5 Great Family Games to Play on Thanksgiving
Every Thanksgiving we get together with our family from both my side and my wife’s side and we spend the day together. We currently have 4 generations of family represented, and I’m so happy for our kids that they’re lucky enough to have all 4 of their grandparents, as well as 3 of their great-grandparents to spend lots of time with.
But, as I’m sure you can imagine and understand well, finding a common activity for everyone to enjoy isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do when you’re dealing with a group spanning 4 generations. But it’s a noble goal to strive for, because it’s special to see our 7-year-old and our 3-year-old playing together with their grandparents and great-grandparents - especially if everyone is having fun.
My wife’s family is very big into card games that can be played with a standard deck of cards - games like Spades or 99 - and those card games will always be a part of our festivities. But those games don’t exactly have the themes that will capture the attention of young kids, and sometimes they don’t accommodate enough players for a big party. And I also simply love bringing something new for everyone to try each year.
Last year ICECOOL was a big hit, and if you combine it together with ICECOOL2 it can accommodate up to 8 players at once. But, admittedly, the penguin flicking didn’t quite spark the interest of the great-grandparents. So this year I’ve already been putting a lot of thought into what could bring everybody together.
And so I’ve come up with 5 games to bring to Thanksgiving this year. You might say they combine the attractive simplicity of classic card games and party games with the style and themes that help them appeal to our kids too. I think they all work quite well starting right around our son’s age of 7 years old - and their widespread appeal truly earns that plus on the recommended age of 7+.
The times I spent with my mom and dad’s extended families on Thanksgiving and Christmas are some of my most vivid childhood memories - so I know that it’s family traditions like these that will mean a lot to our kids when they grow up. And I sincerely hope you find something on this list that adds a little fun to your next family gathering and helps you make your own memories.
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1. Skull
Designed by Hervé Marly and Published by Asmodee
I absolutely love Skull. It’s an incredibly fascinating bluffing game that I will play in a large group every single chance I get. It has elements of pressing your luck as well as reading your opponents’ tendencies and trying to untangle their logic. It can be an extremely deep dive down the rabbit hole for strategists, but the concept is extremely easy to understand and play.
All you have to do is choose to put down a skull card or a rose card in front of you face down. At a certain point, someone will start the bidding and announce how many roses they think they can uncover before they find a skull. You can raise the bid if you want, and the highest bid has to start pointing at people to turn over their top card.
If they are able to find the number of roses that they bid without turning over a skull, they earn 1 point. But if they fail, they have to lose one of their cards. If you run out of cards you’re out of the game, but if you’re the first to two points you win the game.
Technically there are enough sets of skulls and roses to play with 6 people, but I’ve played with much larger groups using playing cards for the extra players (3 black cards for roses and 1 red for the skull). Of course they’ll be missing out on the fantastically gorgeous cards that come with the game, but it’s really nice that it’s easy to get the whole party involved.
2. Wits & Wagers: Family Edition
Designed by Dominic Crapuchettes and Published by North Star Games
Wits & Wagers is a fantastic party game, and I certainly find the family edition to be the best choice for a cross-generational game night. The scoring system is slightly simplified and the questions are more inclusive of a younger audience.
The great thing about Wits & Wagers is that it’s a trivia game where you really don’t have to know the answers. In fact, quite often, you aren’t expected to possibly know the answer. All of the questions have a numerical answer, and are judged with The Price is Right rules - closest without going over.
Everyone writes their answer down and reveals them at the same time, and then everyone votes for their favorite answer by placing their colored meeples on a number. You have no obligation at all to vote for your own answer, although you do get a bonus point for being the one to write down the winning answer.
Wits & Wagers comes with materials for 5 teams, but you can have multiple players on a team if you want - making this a perfect party game for large family gathering. Our 7-year-old loves playing this one too, so it’s also a great fit for getting everyone involved.
3. Family Boom
Published by Zenagame
I adore this under-the-radar family card game, and so do my kids. It’s basically just a giant box full of challenge cards, and the variety is fantastic. It’s also legitimately funny. You might be throwing cards at each other, or standing on one leg, or calling another player “sweetie pie” for the rest of the game.
You often end up with several things you need to remember to do, as new rules keep getting added as you play. It’s chaotic and hilarious and honestly a lot of fun. It’s also great at including younger kids. Both my 9-year-old and 5-year-old have begged to have me draw cards and do what they say, even when we aren’t playing.
I’ve played family card games with challenges like this that were way too hard for kids to be fair, but that is absolutely not the case here. This is truly a family game for ages 5+ that the entire extended family will fall in love with on Thanksgiving.
4. Dixit
Designed by Jean-Louis Roubira and Published by Libellud & Asmodee
Dixit is another former Game of the Year winner, and another game that involves a good deal of creativity. We included Dixit on our list of the best games that inspire storytelling, because there is so much imagination that takes place in this game. And the entire game feels like a challenge of inventing creative story starters.
The art in this game is beautiful and surreal, and it leads to incredibly interesting interpretations. Each player has a hand full of these surreal illustrations, and when it’s their turn they have to say something, and lay one of their cards face down. What they say can be a single word, a phrase, a quote, a story starter, or anything else they desire.
The trick, however, is to be somewhat vague and obscure, because you don’t want everyone to be able to choose your card - or else you score nothing. But you don’t want to be too vague, because you also score zero points if nobody chooses your card. Everyone playing also gets to lay down a card that they think might trick the others and receive some votes - for which they can earn bonus points.
Dixit is made to play with up to 6 players, and our 7-year-old can definitely play along - although he understandably struggles a bit with the concept of not being too obvious with his descriptions when it’s his turn. But that’s a really interesting concept for him to explore - and it doesn’t take away from the awesome imagination on display in this game.
5. Skull King
Designed by Brent Beck & Apryl Stott and Published by Grandpa Beck’s Games
Skull King is a trick-taking and bidding card game with a trump suit - in the same vein as something like Spades. For that reason, it’s the perfect addition to a family Thanksgiving gathering like ours where my wife’s family has a long tradition of playing classic card games together.
You play a total of 10 rounds in Skull King. During round 1, everyone gets 1 card, and there’s only 1 possible trick to win. During round 2, everyone gets 2 cards - and so on up to round 10. There are special cards that always lose, special pirate cards that always win, and a trump suit that beats the other three regular suits.
Before each round, you have to bid how many tricks you will get - and you only earn points if you get your bid exactly right. If you’ve ever played something like Spades or Hearts, you understand now how rounds might play out - sometimes trying to do everything you can to win a trick and sometimes trying to throw away your cards to lose at all costs.
What makes Skull King really stand out is the great pirate theme. It’s the kind of thing that really endears a game to us and our kids. Our 7-year-old son absolutely loves the little touches like the process for announcing your bid. Everyone is supposed to pound their fists on the table while saying “Yo Ho Ho!” and then shout out their bid at the same time. It’s the kind of thing adults might simply pass over - but it very well could be the very favorite part of the game for a kid. And that’s why it’s perfect for bringing several generations of family members together around the table this Thanksgiving.
Bonus Game!
Codenames
Designed by Vlaada Chvátil and Published by Czech Games Edition
Codenames is a very popular party game that was a previous winner of the Game of the Year (Spiel des Jahres) prize. I’ve had a lot of fun playing the original version at parties, but I think Codenames: Pictures, Codenames Disney, or Codenames Harry Potter are much better fits for young kids. They’re a lot more inclusive for kids than the sometimes-complex word associations made in the original. And the XXL version with larger tiles is much more accommodating for large groups.
In Codenames, there are just two teams, but the teams can easily be quite large. A good number is a total of 8 players. On the table you will spread out a grid of random cards with pictures or words on them. Some of the pictures secretly belong to the red team and some belong to the blue team. Each round there is a single representative from each team that will give one-word clues to help their teammates guess which tiles belong to their team.
The challenge for the clue giver is maximizing the number of cards their team identifies each turn, without accidentally uncovering an opponents card (or, even worse, the assassin card which leads to an automatic loss). To do that they have to be very creative and look for any possible associations between the cards that belong to their team. And the creativity required is exactly why I love playing this one with the family so much.
Does your family like to play games together on Thanksgiving too? What’s your favorite? What are you going to play this year? Let us know in the comments!
