Thanksgiving Day is just a few calendar pages away. Whether seated at “the kids’ table” or with the grown-ups, surrounded by food and company they don’t often see and conversations they’re not really part of, kids can get bored. How to give them more to do (and think about) than just digging gravy ponds in their mashed potato mountains?
Traditional gratitude questions are important but can become repetitive during the lead-up to Thanksgiving. Creative questions and activities that go beyond the usual can serve up lots of fun surprises!
Think of what follows as a guide for alternatives to keep kids talking, thinking, and laughing during Thanksgiving celebrations—at the table and just before and after. Find a few tips, tricks, and resources too, for making the high-stimulation day a little easier.
Why engaging kids at the table matters
We’ve all heard family, friends, and news stories express concern about the future of “conversational skills” in young people glued to their phones. (It goes without saying that the Thanksgiving table is a no-phone zone for kids and grown-ups alike!)
Last year, the Children’s Home Society of California published The Importance of Family Conversations for Early Childhood Development. It says, “Intentional and lively family conversations influence cognitive development by enhancing language skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities.”
In general, meaningful Thanksgiving conversation that invites kids’ active engagement and participation deliver these benefits:
• Develops communication skills
• Encourages social skills and polite discussion
• Bolsters children’s confidence
• Helps build reasoning, storytelling, and vocabulary
• Makes the holiday more memorable and fun by creating core family moments and building stronger family connections
8 Questions to Spark Conversation at the Thanksgiving Table
The last thing anybody wants is to remember a holiday celebration with good food shared in a happy space while also feeling bored, awkward, silenced, or shut out. Below are 8 questions intended to get kids talking and thinking. Think of them as kids’ table conversation starters. Some indirectly speak to gratitude, but others encourage reflection of different kinds:
- If you could invite any fictional character to Thanksgiving, who would it be?
- What is something hard you did that has helped you grow?
- What is one new thing you have learned this year?
- How does it make you feel when you do something really nice for someone else?
- What are you looking forward to right now?
- What would be your dream job when you grow up?
- What’s the most interesting thing you know?
- What’s your favorite family tradition?
A few fun questions for kids at Thanksgiving can be a game-changer. Try to rotate questions between silly, creative, and thankful to keep engagement there. You can encourage younger kids to act or draw out their answers if they don’t have the capacity to answer in words. Ask questions about their drawings.
Use a heaping spoonful of laughter and learning to keep things light
For most families, Thanksgiving is a Really Big Event. Planning and preparation begin days ahead of time, with a couple hours spent in the kitchen on the actual day, cooking and cleaning. Some families rotate host duties and/or pitch in with making and transporting assigned dishes. Often, it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without Aunt Emily’s pecan pie or Nana’s lump-free, special ingredient gravy.
It all involves some heavy lifting, both literally and figuratively, but focusing on joy, small moments, and easy learning activities can make a big difference.
Shine a spotlight on little comedians
Let fun Thanksgiving table ideas for children include joke-telling. Humor isn’t just about giggles. The Children’s Minnesota® website, in Encouraging Your Child's Sense of Humor, says, “Laughing together is a way to connect, and a good sense of humor also can make kids smarter, healthier, and better able to cope with challenges.” They note that “a good sense of humor is a tool that kids can rely on throughout life…” to help them in a number of ways, including the ability “to see beyond the surface of things.” Notably, they add that “Kids with a well-developed sense of humor are happier and more optimistic, have higher self-esteem, and can handle differences (their own and others') well.”
Lindsay Barrett, in The Many Benefits of Sharing Jokes as a Family, for Read Brightly, suggests, “Humor encourages family connection and can help diffuse kids’ anxiety or grouchiness.” She says a benefit for kids is that “Jokes level the social playing field,” elaborating that “Knowing a good joke can help a kid connect with peers at the cafeteria table or start a conversation on the school bus.”
Here are a few kid-friendly jokes for Thanksgiving learning fun:
• What do sweet potatoes wear to bed? Yammies.
• What do you call a sad cranberry? A blueberry.
• Why did the cranberries turn red? Because they saw the turkey dressing.
• What sound does a limping turkey make? Wobble, wobble!
• What’s a popular Thanksgiving dance? The turkey trot.
• What type of glass does a turkey drink from? A goblet.
• “Knock knock.” “Who’s there?” “Lettuce.” “Lettuce who?” “Lettuce give thanks!”
• “Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Norma Lee." "Norma Lee, who?" "Norma Lee, I don't eat this much!"
• What is a turkey’s favorite dessert? Apple gobbler?
• What was the turkey thankful for on Thanksgiving? Vegetarians.
• Can turkeys jump higher than the Empire State Building? Of course! Buildings can’t jump.
• What do you get when you cross a turkey with a banjo? A turkey that can pluck itself.
(Sources: The Pioneer Woman’s 100 Thanksgiving Jokes That’ll Keep the Whole Table Laughing Through Dinner and We Are Teachers’ 103 Corny Thanksgiving Jokes for Kids (and Adults)).
Hands-an activities for the kids’ table and beyond
We have chosen a few short activities (5–10 minutes) for holiday attention spans. They can work for those antsy, hungry moments right before the main course, the lull before dessert, the stretch after the dishes are cleared but before full tummies and turkey tryptophan put everyone to sleep, or a little later in the day when everyone catches their second wind. We recommend mixing quiet and interactive games to accommodate different personalities and ages.
- Word Scramble – Give everyone a list of Thanksgiving-themed words to unscramble. No need to start from scratch; there are lots available online. Here’s one on Pinterest, and here’s another from Classy Mommy. Or try Thanksgiving Friends Wordsearch on School Zone’s Anywhere Teacher online learning program.
- Thanksgiving Pictionary – Again, a quick online search turns up multiple versions. Brightful Me provides 92 words, a list of a few supplies to gather, and directions.
- Family Charades or Roleplaying – Act out funny characters or scenarios at Thanksgiving dinner. Jot down Thanksgiving-related words, phrases, or scenes on slips of paper. Players act it out without speaking, while others guess what it is.
- DIY Tabletop Crafts – Fold paper turkeys, make simple napkin holders, or color placemats. Check out 60 Easy Thanksgiving Crafts That Are Festive and Fun for Kids from The Pioneer Woman.
- Scavenger Hunt - Create a passport-type scavenger hunt card, with clues and tasks to do. This could be limited to the vicinity of the table or around the house. (Just don’t bother the cook or cooks who are more than busy in the kitchen!)
- Playdough Mania - Mix up a batch of cinnamon-spiced playdough and let the little ones create their playdough desserts, or why not try and make a turkey or their favorite animal! Here’s one no-cook recipe from Messy Momma Crafts.
These Thanksgiving activities for kids help increase their engagement and make the day extra memorable.
Tips for parents and caregivers
Thanksgiving is a beautiful holiday, but the changes in routine and sensory overload that come with it can throw kids off their A+ best behavior. Even unfamiliar foods can pose hurdles. The Empower Kids Therapy website offers a Feast Without the Fuss guide from an occupational therapist to help kids try new Thanksgiving foods. It urges creating a “relaxed, low-pressure environment at the table” and says that may mean pulling back on telling kids to “try just a bite.”
Here are a few other tips and tricks for parents and caregivers on how to make the day easier, along with some School Zone resources for table time learning:
• Prepare food and activities ahead of time to turn down the stress level
• Alternate between questions and activities to maintain energy and engagement
• Use positive reinforcement for participation
• Make sure to adapt questions and activities to fit the age range
• Make it a shared experience, so the adults can join in on the games as well
• Use School Zone products to help keep the kids busy during Thanksgiving, such as workbooks, flash cards, or Anywhere Teacher.
Make the kids’ table the center of fun and learning
Thanksgiving activities for kids come in many different forms. A kids’ table itself can be both festive and educational with the right questions and things to do besides gobbling up the goodies. A little planning combined with a few conversation starters for kids, some holiday learning activities, and family-friendly Thanksgiving games adds extra doses of special to a really special holiday.
While the focus of Thanksgiving is definitely gratitude, asking (or expecting) the same question again and again can lead to canned responses and dilute the sincerity. Ideally, kids look back on great moments shared with family and friends. And that becomes something they are grateful for. Focusing on creative, playful engagement beyond standard gratitude prompts can change the dynamic.
Visit School Zone for more ideas and resources to make Thanksgiving dinner (or any dinner) both fun and educational for kids.
