Thanksgiving tradition ideas
Here are some little ideas of traditions you can bring to your Thanksgiving festivities 🎉
Play a Gratitude guessing game – as people arrive, have everyone write down something(s) that they're grateful for on a piece of paper & collect them all in a jar. Before/after/during dinner, let everyone take turns drawing a paper out and then try to guess who wrote which gratitude 📝
Make a special, warm beverage – like a nice mulled cider or a fun festive cocktail ☕️🍹💃🏼
Try using conversation cards at dinner to spark fun conversations – everyone can look through the stack and pick a fun/interesting one to ask, everyone at the table answers 😎
Have your own Thanksgiving day parade with your own balloons/floats, signs, “sponsors”, etc.! This one is especially fun if you have little kids to keep busy – you can have commentators and best float/balloon structure could get a prize (or early access to a pie 😏) 🎈
Create a memorable table cloth. Have everyone sign a table cloth (or runner) with a disappearing pen and later embroider over the signatures to create a special memory-filled keepsake to use & add to for years to come ♥️
Ask everyone (including kiddos) to make a toast at dinner! These can be silly or sweet, the ones from the youngest at the table are sure to be noteworthy 🥂 😂 🥲
Take a long walk together after dinner – and maybe take that hot beverage with you! 😏 👟 🍂
Play a game that could easily include everyone – from Apples to Apples, a Rock Paper Scissors Tournament, or a simple but lively game like Fishbowl (one of my faves) ✂️
Keep a Thanksgiving “Guest Book” – have everyone write down something that they’re thankful for, then sign & date it. Or you could keep a Thanksgiving Memory book (this is my favorite) to write down memories from that year's festivities & paste in a photo 🤓 📸
Give everyone a Superlative – you could write them on name tags, or paper plates, or even as place cards at the dinner table & everyone has to find theirs 🤓 Here’s some inspo to get you started: Most likely to burn the dinner rolls (my Grandma every year), most likely to fall asleep first after dinner (probably me), most likely to sneak a piece of pie (definitely me) 🏆
Try out a fun recipe with your Thanksgiving left-overs 👩🏼🍳
Choose TV episodes/a movie to watch/have on in the background – I’m forever wishing that Netflix (or any streaming service really) would create a feature where you could create playlists of TV show episodes and/or movies in the same way that you can curate a playlist on Spotify… 😂 Until then, my fave things to watch are the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends (Season 3, Episode 9 / Season 5,Episode 8 / Season 8, Episode – available on Max), Gilmore Girls (Season 3, Episode 9 – available on Netflix), and New Girl (Season 1, Episode 6 / Season 2, Episode 8 / Season 4, Episode 9 – available on Netflix). For movies I always love A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (on Apple TV+), Little Women (on Hulu), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (on Max & Apple TV+) & You’ve Got Mail (on Max & Amazon Prime).
Do you have any long-standing Thanksgiving traditions that you love?!
Or any that you’ve wanted to start?! I’d love to hear them 🤓
