Thanksgiving Game Cards

This post and its photos may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Gather the entire family together for a fun Thanksgiving game night using these Thanksgiving Game Cards! Play Charades, Pictionary, CatchPhrase, Head’s Up, and ROLLICK! with these free game cards and have a blast together as a family.

What’s better than eating a delicious meal on Thanksgiving?  Eating a delicious meal on Thanksgiving and then playing a fun game with the entire family!  And, guess what?  I’m making it super easy for all of us to play a fun game with all of our favorite people on Thanksgiving with these free Thanksgiving Game Cards. Use these free printable game cards to play Thanksgiving Charades, Pictionary, CatchPhrase, and Heads Up.

This freebie includes over 75 Thanksgiving game cards along with blank cards so you can add your own words and phrases to the game. I’ve made it so easy for you to download these game cards. Just add your name and email in the form below and this freebie will be delivered right to your inbox. Then, open your email and save the PDF file to your computer. It’s that easy! Once the PDF is saved to your computer, just print and cut. I recommend printing on heavy cardstock to make the game cards last longer.

Supplies Needed to Play Thanksgiving Games

The best thing about using these game cards is you don’t need a lot of other game pieces or supplies to play charades, pictionary, catch phrase or hedbanz.  Here’s what you’ll need to play these fun games:

  • Thanksgiving Game Cards
  • A bowl or basket
  • Timer – we use the timer on our cell phones
  • Dry Erase Board
  • Dry Erase Marker

How to Play Thanksgiving Charades

Charades is a game of pantomimes. Players have to act out a word or phrase without speaking while the other members of the team try to guess what the phrase is.

  1. Divide players into two teams. Select a time and score keeper for each team.
  2. Place game cards in the bowl or basket.
  3. Decide which team goes first. A player from the first team stands in front of the group and selects a card from the bowl. Once the player has read the card, the timer is set for 1 minute.
  4. That player acts out the phrase on the card until the team guesses it or until the timer runs out. The player cannot talk, make sounds, or use props while acting out a word. The team scores a point if they guess the word or phrase on the card before time is up.
  5. Now it’s the other team’s turn. Repeat the same process with the other team. The game continues until all players have had a turn to act at least once.
  6. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

How to Play Thanksgiving Pictionary

Pictionary is a fun drawing game where players must illustrate a word or phrase without speaking while their teammates try to guess what they are drawing.

  • Divide players into two teams.
  • Select a time and score keeper for each team.
  • Place game cards in the bowl or basket.
  • Decide which team goes first. A player from the first team stands in front of the group and selects a card from the bowl. Once the player has read the card, the timer is set for 1 minute.
  • That player begins to sketch while players on the team guess the image being sketched. The player cannot talk, make sounds, or include letters and numbers in the drawing. The team scores a point if they guess the word or phrase on the card before time is up.
  • Now it’s the other team’s turn. Repeat the same process with the other team. The game continues until all players have had a turn to act at least once. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

How to Play Thanksgiving CatchPhrase

CatchPhrase is a fast-paced word game where the goal of the game is get your teammates to correctly guess a word by providing clues.

  • Divide players into two teams and have players sit in a circle so each player is next to a member of the other team. Each player needs to be able to pass the basket of cards to a member of the other team as quickly as possible.
  • Place game cards in the bowl or basket.
  • Decide which team will start and a choose a player on that team to go first. Give the basket of cards to that player.
  • The first player takes the bowl of words, draws one, and immediately starts to describe it while at the same time someone sets the timer for 60 seconds. As soon as the first player starts giving clues, his team members can start shouting out guesses while the opposing team stays silent. When giving clues, players can make physical gestures and give almost any verbal clue to get their team to say the word. But players CANNOT say a word that rhymes with the word, give the first letter of the word or say part of the word in the clue.
  • Once the word is guessed correclty, the bowl is passed to the next player (the other team) and they start giving clues to their team members. Teams continue guessing and passing the bowl until the timer goes off. The team holding the bowl when the timer goes off loses that round (think of the bowl as a hot potato) and the other team scores a point.
  • The first team to win 7 points wins the game

How to Play Thanksgiving Heads Up

Heads Up is a guessing game where players place cards on their forehead and other players give clues while the player with the card on their forehead attempts to guess what is on the card.

  • Place game cards face down on table. The first player selects 5 cards from the pile and keeps them faced down in front of them.
  • Set the timer for 60 seconds while player one selects a card and, without looking at the word, places it on their forehead with the words facing the other players. The other players will yell out as many clues as possible without saying any form of the word on the card until the word or phrase is guessed correctly. Once they guess correctly, player one replaces the card with a new one on their forehead while other players continue to yell out clues for the new word. Continue until the timer runs out. Points are awarded to the guessing player for each word they guess correctly.
  • The next player takes his or her turn following the same guidelines above. Continue playing until everyone has a chance to be the guesser. The player with the most points wins.

How to Play Thanksgiving ROLLICK!

Unlike traditional Charades, ROLLICK! changes things up so the entire team works together to act out clues for one player to guess. A fun version of a classic game!

  • Create two teams of three or more players.
  • Choose a team to go first. Each team selects a guesser and the rest of the team acts out the clues for the guesser.
  • A player from the opposite team holds the clue cards for only the actors to see and sets the timer for one minute. For each new round, the team selects a new guesser. (Everyone must take a turn as a guesser)
  • Each team has one minute to guess as many clues as possible and will score one point for each clue guessed exactly printed on the card. The acting team can only pass on one clue card per round.
  • The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Personal Use Only

This free printable is for personal use only.  When you download a freebie on this website, it is licensed for personal use. Digital reselling, sharing, redistributing of the files is NOT allowed. In order to share, use the direct URL to this page.

More Fun Thanksgiving Crafts and Freebies

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

4 Comments

  1. I an not getting my download for the Game Cards. I have tried many times. I have looked in my Junk Mail. I have gotten other downloads
    Please send
    Kathy

  2. I want to use this as an activity at our PTA (Parent/ Teacher/Association) meeting for the ice break at school.
    Thank you so much for sharing your work with us