Easy games to play at Thanksgiving dinner without a board include Two Truths and a Lie, Twenty Questions, the wishbone pull, guess the turkey weight, the gratitude alphabet, charades, and pass-the-phone daily puzzles like Halfsies where everyone plays the same three cuts.
The food takes hours. The talk runs dry in twenty minutes. Here is what to do with the gap.
Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26 this year. There will be a long stretch between sitting down and dessert, and at least one cousin who would rather be on their phone. These games fill that time without clearing the table or unpacking a box.
Every game here works with mixed ages, needs nothing but people and maybe a pen, and can stop the moment the pie comes out.
| Game | Players | Needs | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two Truths and a Lie | 4+ | Nothing | 10 to 20 min |
| Twenty Questions | 3+ | Nothing | 5 min a round |
| Guess the turkey weight | Any | Paper | 2 min |
| Gratitude alphabet | 3+ | Nothing | 5 to 10 min |
| Halfsies pass-the-phone | 2+ | One phone | 2 min each |
| Charades | 6+ | Paper slips | 20+ min |
| Who said it? | 5+ | Paper, a bowl | 15 min |
| The wishbone | 2 | The turkey | 10 seconds |
| Fork balance | Any | Cutlery | 5 min |
| Last word | 4+ | Nothing | 10 min |
Each person says three things about themselves. Two are true, one is made up. Everyone else votes on the lie. It works best with relatives who think they already know each other. Grandparents are often unbeatable at this.
One person thinks of something on the table, in the house or in the family. Everyone else gets twenty yes-or-no questions to find it. Keep it to things in the room for younger kids.
Before the bird comes out, everyone writes down how much they think it weighs. The cook reveals the real number from the packaging. Closest guess gets first pick of the leftovers.
Then take the middle of everyone's guesses. It is often closer than any single one, the same effect we cover in how to estimate jelly beans in a jar.
Go around the table. The first person names something they are thankful for starting with A, the next with B, and so on. Anyone who stalls for more than five seconds is out. Q, X and Z separate the creative from the stuck.
Halfsies is a free daily game where you get three hand-drawn objects and one cut each. You drag a line to split each object exactly in half by eye, and a scale weighs both halves. A perfect day is 300.
At the table it works as a contest because everybody gets the same three objects that day. Pass one phone around, or have each person play on their own. Each run takes about two minutes, and the scale makes the result impossible to argue with.
It runs in a browser with nothing to install, and there are apps for iPhone and Android. If you want the scoring in detail, see Halfsies scoring explained.
Everyone writes a movie, song or book title on a slip of paper and drops it in a bowl. Split into two teams and act them out with no talking. Save this one for after the main course, when people are ready to stand up.
Each person writes down a favourite memory from the past year, without a name, and folds it into a bowl. Someone reads them out one by one and the table guesses who wrote each. It doubles as the toast nobody had to prepare.
The oldest Thanksgiving game. Let the wishbone dry for a day or two first, or it bends instead of snaps. Two people each hold one side, make a wish and pull. Whoever ends up with the bigger piece gets the wish.
The usual advice is to grip your side low, close to where the two sides join. Whether it works is between you and the bird.
Hand someone a fork and a spoon and ask them to balance both on the rim of a glass using one toothpick. It can be done by locking the fork and spoon together at an angle so their weight sits under the rim. Let them struggle for a bit before anyone shows them.
One person says a word. The next person says a word that starts with the last letter of it. Turkey, yam, mashed, dinner, rolls. Repeat a word or pause too long and you are out. Last one standing picks the first slice of pie.
Two Truths and a Lie, Twenty Questions and the gratitude alphabet all work for kids and grandparents alike and need no equipment at all.
Two Truths and a Lie, Twenty Questions, the gratitude alphabet, Last Word, guess the turkey weight and pass-the-phone puzzles like Halfsies can all be played from your seat.
Halfsies works well because everyone gets the same three objects that day, so you can pass one phone around and compare scores out of 300. It is free and runs in any browser.
Mostly luck. Let the bone dry for a day or two so it snaps cleanly, and the common tip is to grip your side low, close to the joint.