Thanksgiving Activities, Games, and Prizes

Thanksgiving Party Entertainment Ideas 

Before you know it, turkey day will be here and you might be the one in charge of entertaining friends and family on this beloved American holiday. Luckily, there are plenty of fun activities, games and prizes that can keep your guests entertained long after a big Thanksgiving dinner.  Plan to donate some of your time to benefit others, too!

Thanksgiving Theater Games

Do you have aspiring child actors in the family? Not only will the dramatic love creating their own stick puppets, but they’ll also relish coming up with a Thanksgiving play. Use the puppets as a learning tool about what happened on the first Thanksgiving when the pilgrims arrived in America. Even adults can get in on the fun and can take turns presenting their puppets to show the children what they know about the first Thanksgiving.

Free Thanksgiving Games

Adults and children will get a kick out of playing Thanksgiving charades, but keep things interesting and go beyond the usual Thanksgiving symbols like turkey, pilgrims and Native Americans. Have each person in the group come up with five things they are thankful for and write each on a separate slip of paper. Put all the papers in a bowl, mix them up, and have players take turns acting out whatever they pull out of the bowl. As a bonus, see if anyone can guess who was thankful for that particular thing.

Deliver holiday gifts.

Turkey Pins

Nothing says Thanksgiving quite like a turkey. Imagine a craft your guests can make and keep for Thanksgiving celebrations for years to come. Combine foam, feathers and googly eyes to create miniature turkey pins. Have extra glue, glitter, and sequins around for those who wish to add a little sparkle to their turkeys. For personalized turkey pins, cut out pictures you have of your guests and paste their faces on the pins.

Reflections

This activity will get adults and children thinking about what they are most thankful for. After a delicious Thanksgiving meal, have each person say why they are thankful for the person to their right. Then, have everyone around the table name something they are specifically thankful for in the current year. Make it a Thanksgiving tradition and have someone serve as the designated “record keeper.” Each year, pull out the record of what everyone has been thankful for and enjoy reminiscing about Thanksgivings from past years.

Thanksgiving Football Fun

Not everyone wants to watch football all afternoon on Thanksgiving weekend, so make sure your guests have plenty of opportunities to participate in football-themed activities and games. Besides playing traditional touch-football in the yard, family and friends will get a kick out of a flick football game. This is a game that can be played inside if the fall air has gotten too chilly for a full-sized game outdoors.

Donate prizes and knick-knacks.

Thanksgiving Prizes- Don’t send them home empty-handed

Who had the best pumpkin pie this year? Who won charades? Did grandpa correctly predict the scores of the Thanksgiving Day football games? Don’t let anyone go home empty handed! A good host will find plenty of reasons to award prizes to each guest at their Thanksgiving party. Personalized items to commemorate the day always make for a special prize, as well as goodie bags. Fill orange and brown gift bags with candy and tie with Thanksgiving-themed ribbon.

Give Back to Those in Need

After giving thanks for all the fun you had playing games and working on activities together, donate your favors, toiletries, and nick knacks to Operation Christmas Child or another charitable organization.  Spread Thanksgiving love and well being to others!

Add Fun to Fall Functions with Photo Props & Stand-Ins

From the first of the harvest festivals to Oktoberfest and beyond, you can add both to décor and to event activities with a fun fall Photo Stand In from ShindigZ Party.

Here’s the scoop on our photo stand-ins. Colorful and theme-perfect, they have cutouts for attendees to place their faces for hilarious photo keepsakes. Some are right-sized for setting up on a table, counter or bar, while others are tall enough to sit on the floor near the entrance or other center of the party action. The tall stand-ins can be personalized with two lines of event information or seasonal message or greeting. All are free-standing cardboard pieces that are reusable if handled and stored with care.

For any sort of fall theme, pick out a fall harvest standup large or small. These photo ops feature scarecrows and harvest fruits and colors from down on the farm.

Greet Oktoberfest guests with a large, personalized Oktoberfest Photo Stand-In along with other pieces from our full line of Oktoberfest Party Decorations.

Looking for something a little more haunting? Our selection of Halloween photo cutouts gives you choices of classic Halloween characters and cut-out faces for one or two people at a time.

Photo props and stand-ins are sure to add an unexpected, extra punch of decorating flair as well as a favored activity to your fall events. Visit our Photo Stand In pages to match a photo prop to your event!

Invitations to a Fall Harvest Party

Apples, leaves, pumpkins – add these together and you have a bushel full of fun for a fall harvest party! To get your friends excited about the season, invite them to celebrate with you by sending one of these clever invitations:

Collect an array of fall leaves from your yard. Place them as a stencil on card stock. Using fall colored spray paint, lightly spray the card then remove the leaf. You should have a nice outline of a leaf on the front of your card! Be sure to give all the party details on the inside!

If you can hand deliver your invitations, here’s an idea that is sure to spice up the season. For each invite, attach a small note with raffia to the stem of a small pumpkin or apple. Tell your guests that they are sure to reap heaps of harvest fun at this event!

If you aren’t the crafty type and wish to use the mail instead, simply use a basic party invitation and stuff it full of fall leaf confetti!

Check out all of our party supplies for more ideas on how to host a fabulous fall party!

Decorations for a Festive Fall Harvest Party

If you are hosting your party outdoors, the fall foliage and cool weather go a long way in creating a festive atmosphere for a fall harvest party.

Outdoor Decorations:
• To make the outside of your home look warm and welcoming, use a few bales of hay, cornstalks, pumpkins and gourds, dried Indian corn, a jointed scarecrow, and a lighted candy corn.
• Weather permitting, adorn your front porch with a giant cornstalk and jointed scarecrow.

If, however, the weather doesn’t cooperate . . . or you find an indoor party more suitable to your needs, we have the following products to help you feel like you are outside enjoying the autumn air!

Indoor Decorations:
• Hang our 4 foot high paper oak tree on the walls around your room!
• A much less messy alternative to the real thing, autumn cornstalks are the perfect accent for your gathering.
• Never underestimate the power of decorating with balloons. Balloons can turn any space into a festive and inviting atmosphere in minutes at a very low cost. You need not use helium, and will save money using this tip. Inflate harvest colored balloons, and tie a 5-8 foot piece of yellow, red or orange curling ribbon to the end of each one. Using scotch tape, masking tape, or straight pins, hang balloons down from the ceiling so they hang at different lengths. Curl the loose end of the ribbon with scissors. Group a bunch of them together over a serving table, over a doorway, or in any creative manner you choose.
• A child’s red wagon filled with pumpkins, Indian corn, and gourds looks adorable positioned in a corner of a room.
• Grapevines and bittersweet are other natural fall decorating tools. Wrap them around banisters, drape them across a mantle or line your doorways with their garland.
• These leaves don’t need to be raked! The autumn leaves decorations give a realistic touch to your event!

Tableware and Napkins:
• Start your table decorations off with choosing fall colored plastic plates. Cover your tables with a coordinating autumn tablecovering.
• Place each plate on a 12” paper leaf and balloon pumpkins as a simple but smashing centerpiece!
• Place a mini haybale at each place setting. These also make great placecard holders!
• For another centerpiece option, try harvest corn tapers.
• Top the whole look off with a bit of fall sparkle by sprinkling irridescent leaf confetti down the center of the table!

A Fall Harvest Party is a fantastic ommunity event. Check out all of our Party Decorations for more ideas!

Festive Activities for a Fall Harvest Party

Rake up all those leaves that have fallen in your front yard and play Leaf Pile Hunt. Hide lots of wrapped candy in the leaf pile and let the kids hunt in the pile for the surprises.

Try your hand at bowling on grass; use a pumpkin as a ball and 2-liter pop containers as pins!

For a creative, fun relay race, have your guests line up in two lines standing single file. The object is to pass an apple down the line using anything but hands (chin, legs, or elbows all work!). The first team that gets their apple down the line wins!

Have a pumpkin seed spitting contest.

Bob for apples – a Fall Harvest party must!

For the youngest partygoers, a game of Musical Hay bales is a sure way to prevent guests from “leafing” the party!

Gather up some Indian corn and have a corn-husking race. Award prices for the most done in 1 or 3 minutes.

Have a rip-roaring bond fire complete with marshmallows and a sing-a-long!

Last, but certainly not least, provide your guests with a horse drawn hayride for an autumn festive feeling! If you can’t find a horse, a tractor is the next best thing!

Tell us your Fall Harvest party ideas!

Party Favors for a Fall Harvest Party

With the harvest bounty in season, why not use it as a token of appreciation to your fellow partiers? Here are a few ideas:

A bag of apples with a small jar of homemade caramel sauce is a nice favor to give away.

A small basket filled with mini pumpkins and gourds.

Take out boxes filled with popcorn, nuts, and candy corn!

A witch finger pen is sure to delight kids of all ages!

Check out our Party Favors and  Halloween Party Tips for more ideas!