Gobble, Giggle, Go! 19 Thanksgiving Minute to Win It Party Games
These Thanksgiving Minute to Win It games are packed with silly challenges, quick-thinking activities that will keep your family and friends entertained.
Each game takes just 60 seconds to complete, making them a great addition to Thanksgiving or fall party activities.
Most use simple supplies you may already have at home, so getting started is easy.
I’ve put together 19 Thanksgiving Minute to Win It games for kids, teens, and adults, with simple instructions to help you get started.
For more fun group games do check out this hilarious Thanksgiving Family Feud game and Thanksgiving Who’s Most Likely funny prompts.
Thanksgiving Minute to Win It Game Supplies
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| Paper plates, Plastic cups & bowls, spoons | Napkins & paper placemats, trays |
| Food containers with lids | Small foam footballs |
| Folded paper footballs | Mini pumpkins |
| Small fall-themed objects | Cranberries |
| Sweet potatoes or yams | Pumpkin seeds & chopsticks |
| Wicker baskets | A cornucopia or basket |
| Shredded paper or paper hay | Construction paper, scissors, and tape |
| Thanksgiving recipe and ingredient cards | A blindfold or scarf |
| Paper and pens | A timer or stopwatch |
1. Thanksgiving Place Setting Sprint
Supplies: Plates, cups, napkins, forks, spoons, knives, and a picture showing a correctly arranged table setting.
How to Play: Set out the plates, cups, napkins, and cutlery in a mixed pile for each player. Keep a reference picture of three correctly arranged place settings where everyone can see it. When the timer starts, players have 1 minute to arrange the tableware to match the picture. The player with the most correctly placed items when time runs out wins.
2. Leftover Lid Match-Up
Supplies: 8–10 clean, empty food storage containers and their matching lids.
How to Play: Separate the lids from the containers and mix them up on a table. When the timer starts, players have 1 minute to find the matching lids and securely close as many containers as possible. Only correctly matched lids that fit properly count. The player who matches the most containers before time runs out wins.
3. Gobble Tongue-Twister Challenge
Supplies: Tongue-twister cards and a timer.
How to Play: Prepare cards with fun Thanksgiving tongue twisters, such as “Tiny turkeys tiptoe toward the table.” Players have 1 minute to read as many cards aloud as possible without stumbling over the words. A card counts only if the tongue twister is spoken correctly. The player who completes the most cards wins!
4. Thanksgiving Recipe Match-Up
Supplies: Cards featuring Thanksgiving dishes and separate cards listing their ingredients.
How to Play: Shuffle the dish cards and ingredient cards, then spread them out on a table. Players have 1 minute to match each dish to its correct ingredients. For example, pumpkin pie matches with pumpkin, eggs, and cinnamon. Award one point for each correct match, and the player with the most points when time runs out wins!
5. The Price Is Right: Thanksgiving Edition
Supplies: A list of Thanksgiving grocery items, their prices, paper, pens, and a timer.
How to Play: Prepare a list of Thanksgiving staples, such as turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing mix, etc. along with their actual prices. Players have 1 minute to guess the prices of as many items as possible. Award one point to the player whose guess is closest to the actual price of each item. The player with the most points wins!
- Check out my Thanksgiving Guess the Price game for a ready-to-play collection of Thanksgiving price-guessing challenges.
6. Blindfolded Taste Test
Supplies: Blindfolds per player, plates/cups, small bite-sized samples of Thanksgiving foods (e.g., cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc), and toothpick or spoon.
How to Play: Blindfold players and give then a series of small, bite-sized samples of Thanksgiving food in a plate. The player must guess what food item they just ate. One with the highest number of correct guesses wins!
7. Thanksgiving/Fall Haystack hunt
Supplies: A large tub or basket, shredded paper or raffia, and small Thanksgiving-themed objects such as mini paper turkeys, paper leaves, and little pumpkins.
How to Play: Fill the tub with shredded paper or raffia and hide the Thanksgiving-themed objects throughout it. When the timer starts, players have 1 minute to search through the haystack and find as many hidden objects as possible. The player who finds the most objects before time runs out wins!
8. Yam Spoon Race
Supplies: 1 spoon per player, raw yams or sweet potatoes, and start/finish line markers (like painter’s tape or cones).
How to Play: Players line up at the starting line balancing a whole raw yam on a spoon held in one hand (no hands or fingers holding the yam down!). On “Go,” players race across the room to the finish line without dropping their yam. If the yam falls, the player is eliminated. First to cross the finish line wins!
9. Pumpkin Seed Transfer
Supplies: 2 paper plates per player, raw pumpkin seeds, and 1 pair of chopsticks per player.
How to Play: Using only chopsticks players must grab one pumpkin seed at a time from a plate and transfer it to an empty plate. The player who transfers the most seeds within 1 minute wins!
10. Cranberry Basket Throw
Supplies: Cranberries and 3 small baskets or cups per player, labeled with points (e.g., Close = 1 pt, Medium = 2 pts, Far = 3 pts).
How to Play: Set up three baskets in a straight line at varying distances from a throwing line. Players stand behind the line and toss cranberries one by one into the baskets to score points. The player with the highest score wins!
11. Turkey Waddle Race
Supplies: 1 balloon or small pumpkin per player, and start/finish line markers.
How to Play: Players place an inflated balloon (or small pumpkin) securely between their knees. On “Go,” players must waddle like a turkey to the finish line without dropping or popping the balloon. If the balloon drops or pops, the player is out. First player to waddle across the finish line wins!
12. Football Balance
Supplies: 1 mini or small foam football per player.
How to Play: Players place the football on top of their head, and extend their arms for balance. The goal is to keep the football balanced on your head for the full 1-minute timer without touching it with your hands or letting it drop. If it falls, you are out of the game!
13. Turkey Feather and Balloon Keep-Up
Supplies: A balloon (blown up) and a craft turkey feather per player.
How to Play: When the timer starts, the player must keep both the balloon and the feather floating in the air at the same time using only gentle taps from their hands without catching or holding. The player who successfully keeps both afloat for the full 1-minute timer wins!
14. Apple Stacking Tower
Supplies: 5–6 medium, relatively flat-bottomed apples (like Gala or Honeycrisp) per station.
How to Play: Player must stack 5 whole apples vertically directly on top of one another without any extra support. The player whose 5-apple tower stays standing for at least 3 seconds within 1 minute wins!
15. Cornucopia Sweep
Supplies: A standard clean broom, 5–6 mini decorative pumpkins or gourds, a large woven basket laid on its side or a cornucopia.
How to Play: Place the basket on its side at one end of the room and set up a simple taped path on the floor leading toward it. Scatter mini pumpkins at the starting line. When the timer starts, the player must use the broom to sweep and guide the mini pumpkins along the floor path directly into the mouth of the cornucopia.
16. Cranberry Straw Snag
Supplies: One straw per player, whole cranberries, and two paper plates.
How to Play: Place a pile of raw cranberries on the starting plate and an empty plate a short distance away. Using only suction through the straw, players must pick up one cranberry at a time, and drop it onto the empty plate.
17. Football Cup Roll
Supplies: 4–6 paper or plastic cups, painter’s tape, a long table, and several folded paper footballs (or mini foam footballs).
Setup: Tape the cups side-by-side along the far edge of the table using painter’s tape so the top openings hang just below or level with the edge of the tabletop.
How to Play: Players stand at the opposite end of the table and flick or slide their paper footballs across the smooth surface, aiming to land them inside the target cups. The player with the most footballs in the cups wins!
18. Pie Slice Puzzle Dash
Supplies: 3 paper plates decorated as different Thanksgiving pies (e.g., pumpkin, apple, pecan) and cut into 8 slices each (24 slices total), plus a mixing bowl.
How to Play: Mix all 24 paper pie slices inside a bowl across the room. On “Go!”, the player runs to the bowl, grabs one slice at a time, brings it back to their base table, and assembles the matching pies. The player who completes all 3 full pie puzzles within 1 minute wins!
19. Thanksgiving Plate Flip
Supplies: Lightweight paper plates with fall-themed stickers on one side, and a timer.
How to Play: Give each player a stack of paper plates. When the timer starts, players must flip the plates one at a time, trying to make each plate land with the opposite side facing up. Only successful flips count. Players have 1 minute to flip as many plates as possible, and the person with the highest number of successful flips wins!
More Thanksgiving Family and Party Games
80 Fact or Fiction Thanksgiving Trivia: Challenge your family and friends and see who can separate Thanksgiving facts from myths!
Thanksgiving Taboo Words: See how many can guess the actual words without mentioning any of the forbidden words.
Thanksgiving Guess the Price: A fun party game where everyone tries to guess the prices of Thanksgiving feast staples!
Thanksgiving Worst Advice Ever: Play this hilarious game of Thanksgiving bad advice for tacking equally horrible situations!
Thanksgiving Would you Rather: 90 hilarious and silly “Would You Rather” questions the whole family will love answering!
Suktara
Hi! I’m Suktara, the creator of this website with a background in communication and passion for personal development, relationships, and mental health. I created this space to share honest insights and practical advice on dating, love, relationships, and self-improvement.
