This article has links to products and services we love, which we may make commission from.
Are you looking for fun ideas for your virtual Thanksgiving games this year because physical gatherings are off the table?
Whether it’s due to distance, travel restrictions, or simply a preference for a digital occasion, our selection of games is designed to bridge the physical gap and provide a fun and interactive experience for everyone involved.
Discover a variety of activities that suit your taste, from lively conversations and strategic board games to nostalgic classics and team-building games.
To make navigation easier, we’ve organized the games based on their respective categories or themes.
You may also like our Thanksgiving games and Friendsgiving games.
Table of Contents
Ideas for Virtual Thanksgiving Games
Conversational Games
Break the ice with the following conversational games, if you’re looking for lively discussions and warm interactions at your virtual Thanksgiving gathering.
These activities encourage everyone to share stories, opinions, and memories with one another.
If you want to have friendly discussions with your crew, you can also check out our Thanksgiving conversation starters.
Pictionary
Pictionary is a competitive communication game that forces teams to think fast without the aid of words.
One teammate has a specific word or phrase that they need to communicate to the rest of their team, but all they have to work with is the ability to draw.
This game is easy to make virtual with the use of Zoom’s drawing tool; the player responsible for drawing will just share their screen so the rest of the party can see what they are drawing.
Anyone who is interested in a classic competition of wits and artistic creativity will appreciate this game.
Two Truths and a Lie
This conversational game relies on some digging into personal history around the virtual Thanksgiving table.
The first participant states ‘two truths,’ which are two entirely true statements about that person, and then one false statement.
It is the objective of the rest of the players to determine which of the three statements is the lie.
When playing with friends or family, it’s a fun way to test your familiarity with them and adds an element of creativity to keep everyone guessing about the truths and lies.
The Movie Game
The Movie Game is a fun option for a virtual Thanksgiving, as everyone can take turns providing clues and having the players attempt to guess which movie they are thinking of.
There is one participant each round who is responsible for getting the rest of the party to guess which movie they are thinking of.
They are allowed to provide all of the clues they want, as long as they don’t use the name of the movie in any capacity, as well as any names that may give it away.
For example, if you are trying to convey the movie Star Wars, you can’t use the words ‘star’ or ‘wars,’ but you also can’t use words such as ‘lightsaber,’ ‘Darth Vader’ or ‘Tatooine.’
The first person to guess the movie title correctly earns a point and then gets the chance to provide the clues for the next movie.
This game is a great exercise in deduction and quick-thinking and is a great way to get the whole family involved.
If you love movies, try our movie quizzes next.
Name That Song
Flex your listening skills with an audio-based guessing game that will put your familiarity of popular music to the test.
There are two teams competing against each other, each one getting the chance to listen to about three seconds of a song before guessing which one it is.
If a team can correctly guess the song based on only several seconds, they get a point.
In the later rounds, the intensity of the game can be amplified by shortening the amount of time a song is played each round.
This game is great for anyone that has a basic familiarity with popular music, or whichever genre you choose.
Fan of music? Check out our collection of music games and quizzes.
Something in Common
Something in Common is an icebreaker activity that can function as a great virtual Thanksgiving game, especially for family members working as a team to find out exactly what they all have in common.
The obvious answers like ‘we grew up in the same house’ or ‘we all have the same grandmother’ can be used up early, and soon the teams will have to get creative about exactly what they all share in common at a deeper level.
Those who can accurately prove what they have in common win points that round, and the game becomes increasingly more difficult as the amount of easy answers begins to dwindle.
Even among family, it will become hard to think of what binds them all, but Thanksgiving is an excellent time as ever to discover more ways family is bound together.
Quiplash
Quiplash is a game of comedic prompting.
There is a prompt given to the whole party, such as ‘graffiti you might find in a kindergarten.’
Rather than having a set list of cards, each participant gets to type in their response, which is then anonymously projected on the screen after an allotted time frame.
The entire party gets to vote on which answers are the funniest, and each vote counts as a point, which then culminates at the end of the round.
Quiplash can be a hilarious game for everyone involved leading to fits of laughter at the perfect answer.
Virtual Board Games
Spice up your virtual Thanksgiving with a selection of online board games, offering hours of friendly competition and strategic fun.
From classics to modern ones, these games ensure everyone has a blast and stays connected.
Bingo
Bingo is a great option as a virtual game, as the boards can be downloaded online and shared easily, and everyone can work at the same time over Zoom.
One person should act as the MC, while the rest of the party has individual bingo boards to fill in.
As the host reads a given answer, each player needs to check their bingo board and see if they can cross off anything from their board.
The Bingo items can be Thanksgiving-themed, such as Thanksgiving foods or Thanksgiving activities like football and napping.
If you would like to generate a virtual bingo card, you can do so using free tools such as Bingo Baker, which gives you the option to select themes as well.
Bingo also features in our boat party games and tea party games for adults.
Scattergories
Put your wordsmith abilities to the test with the classic game of Scattergories.
In this game, participants work together in small teams to think of as many words as possible that begin with a given letter and align with a category.
Whichever team can write down the most words that fit the category and start with a certain letter wins that round, collecting points toward the final result at the end of the game.
Those who enjoy a fast pace and an intellectual exercise will get a kick out of Scattergories.
Cards Against Humanity
Test the limits of your group’s humor with a virtual game of Cards Against Humanity.
In each round, there is one person who acts as the judge; everyone else has a series of cards that could be fitting responses to a given prompt.
The host presents the prompt, and each participant needs to think of the funniest or most relevant response to that prompt.
An example of a prompt can be ‘What’s the next Happy Meal Toy?’ and everyone has answers such as ‘crippling debt’ or ‘general sense of dread’.
The host then reviews all cards anonymously and selects the best response, which then gives one point to whoever provided that response.
This game is fun for the whole family and even friends, although it should be mentioned that it has a tendency to get inappropriate, so make sure they can handle some boundary-pushing.
Online Cards Against Humanity also features in our games to play over Zoom guide.
Codenames
Codenames is a very popular board game and can be added to your list of Thanksgiving virtual games, thanks to an online version that the whole family can play together.
There is a map of cards organized with random words such as ‘tooth,’ ‘force’ and ‘band.’
Two players from opposite teams have access to a card that reveals which cards will give their team points, and which item will self-destruct the board and immediately grant the round to the other team.
Each player has a teammate that is not aware of which cards are right and wrong, and must be guided through the map by their team member.
The team member who sees the board in full will provide clues such as ‘music, three,’ meaning that there are three cards that share the theme of music, and their team member has to guess which three items line up with that category.
Codenames is plenty of fun for anyone of any age level, requiring some creativity and clever categorization, as well as some concise communication between teammates.
Taboo
Taboo is a board game that requires one participant to provide clues and the other to guess, similar to Pictionary but with some conversational tools available.
The person conveying a given word or phrase can use words, but cannot use specific phrases that are listed on a card, which are the phrases they most likely need to use to best convey the topic.
For example, the word may be ‘star,’ and the words they can’t use are ‘sky,’ ‘night,’ ‘twinkle,’ ‘film’ and ‘sun.’
This game can become a thrilling and competitive matchup, as participants attempt to guess clues based on a bizarre series of clues that dance around the many words the participant cannot say.
Taboo also features in our road trip activities for kids.
Virtual Classic Games
Looking for activities that never get old?
Explore these timeless classics you can add to your online Thanksgiving games.
Virtual Musical Chairs
Thanks to some clever tools on Zoom, it is possible to play the classic game of musical chairs virtually.
Musical chairs is a game in which music plays, and everyone circles around a set of chairs without stopping, with the set of chairs adding up to one less than the number of players.
Once the music stops, each participant must race to find an open chair they can sit in.
Whoever doesn’t have a seat is out of the game, and the game continues until there is only one chair between two people.
In order to play this game virtually, the party must use breakout rooms as well as share music from one of the participant’s devices, which can act as the host of the game.
Once the music stops, everyone needs to attempt to join the room, and the host will keep an eye on who leaves the main meeting to determine who is out each round.
While the game does require the host to have quick visual reflexes to catch who is last, it is played in the same format as the traditional game and can be just as enjoyable.
Virtual Thanksgiving Trivia
Virtual Thanksgiving Trivia can be a great game for everyone, relying on one host and a set of questions that can be pre-organized or downloaded online.
In each round, the teams compete to guess as many questions correctly as possible.
The questions can be Thanksgiving-themed, such as foods and football players, or the themes can involve history, television shows, or sports, as long as it is something accessible that everyone has some familiarity with.
Teams work together to decide their answers, and by the end of each round, they calculate their scores based on the correct answers provided.
This is an accessible and entertaining game as it requires no heavy strategic involvement and each participant can be as involved, or not involved, as they like.
Use our Thanksgiving Trivia Quiz if you’re looking for a set of questions to use.
If you want more topics, check out our holiday, music, movies, TV, sports, geography, and decades trivia quizzes.
Jeopardy
Jeopardy is a game of logic and quick thinking, making use of a board with categories and a series of questions that grow increasingly more challenging based on how many points they would award the team.
Jeopardy boards can be easily assembled with a series of categories and a set of questions for each category.
Each team gets the chance to choose a category and a score (based on difficulty level), and then must try to answer that question correctly.
For example, the category could be ‘Reptiles,’ and the question could be ‘The saltwater crocodile is the largest in the world’ with a true/false potential answer.
If that team guesses the answer correctly, they can ask another question off the board.
Jeopardy is an intellectually challenging, and at times hilarious, contest of wit and quick thinking, bringing the whole group together in a shared sense of competition.
Here’s an example of a jepordy board from our bachelorette party games guide.
Improv Acting Games
Inject some creativity into your virtual Thanksgiving with an improvisational acting game that’s sure to keep everyone entertained.
Get ready for hilarious scenarios and unexpected twists as you embrace your inner actor with these holiday activities.
Alphabet Storytelling
Alphabet Storytelling is a standard improvisational game that is played by improv actors at most studios and theaters.
The objective of this game is to tell a story that has 26 lines of dialogue.
Each new sentence should begin with the next letter in the alphabet, often starting with ‘A’ but that is not necessarily required.
For example, the first line can be ‘After dinner on Saturdays, Gregory likes to order ice cream from his local store,’ and the next line can be ‘Bubble Gum is his favorite flavor, but today they were all out.’
Each participant comes up with one line, and the next person is responsible for continuing the story using the next letter of the alphabet.
As with any improv acting game, everyone participating should be fully invested, and ready to put themselves out there in potentially uncomfortable territory.
This is one of the interactive Thanksgiving games that promotes creativity for everyone around the virtual table.
Questions Only
This classic game is one of the best Thanksgiving icebreakers, a common game to play within improv acting communities as well as general party gatherings.
The purpose of the game is to have a conversation using only questions.
For example, the first participant can begin with ‘Hello, how are you today?’ and the second person can say ‘That depends, what is the weather looking like outside?’
The conversation continues one participant after another, and you will be out of the round if you either respond without a question or hesitate noticeably.
Questions Only can be a delightful back-and-forth among participants, often involving short rounds that anyone can jump in on throughout the evening.
Count Your Words
Count Your Words is another conversation-based improv game, that requires participants to keep close track of the words they use in order to win.
Each player will be assigned a number between 1 and 10, representing the number of words they are allowed to respond with when it is their turn.
The conversation begins, and once someone has completed their line, the next person up needs to respond accordingly or will be out.
If the person responds with any number of words that don’t match their designated number, or if they hesitate significantly, they are out.
This game is another fast-paced game that people can join in at any time, as long as they are willing to get a bit silly and keep close track of their words in the process.
We hope you don’t get “one”!
Sell it to Me
In Sell it to Me, each participant will need to become a natural salesman to win over a group of consumers.
Each salesman is tasked with searching around their immediate surroundings and quickly identifying a random object that they will be pitching.
Once the objects are all picked, each participant will provide a 1-minute sales pitch to a group of consumers, who then score each pitch on a scale of ‘’not interested at all’’ to ‘’I will buy a dozen right now’’.
Objects can be tied to fall or Thanksgiving if you wish to make it thematic.
Sell it to Me can be a very enjoyable and laugh-inducing game that will push everyone’s sales skills to the limit.
Fortunately, Unfortunately
In order to play ”Fortunately, Unfortunately”, everyone has to conduct an ongoing conversation in the same format as some other popular improv games.
The twist here is that the first participant begins their line with ‘fortunately…’ and the next person up needs to follow that with a line that begins with ‘unfortunately…’
For example, the first line can be ‘Fortunately, I packed some extra chips for my lunch,’ and the next line can be ‘Unfortunately, I got apple chips by accident.’
The first person to respond in a way that doesn’t align with that flow is out until only one remains.
This game can be fun as long as you are willing to participate with full focus and a carefree attitude.
Thanksgiving Team Building Activities
Looking for virtual Thanksgiving games for work to play with your coworkers or simply trying to bring your online crew closer for the occasion?
These team-building activities are the way to go, sparking collaboration and lots of laughter.
You’re Fired
You’re Fired is a hilarious improv game that usually requires a physical space, but can relatively easily translate to a virtual setting.
The game is traditionally played with four people at a time, a boss, a worker who is late to work, and two co-workers who are not late.
The late worker can be sent to a separate room in the Zoom call for a brief period while the two other co-workers develop an elaborate story as to why the third worker was late.
At this point, the third worker re-enters the room and is asked by the boss to further explain why exactly he was late.
Traditionally, the two other co-workers then stand behind the boss and use physical pantomiming to try to help their fellow worker explain why he was late.
The humor comes from the late worker having to rely on physical expressions alone to retell the elaborate story, and if he can do it effectively, the team of three can move on to the next round.
This game can be a bit complicated to play out, but as long as you utilize another room in the Zoom call so the third person can’t hear the original excuse, the rest of the game can just be played based on visual cues from the two other players.
You may also like our list of Zoom games.
Shipwrecked
Shipwrecked is a role-playing game that you can play together in a cooperative format.
An accident in the open seas has occurred, and the entire group has wrecked their ship on an isolated island.
There are sets of tools and random equipment that are left from the wreck, and then you must work together with those tools to stay alive and obtain help.
For example, the tools available can include a mirror, seat cushions, and 100 bags of potato chips, among other items determined before the game begins.
This game is a great option to get everyone involved and doesn’t require any competitive spirit since it is a cooperative format.
Virtual Escape Room
Host a virtual escape room adventure where teams of family and friends work together to solve puzzles, decipher clues, and unravel a mystery to “escape” from a virtual scenario.
With various themes and challenges available online, it’s an engaging way to encourage teamwork, problem-solving, and fun competition during your virtual gathering.
Plus, it provides an exciting and interactive activity that can be enjoyed by participants from different locations.
Thanksgiving Virtual Scavenger Hunt
A Thanksgiving-themed scavenger hunt is a great way to get the entire crew involved in an interactive group activity.
Each participant receives a set of items that they must find around their house and return to the call in a specified time.
If someone is able to retrieve a specific item and return to the call with it, they are awarded one point.
The host has the list of items ready and will judge whether each person returned on time and whether the item itself lives up to the description.
For example, the list of items can include:
- A football
- A silly dish
- A souvenir from a past family vacation
- A turkey
- Thanksgiving food
- Something you are grateful for (and why)
- Something you have buyer’s remorse for (and why)
- Your favorite side dish
- A musical instrument
- Flannel clothing
- A blue blanket
- A DVD (good luck!)
- Your favorite book (and why)
The game can either be played with the entire list and 20 minutes to obtain everything, or you can play it one item at a time, with 2-3 minutes for everyone to attempt to find that item.
The former will make for a more efficient overall experience from the sense of total time spent, while the latter will involve a more fluid back and forth without a large gap of time in the beginning.
Either way, a Thanksgiving scavenger hunt is a great way to get everyone motivated to participate, and can often lead to learning something new about everyone on your team in the process.
We have a list of scavenger hunt ideas for adults where you can find a good selection of items to find.
And, more even more team building online games ideas, check out this article.
Final Thoughts
Did you enjoy exploring our list of fun Thanksgiving virtual games?
Let us know in the comments your favorite ones or your personal recommendations.
Our Thanksgiving Games
- Thanksgiving Games
- Friendsgiving Games
- Football Games
- Thanksgiving Trivia Quiz
- Thanksgiving Conversation Starters
- Virtual Thanksgiving Games
- Conversation Starters
- Fun Games
- Trivia Quizzes