With Thanksgiving just around the corner, you may be stressing out about seeing family again, or excited to see them! Thanksgiving is a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest. However, everyone’s families and relationships with their families are different and that is okay. If you don’t already have some fun family traditions or watch football, Thanksgiving can feel like weeks instead of just a few hours. Throughout this article, you will learn about some fun games or activities that you can do to help enjoy the time that you spend with your family this Thanksgiving.
If the time seems to drag waiting for dinner:
You and your family might try to come up with or play games. There are several fun things that your family could try out this Thanksgiving. One that is very simple would be to bring some of your families’ favorite board games. They are cheap and accessible and straightforward to bring up in conversation. Another game that could be tried out if the weather allows would be corn hole. It is an awesome way to be competitive but gets a conversation going between you and your family members. Lastly, you could plan some minute to win it games to really start up the party with a laugh. There are quite a few hilarious minutes to win it games that you could play in the minute to win a Thanksgiving tournament. This website has lots of examples of various rounds or activities that you could do, how to play, and an example of how to keep score. (https://www.playpartyplan.com/minute-to-win-it-games-for-kids/)
If you struggle to start conversations at the dinner table:
After the food is all on the table and everyone has started to eat, it might get quiet or the conversation can die down. One way to start a conversation is to go around the table and name off things that you are grateful for, this can be about goals that you have accomplished, names of family and friends or pets, etc. Another option for an activity would be to write conversation starters down on a notecard and pass them around the table, each person getting to start a new conversation and answer the question that they ask. A great website to look at for a list of conversation starters would be (https://www.realsimple.com/holidays- entertaining/holidays/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-conversation-starters)
After dinner fun:
If after dinner your family stays around for some more festive fun, there are lots of other fun activities to do to bring you into the next season CHRISTMAS! You could play a classic take on the white elephant game. Instead of normal white elephant gifts, everyone must strictly bring a gift that is Christmas related. That way everyone can go into the next holiday season with some new Christmas gear or decorations. This game is also sometimes called Dirty Turkey played specifically at Thanksgiving. The rules for White Elephants are very well explained in the following article. (https://www.whiteelephantrules.com)