22 Budget-Friendly Friendsgiving Games
I’ve put together this entertaining list of Friendsgiving games that features budget-friendly and do-it-yourself ideas so that you don’t need to invest in expensive equipment, which means more money for seasonal snacks!
You can read all of Craig’s game guides here.
You may also like these other GTQ’s Thanksgiving games.
Conversational Games
Compete in a round of conversational wit with the card game Taboo.
In this game, participants team up in pairs with the objective of getting the other to guess a specific word or phrase based on a series of clues.
The twist is that the person relaying the clues cannot use the word itself, as well as related words that would be helpful in communicating the message.
The complicated exchange makes for big laughs and tense battles as pairs go head to head.
Taboo is best played by those with a competitive spirit and the willingness to partner with a friend who has a strong, unspoken conversation.
Never Have I Ever is a classic drinking game that will test the comfort level of a crowd and how willing everyone is to disclose some honesty.
The game’s basic premise is that one person begins the game by saying something they have never done, such as playing the guitar or visiting an aquarium.
If anyone in the group has done that thing, they must drink from their choice of beverage.
Once someone has taken three sips, they are out of the game.
Those unafraid of getting open and honest with their friends would enjoy this hilarious game of truth.
While Never Have I Ever is commonly considered a drinking game, it is often played without drinking involved.
For ideas on what to ask, see our list of ‘’Never Have I Ever ’’ questions for girls, friends, best friends, and couples.
Take part in a high-intensity group competition with Family Feud.
Family Feud became popular as a beloved TV game show and has since been played in various settings.
Teams of three to four people separate into two sides, with a host guiding them through a head-to-head guessing game.
There is a board of blank slots where correct answers will go and a set category such as ‘things that you eat at Thanksgiving.’
The first team to buzz in gets to supply their first guess as to what could fit into the category.
If the answer is correct, that item is revealed on the board, and that team gets points and the chance to guess again.
The team that has earned the most points once all correct answers have been revealed wins.
Put your drawing skills to the test with the classic game of Pictionary.
In this game, participants team up into groups, most commonly pairs of two, but not necessarily.
One person in each group is responsible for drawing, with the goal of communicating a certain word or phrase that their team needs to guess.
Without the ability to speak or write words, there is an added difficulty in being able to communicate with your team, making for an entertaining back-and-forth as everyone tries to read minds and decipher pictures.
You don’t need to be artistically inclined to enjoy Pictionary; you just need some skills in communication and the comfort level to get creative with your team.
In the same line of thinking as Pictionary, Charades also involves the objective of conveying a certain word or phrase to your team without some common communication tools.
The difference is that participants need to communicate with only body movements and actions instead of drawing out their answers.
The challenge is the same: participants need to find a way to get their point across without using any words.
Charades have a tendency to be a bit more eccentric and humorous than Pictionary since the guests will need to do movements or actions that can become quite exaggerated and zany.
Anyone will enjoy Charades if you are comfortable enough with your friends to get a little weird.
Charades are also featured in our list of tea party games for adults.
Newlywed Game is traditionally played by couples, with the name deriving from couples who had just recently gotten married, but it can be adapted for friends.
The game’s objective is the same, whether the participants are newly married or just good friends who know each other well.
Two people are paired up, with questions prepared ahead of the contest.
One person is asked to write down their answers to each question on a piece of paper before the round, and the other is tasked with attempting to answer each question.
The questions are compared against the pre-written answer, and whoever answers the most correctly wins.
This game is best enjoyed by pairs of people who know each other well, either actual couples or good friends, and either way, there will be plenty of laughs whether the answers are right or wrong.
And if you’re looking for activities to play with your partners, check out our games for couples, too.
Test your knowledge of obscure facts with a round of Friendsgiving Trivia.
A host has prepared a series of questions, most commonly with short-form answers, although multiple choice could occasionally be involved.
Players team up in small groups to answer as many questions as correctly as possible.
The team with the most correct answers wins, and the game can continue with different rounds and general themes.
You can design the themes to be Thanksgiving-related, such as Thanksgiving movies or moments in history.
Whether you decide to make the game Thanksgiving-themed or not, trivia questions usually involve history or pop culture so that as many people as possible can potentially know the answer.
See questions you can use in our Thanksgiving Trivia Quiz.
If you want to try this activity for other occasions, check out our holiday-themed trivia quizzes and our music, movies, TV, sports, geography, and decades trivia quizzes.
If you are thinking of good Friendsgiving game ideas for adults, consider assembling a group around the table and playing a game of Headbands.
Headbands are a great game of detection and intuition, with participants attempting to guess their own cards based on their team members’ hints.
One participant places a card on their forehead with a word or phrase, such as a popular movie character or an animal.
That person then gets to ask questions to the group while a timer counts down; they have the ability to ask any question at all aside from directly asking what they are.
Once they feel they have answered all of the questions, the participant will guess what is on their forehead.
If the answer is correct, they take the card down and put another one up, with the objective of guessing as many correctly as they can during the given time period.
This game is a great conversational matchup as long as you are up for detective work and quick-paced competition.
The app Heads Up can also be used instead of a physical game.
Heads Up also features in our guide to Zoom games.
Sports and Physical Activities
Football and the Thanksgiving season go together like gravy and mashed potatoes.
Friendsgiving usually does not occur on Thanksgiving day, so to make up for the lack of NFL football, grab a ball and put a game together in your backyard.
To avoid injury while keeping the game interesting, get flags or similar material you can attach to your hip or partially in your pockets.
The standard rules of American football apply for this particular game, with one team playing offense by attempting to move the ball down the field toward the other team’s endzone, while the other team plays defense with the hope of stopping them from scoring.
While some people may not be interested in going out in the cold or doing excessive exercise immediately before or after a large meal, flag football is one of the perfect Friendsgiving activities for adults desperate for some down-and-dirty physical gameplay.
Having a football party next? See our recommendations for football party games.
Cornhole is played on two identical long boards of wood, angled up slightly so you can throw a ball or bean bag into a set of holes organized on the top of the board.
A pair is lined up on either side of the two boards, taking turns throwing the bean bags toward the other.
If the bag lands on the board, that team gets one point; if it lands in the hole, it’s three points.
Flip Cup has been a widely celebrated game as long as there have been colleges and red solo cups.
The game begins by setting up a long table with cups placed precariously along the edge.
Two teams go head to head, facing each other across the table.
When the game begins, the first person consumes their drink and then attempts to flip it onto its top without it falling over or slipping off the table.
Whichever team successfully lands their flipped cups first wins.
This game is perfect for those with an intense sense of competition, and if you would like to make this game non-alcoholic, you can have just as much fun playing with apple cider.
Children may most commonly play musical chairs, but it can be significantly funnier when grown adults drunkenly dive toward that last available chair.
Organize a set of chairs in a circle, ensuring you have enough space for everyone to comfortably walk around them and potentially fall to the floor.
There is one less chair in each round, and people circle around them.
Once the music stops, everyone attempts to sit in one of the chairs, and whoever is left standing is out of that round.
Musical chairs are best enjoyed by those who don’t mind a bit of physical play and the potential of getting a little rough in the quest to find a seat.
Love music? You may want to play our selection of fun music games and quizzes.
Artistic Activities
Put your artistic creativity to the test with a game that is sure to make a mess.
The pumpkin carving contest begins with a pumpkin for each participant, along with a set of tools for driving and decorating.
Once the pumpkins have been completed, the voting process can begin.
Participants display the decorated pumpkins once completed, and the rest of the partygoers can vote for their favorite artwork.
If you’ve got some artistic souls in your crew who don’t mind getting a tad messy, this is one of the Friendsgiving activities that’s absolutely up their alley!
Musician friends will appreciate a game called Bring the Band Back Together.
The game’s objective is to gather different musically-inclined friends together and have them try to play a song.
Everyone has five minutes to look up chords and everything else they need before beginning, and then they need to start the song and see what happens.
To make this fun game competitive, whenever someone makes an obvious mistake, they must put down the instrument, and whoever plays last wins.
This game is only properly played with a group of musicians who are skilled enough to learn a song in a quick period, although it may be even more fun played by people who have barely played the instrument before.
Mixology puts participants into the role of bartender and the voting team into a panelist of beverage connoisseurs.
Each person is supplied with ingredients for mixed drinks, which could or could not include alcohol, depending on the group’s preference.
The items, such as apple drinks and winter spices, could be themed after the occasion.
After each participant has created their beverage concoction, the voting team gets to taste each drink through a blind voting process and chooses their favorite.
Culinary experts or complete novices could play mixology; either way, everyone can enjoy some creative drinks that generate smiles of satisfaction or belly laughs of disgust.
You may also like our list of cocktail party games.
Dust off the old karaoke machine and play a round of karaoke contests.
The rules are simple: each player gets to perform one song in front of the rest of the group, turning the living room into a stage.
To make this more into a game, voters will choose who put on the best performance, including vocal quality, costume design, and stage presence.
The rounds can go on in an American Idol-style flow, with a select few contestants chosen by the voters each round until there is a final matchup to see who puts on the best performance.
A karaoke contest will almost assuredly involve plenty of laughs, with hilarious performances by the most unlikely of people.
You don’t need to be musically inclined to compete, though it may help your chances; those who can’t sing usually make for the funniest results.
If you are still brainstorming Friendsgiving game ideas, put your baking skills to the test in a competitive game of Bake-Off.
The rules of Bake-Off reflect that of the popular British baking competition: a group of bakers are tasked with baking a certain dish, and a panel of judges decide who made the most delicious and visually appealing baked goods.
The dishes can all be Friendsgiving themed, such as different kinds of pie or cookies.
The results may be hilarious or fiercely competitive, but in the end, everyone will have the chance to sample some delicious treats.
Indoor Games
Test your reflexes with the block-balancing game Jenga.
The objective of Jenga is to slowly remove pieces of wood from a tower, placing each pulled piece back on top.
With every piece you pull from the tower, the foundational structure will deteriorate until it swings and sways with the slightest twitch of the finger.
Jenga can be enjoyed by anyone of any age, causing just enough stress to be a fun, competitive affair.
Bingo is a great low-key option in which people can compete in a focused session or slowly scattered throughout the evening.
The host, a willing guest, can assemble Friendsgiving bingo cards or even purchase pre-made ones online.
The items can revolve around themes such as Thanksgiving foods, football players, and the characters in Charlie Brown.
A host will announce each item one at a time, either in a room surrounded by focused individuals or as an announcement at various times throughout the night.
Bingo can make for a great low-intensity game that anyone can participate in, although you must pay special attention whenever an item is called.
Organize a scavenger hunt and have everyone break out into teams and search for the hidden items.
The items can be hidden around the house, such as paper turkeys in the kitchen cabinet or a football in the basement.
Each team crosses the item off their list once they find it, and whoever has the most crossed off at the night’s end wins.
The game can be played with high intensity as teams scramble around the house, or the scavenger hunt cards can be handed out at the start of the party, and groups can search at their leisure as the party goes on.
You can have this game in many different ways- for recommendations, check our list of scavenger hunts for adults.
Old-school video game enthusiasts will get a kick out of a Super Smash Bros gaming tournament.
Super Smash Bros is a video game that has become a favorite for large crowds from the 1990s.
Put the game on in the living room and set up a tournament bracket that includes everyone who is interested in playing.
Participants go head-to-head or play in groups of four, with the winners of each game moving on to the next round until there is a final match to crown the winner.
In the same vein as Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart is another Nintendo game that is also a big hit among larger groups.
Mario Kart is a racing game that involves many of the same Nintendo characters as Super Smash Bros and is generally considered one of the most approachable and instantly enjoyable of all popular racing video games.
The tournament can be very similar to Super Smash, with a bracket involving groups of roughly four people competing against each other in each game.
Those who enjoy video games and are up for a bit of competition will enjoy playing in this Friendsgiving party game.
Having your celebration online? Check out our virtual Thanksgiving games for ideas.
Did you have fun navigating our list of Friendsgiving games and activities?
Let us know in the comments which one you enjoyed the most, or share your own awesome recommendations!