to the couch and those who are stuck with never ending kitchen duty. This year, keep the family together by playing some after dinner games.
DON’T STEP ON THE CRANBERRIES
For this game, you will need red Solo cups and a blindfold. Arrange the cups upside down on the floor in a random pattern. Players are blindfolded and must pass from one end of the cups to the other without touching any of them. Players can walk, run or jump, but it is not recommended to slide your feet as there is a greater chance of touching a cup. It is not as easy as it sounds.
THE TURKEY DANCE
Remember the telephone game where you whisper something in one person’s ear and it changes as it travels down the line? This is the same thing but with dance moves. Players stand in a line facing away from the first dancer. The second person in line turns to face the dancer and watches their quick routine. Then that player must perform that same routine (or their best version) to the next person in line, as the first person turns back around. This goes down the line with players turning to watch the routine and perform it themselves. Warning: This game may cause rolling laughter for both the players and the observers.
LAST TURKEY STANDING
This is a simple game for all ages and can be played at the table, in a large room or seated in the living room. All players take turns giving their best turkey gobble while trying to make the other players laugh. However, if you laugh, you are out. Everyone keeps playing until the last turkey is standing. This game can also be played with players telling “Dad Jokes.” You can prepare some ahead of time on pieces of paper for the players to draw and read aloud.
TURKEY DINNER
This game is like musical chairs. To play, you will need paper plates and a marker. Write the names of items that you might find at a Thanksgiving dinner—turkey, cranberries, Grandma, etc. You will need enough plates for each player, minus one. Players sit in a circle and pass the plates around until the host shouts out two of the items. The players holding those plates must get up and run over to the other person’s spot first. The last one there is out, along with that plate. The last person and plate is the winner.
WHITE ELEPHANT BINGO
For this game, everyone brings a White Elephant gift that is wrapped (or the host can supply all the gifts). Players play the same number of rounds of Bingo as you have prizes for. You can find printable Thanksgiving Bingo cards online and assign someone to be the caller. For each round, the winner gets to pick a gift or steal one that is already opened. We usually put a three-steal limit rule in place. If you don’t want to do White Elephant, baskets from the dollar store are usually a hit.
TURKEY CHALLENGES
This is a new one for our family this year. There are dozens of social media challenges that you can try with your family which show off everyone’s turkey talents (or weaknesses). Try silly ones like the Catch the Cup Challenge, Stairs Challenge, Sit to Stand Challenge and Skipping Challenge. If there are pets involved, you can try the cute Level Up Challenge, which has pets jumping over tape or toilet paper rolls. You can also create your own challenges like hula hoop contests, family trivia contests or Name that Tune.
THE GREAT TURKEY RACE
This game is a spinoff of the board game Horse Racing. For this game, you will need 12 mini rubber ducks (look for Thanksgiving themed ones), a poster board, a pair of dice, a deck of cards and poker chips or coins. Create a board with 12 columns across and 8 rows down. Number the columns 2-12 and put a duck on the top of each. After removing the Aces, Kings and Jokers from the deck, deal 4 cards for each player, which you leave face up in front of you. These are the numbers for your Turkeys. Before each race, have someone roll the dice four times to eliminate four Turkeys. Players with those Turkey numbers add a chip to the pot. For the race, players take turns rolling dice to move a Turkey forward, adding chips to the pot if they roll an eliminated Turkey number. The first horse to the finish line is the winner. All players with that card number split the pot.
Pam Molnar is a freelance writer and mother of three. Holidays at their house include lots of food, laughter and of course, games.