7 Different After-Thanksgiving Activities for the Whole Family

This time of year, hundreds of thousands of people will take to the roads to begin their holiday travel. Most of them will more than likely be visiting family. After all, Thanksgiving is one of the most family-centered holidays!

There are many rituals that go along with this holiday, such as turkey, football, food comas, and napping. But if you’re looking to spice up those old Thanksgiving family traditions, these after-Thanksgiving dinner activities are fun for the entire family!

Thanksgiving Games with Free Printables

If you have access to a printer, we have some garet segam for your family to play. Oops! We scrambled those words, “great games” is what we meant to say.

Holiday Word Scramble

Get the gears turning with a game of word scramble. Moms & Munchkins has a Thanksgiving-themed word scramble game you can print out for free. It’s a great way to get both little readers and grownups involved!

Thanksgiving-themed Mad Libs

Looking for a game that will make those full tummies ache with laughter? Print out multiple copies of this Thanksgiving-themed mad-lib from My Sister’s Suitcase. Then, have everyone fill one out and read their text aloud! You’ll be sharing a laugh with your family before you know it — and you can even vote on the “funniest” mad-libber!

Thanksgiving Games for Crafty People

Turkey Bowling

There’s another way to recycle empty plastic soda bottles. “Bowling for Turkeys” from Make and Take is a game that combines crafting, bowling, and Thanksgiving fun. Start by upcycling plastic soda bottles into turkey-themed bowling pins. Then, arrange the pins in a triangular formation at the end of a hallway.

Move delicate lamps and ornaments out of the way, and you’re ready to start a family-wide bowling championship! As a fun bonus, the first person to make three strikes in a row (commonly called a “turkey” in bowling) can get an extra prize for their turkey-day turkey!

Paper Football Championship

Don’t have any old plastic bottles handy? Get crafty with the kids and help them create their own “paper footballs.” Once everyone’s got a paper football decorated in their team’s colors, get warmed up for a game of “flick football.”

The game consists of two players sitting on opposite sides of a table. They take turns “flicking” the paper ball to the opposite end of the table. A touchdown happens when the ball balances off the edge of the table (part of the football must be past the end of the table while the rest of it is supported by the playing surface) — in which case the scoring team gets a chance to shoot a field goal by attempting to flick the ball between the other players’ hands. Need a refresher on how to play paper football? Check out this video tutorial from Howcast.

Thanksgiving Games That Test Your Memory

“For Thanksgiving Dinner I Had” is a memory game from Sign-Up Genius that might make it to your family’s line-up of after-Thanksgiving dinner ideas. Here’s how it’s played:

Select the person to begin the game — by age, table position, or random drawing!
That person says, “For Thanksgiving dinner I had …” and mentions something he or she ate during the just-completed meal.
The next person repeats the phrase “For Thanksgiving dinner I had …” PLUS the food item the first person mentioned, then adds to that with something he or she ate.
Each subsequent player around the table opens with the “For Thanksgiving dinner I had …” phrase. They then list all of the menu items the previous players mentioned before adding to the list with their own food item.
If a player makes a mistake, they have to leave the game. (Or take a pumpkin pie break.) The winner is the one who recites the most food items without fumbling.

This game is a bit of a tongue twister, so if you want something easier that’s still memory-based try this classic match game from Mama’s Learning Corner. It’s free, printable, and Thanksgiving-themed!

Thanksgiving Games That Burn Calories

According to the Calorie Control Council, the average Thanksgiving meal can deliver 3,000 calories to your belly. Burn off some of them with fun games to play after Thanksgiving dinner.

Good Old-Fashioned Tag

Let’s Get Together suggests giving the classic game of “tag” a fun, seasonal twist. In “Turkey Tag,” everyone’s “it,” and the objective of the game is to take clip-on feather tails off of other player’s clothes. At the end of each round, the players count their feathers and the one with the most left wins!

Ready for the next challenge? If Turkey Tag didn’t get you going, “Pumpkin Roll” sure will!

Pumpkin Roll

The full rules for Pumpkin Roll can be found on Sign Up Genius. Simply put, the game involves rolling a pumpkin in a straight line. This is uniquely challenging due to the squash’s “odd” shape. But that’s what “Pumpkin Roll” players have to do if they want to win the race!

Here’s how it’s played:

Competitors line up at the starting point, each with a pumpkin in front of them.
When the race begins, each player must use their hands to roll their pumpkin to the finish line.

A couple of notes:

This game requires a lot of yard space.
If there are lots of players, you can make it a relay race with teams working together to complete the race.
If you burn TOO many calories, here are some great ways to enjoy those Thanksgiving leftovers!

Time for Family and Fun!

Have any after-Thanksgiving dinner activities to add to the list? Share them with the Direct Auto community in a comment below! You never know when a simple idea could turn into a lifelong tradition.