The holidays can be a magical time filled with laughter and love. Thanksgiving is a time for us to reflect on who and what we are grateful for and enjoy our blessings and goodies.

That’s all good, but what does your family or friend group do after or before dinner? Sometimes, dinner isn’t ready yet and people are doing all they can to stave off their hunger and lurking grumpiness. Sometimes, Thanksgiving ends up to be a group of folks who don’t know each other that well. Sometimes, after dinner people are ready to fall asleep at the dinner table.

And sometimes, you simply may not want your family members to avoid serious conversations for reasons you’ll understand if you are feeling this way.

No worries. Whether you are hosting Thanksgiving or attending someone else’s shindig as a guest, you can bring the party with you and help everyone stay light and have fun.

Here are a few ideas of things you can incorporate into your holiday.

1.) Thanksgiving Bingo – This is so much fun, and you can have up to 24 players. You can throw some quarters into a pot and play for that or you can get little goodies from the dollar store or make them and use them as prizes. A small candle or little dish towel make great prizes. Or just play for fun and maybe the winner gets out of all ktichen cleanup…something like that. If you have a little time on your hands and want to print free ones you can download and print free bingo cards here.

2.) Thanksgiving Scratch-Off Tickets – If you are hosting, this is great fun. You can purchase scratch-off tickets, and there is only one winner. The winning ticket has a sticker on it when you open the package, so you’ll know which one it is. You can pass these out and issue a goody or prize to the winner. You don’t necessarily have to buy anything. The prize could be double desert, the best seat in the house, or other fun little reward. You could even design a “turkey hunt” and hide all the scratch-offs and ask people to find them throughout the day. As they find them, they get to keep them and scratch them off to see who the winner is.

3.) Vertellis - Vertellis is a game that asks you positive questions like, “What are the 3 things that give you the most energy?”. This game gets people talking and thinking about what they are most grateful for.

4.) Abundance Ball – Some families do this at Christmas time, but it can be really fun at Thanksgiving too! You can use tiny items like candies, lottery tickets, gift cards for coffee, pretty note cards, key chains, etc. Basically everyone shares in the abundance of the ball by getting into a circle and unwrapping the saran ball until the person next to them rolls doubles and then they have to pass the ball. Everyone keeps unwrapping and pulling out items until the ball is totally unraveled. This gets everyone a little bit excited and will keep people on their toes and moving after a big feast.

I’d love to hear from you if you do any of these with your family on how it went!

If you would like more help figuring out ways to help create a life by design, click here to take advantage of my free 30 minute phone consultation.