Two Thanksgiving Traditions: The Games You Watch and the Games You Play

So, what games are played on Thanksgiving Day? The honest answer comes in two flavors: the ones you watch and the ones you play. One tradition belongs to the NFL, the other to your dining room table, and both are thriving.

The NFL has owned Thanksgiving since the league's earliest days, with the Detroit Lions hosting every year since 1934 and the Dallas Cowboys joining in 1966, alongside a primetime game added in 2006 (NFL history). The tradition keeps growing. According to official league data, the 2025 Thanksgiving tripleheader averaged 44.7 million viewers, the highest on record and the fourth straight year of record-setting numbers.

As John Madden once put it, the turkey, the family, the tradition, and football simply go together. For millions of households, that tripleheader plays on the TV from the Macy's parade through the last slice of pie.

Here's the real challenge, though. Football fills the living room, but Thanksgiving is a long day, and not everyone at your table cares about the Lions' 38-45-2 holiday record (The Athletic). Kids get restless between the parade and dinner. Guests who don't follow football need something to do. That's where the played tradition comes in.

Curated lists from TODAY.com and Good Housekeeping point to a reliable roster of printable favorites that fill the day's natural gaps:

• A thanksgiving maze to occupy restless kids while the turkey rests
• A thanksgiving trivia round between courses, mixing food facts and NFL history
• A thanksgiving crossword for the kids' table or post-meal wind-down
• Gratitude games like "Thankful A-to-Z" and dice-based conversation starters

These aren't throwaway time-fillers. Editors at Good Housekeeping note that games keep everyone entertained until it's time to eat, and TODAY.com suggests families fold a few into their annual traditions. The best ones match the moment: an icebreaker before dinner, a quiet puzzle during the game, a rowdy trivia round after dessert.

Printoodle exists for exactly this kind of day. You can generate a personalized, print-ready activity in seconds, hand it to the kids' table, and get back to the couch before kickoff. Print it. Doodle it. Done. Free sample included, and reprints stay free forever, so next year's tradition costs you nothing but the paper.

The Most-Played Family Games on Thanksgiving (and When to Play Them)

Once the turkey's in the oven, the real question kicks in: what's everyone going to do for the next four hours? If you're wondering what games are played on Thanksgiving Day beyond the NFL tripleheader, the answer lives in two well-documented lists: TODAY.com's roundup of roughly 40 family games and Good Housekeeping's curated list of 20 games for kids and adults. The trick isn't picking games. It's matching each game to the moment.

Icebreakers: get everyone talking before the first course

Charades and Pictionary prompts work best when the house is still filling up and cousins haven't seen each other since last year. TODAY.com notes that these games appear on its list precisely because they're family-friendly and enjoyable enough to become annual traditions. Scattergories is another strong opener, since it works in teams and gets multi-generational groups collaborating fast.

For a conversation starter with a competitive edge, a round of thanksgiving trivia pulls everyone in, from the football fans to the family historians. Good Housekeeping's list even includes a trivia card pack with 25 cards, showing how popular the format has become for holiday gatherings.

Between-courses fillers: short games that bridge the kitchen gap

• Roll a Turkey, a simple dice game kids can play while adults finish the sides
• I-Spy, which TODAY.com lists among its printable options for quick rounds between dishes
• A Thanksgiving Parade Scavenger Hunt, played while the Macy's parade plays on TV

These short-format games shine in the dead zone between appetizers and dinner. Good Housekeeping's editors point out that games keep everyone entertained until it's time to eat, which is exactly what this window demands.

Kids'-table activities: quiet hands, happy kids

Cootie catchers, joke tellers, and word searches dominate the kids' table for good reason: they're self-directed. A thanksgiving maze or a turkey hunt gives younger children something to solve without an adult referee, and Printoodle can generate fresh versions in seconds so no one memorizes last year's answers.

Post-meal entertainment: low-energy games for full stomachs

After the plates are cleared, energy drops and the games should too. That's when bingo rounds and gratitude games like "Thankful from A to Z" take over, giving people something to do while staying seated. TODAY.com lists both among its roughly 40 options, alongside dice gratitude games that Good Housekeeping also highlights.

For the adults and older kids who want something calmer after pie, a thanksgiving crossword fits the mood perfectly: quiet, solo-friendly, and just competitive enough. Print it before dinner, save it for the lull, and you've covered the last usage moment of the day.

Gratitude Games: The Ones That Become Annual Traditions

Some of the most-loved Thanksgiving games don't need a board, a ball, or even a table cleared of dishes. When people ask what games are played on Thanksgiving Day, the gratitude sub-genre deserves its own answer, because these are the activities that quietly turn the dinner table itself into the game.

Both TODAY.com and Good Housekeeping document the same core lineup independently, which says something about how established these have become:

• The Gratitude Game, where players pick items (often pom-poms or colored pieces) that prompt them to name something they're thankful for.
• Thankful A-to-Z, a race through the alphabet naming one gratitude per letter. Harder than it sounds once you hit X.
• "I Am Thankful For...", a fill-in sheet that doubles as a keepsake once everyone has written theirs.
• Grateful Dice, a roll-and-share game where each number matches a prompt like "a person" or "a place."
• Conversation starters, simple question cards that keep the table talking between courses.

Why do these stick when flashier games come and go? Because they require zero setup beyond a printout, and they work at exactly the moments a host needs them: as icebreakers when guests arrive, as between-courses fillers, and as kids'-table activities, the same usage moments TODAY.com identifies across its roughly 40-game roundup. Good Housekeeping's editors put it plainly: games like these keep everyone entertained until it's time to eat.

There's also a tradition effect at work. TODAY.com notes that the best of these family-friendly games are "enjoyable enough that you just might want to incorporate a few of these into your annual Thanksgiving traditions." A gratitude game played once is an activity. Played three years running, it's a ritual the kids start asking for, and someone ends up keeping the filled-in "I Am Thankful For" sheets in a drawer.

Trivia deserves a special mention here because it straddles both roles. A deck of thanksgiving trivia cards works as a competitive game, but the right questions also function as gratitude and story prompts: "What was Grandpa's first Thanksgiving like?" is trivia and conversation starter at once. Good Housekeeping features trivia card packs (25 cards per deck) in its printable lineup for exactly this reason.

If you want to build a full table-game kit, you can pair those cards with a thanksgiving maze for the kids' table and a thanksgiving crossword for the adults waiting on the turkey. Printoodle generates each one as a print-ready PDF in seconds, and since reprints are free forever, the pages you turn into an annual tradition cost you nothing the second, third, or tenth year. Print it, doodle it, done.

Games for the Football Watchers (and the Football-Averse)

Not everyone at your table cares about the Lions, but the TV is on anyway. The best Thanksgiving games meet people where they already are: parked in front of football, whether they love it or tolerate it.

Start before kickoff. The Macy's Parade Scavenger Hunt turns parade-watching into a game, tasking players with spotting balloons, marching bands, and celebrity performances as they float by, according to TODAY's roundup of Thanksgiving games. Kids hunt, adults half-watch, and everyone stays occupied until the turkey's ready. A thanksgiving maze printed for the kids' table keeps the youngest viewers busy during slow parade stretches.

Then take it outside. Backyard touch football is the classic pre-dinner ritual, and it's exactly the pattern former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett describes: families play their own game in the yard, then gather around the TV for the real thing. As Garrett puts it, Cowboys football on Thanksgiving is "part of our American tradition." TODAY recommends it too: get the crew outside for a friendly game of touch instead of only watching.

When everyone's back on the couch, run a trivia round during halftime or commercials. If you're wondering what games are played on thanksgiving day that involve zero athletic ability, trivia is the answer, and NFL history hands you ready-made questions. You can build your own cards with a thanksgiving trivia generator, then drop in these facts:

• The Detroit tradition started in 1934, when the Bears beat the Lions 19–16 before 26,000 fans, and Detroit has hosted every Thanksgiving since (minus the WWII years).
• The first Cowboys Thanksgiving game, in 1966, drew 80,259 fans to the Cotton Bowl, where Dallas beat Cleveland 26–14.
• O.J. Simpson rushed for 273 yards on Thanksgiving 1976, still the single-game Thanksgiving record, per The Athletic's collection of NFL Thanksgiving facts.
• Bonus stumper: the Jacksonville Jaguars are the only franchise never to play on Thanksgiving.

For the football-averse, pair the trivia round with quieter printables so nobody's trapped watching fourth-quarter kneel-downs. A thanksgiving crossword or word search gives them their own game while the fans shout at the referees. Good Housekeeping's editors note that games like these keep everyone entertained until it's time to eat, which is exactly the gap a long afternoon of football creates.

Print it. Doodle it. Done. Generate your Thanksgiving games in seconds with Printoodle, and they'll be reprinted free every November, until trivia night becomes as much a tradition as the game itself.

Build Your Thanksgiving Game Plan in Minutes

You've got the guest list, the menu, and the turkey timeline. The games? That's the piece that usually gets skipped until everyone's standing around the kitchen at 2 p.m. wondering what to do next. Here's how to fix it in minutes instead of hours.

The research on what games are played on Thanksgiving Day points to distinct usage moments: icebreakers while guests arrive, time-fillers between courses, kids'-table activities, and post-meal entertainment, according to TODAY.com's roundup of roughly 40 games. So build your plan around those moments, not around a single activity. A one-page thanksgiving maze buys you twenty quiet minutes at the kids' table. A thanksgiving trivia set works between the parade and dinner. A thanksgiving crossword keeps the adults busy while pies cool.

Here's a ready-to-print schedule:

• Morning, parade on TV: a parade scavenger hunt sheet, played while watching the Macy's broadcast.
• Pre-dinner lull: trivia cards. Feed them NFL facts: the Lions have hosted every Thanksgiving since 1934, and the Jaguars are the only franchise never to play on the holiday, per The Athletic.
• Kids' table: a maze and a color-by-number, one per child.
• After the meal: a crossword and a gratitude dice game, so the slow afternoon has a shape.

This is where Printoodle earns its keep. You describe the game you want, and the generator produces a personalized, print-ready page in seconds, sized for Letter by default with an A4 toggle if your printer prefers it. Every page lands in your library, and reprints are free forever, so next year you reprint the winners without spending another credit. There's a free sample on every tool page, and the free starter gives you 10 credits when you verify your email, enough to cover a full holiday's worth of games without paying anything.

The tradition framing isn't marketing fluff, either. TODAY.com notes that the best of these games are "enjoyable enough that you just might want to incorporate a few of these into your annual Thanksgiving traditions," and the NFL's own commissioner describes football as part of "so many families' holiday tradition." The games people remember are the ones that come back every year.

Print it. Doodle it. Done. Generate your personalized Thanksgiving games in seconds and make them a family tradition.