15 Thanksgiving Games for Work

A work Thanksgiving party has a narrow window. It is somewhere between a lunch and a meeting, people have mixed comfort levels and the boss is in the room. The games below fit that window: they are quick, light, and nobody has to share anything personal. The first group is for the office, and the second is for teams on video calls.

In the office: lunch or break room

1. Pie by the numbers: guess how many pecans are in a jar, or how many slices a pie makes. Closest guess takes home a pie. It runs itself all day.
2. Blind pie taste test: cover the labels on store-bought pies and let people rank them. Reveal the results after lunch. Surprisingly heated.
3. Thanksgiving trivia in teams: mix departments on each team. Use the Thanksgiving trivia game on a shared screen, or read from the trivia questions.
4. Desk-decorating contest: teams have 15 minutes to turn a desk into the best “harvest table”, with rules like “paper only”. Vote by sticker.
5. Gratitude wall: put a sheet of paper on a wall and ask people to leave a note about a colleague who helped them this year. It takes no organizing and it is what people remember.
6. Bingo while people mingle: hand out Thanksgiving bingo cards at the door. Squares like “someone brings a dish they made themselves” get people talking.
7. Charades by department: each department sends one acting player and the others guess. Use the charades generator for work-safe cards.
8. Office Family Feud: two teams, ranked answers, a bell if you have one. The Family Feud style questions are easy to read out.
9. Potluck awards: hand out silly awards for the dishes: “Most Likely to Disappear First”, “Bravest Casserole”. Everyone wins something.
10. Team shuffle: if teams are uneven, split them with the team generator so you do not spend the first five minutes arguing over who goes where.

For a quick break-room option, Duoo Games has 15 games on one phone, with no setup. Imposter and Would You Rather are easy to play in a small team.

For remote teams on video calls

All of these work on a standard video call, with no downloads or accounts.

11. Virtual potluck show-and-tell: everyone holds up what they are eating or what they wish they were eating. Two minutes, and you get a look at everyone’s day.
12. Trivia in breakout rooms: send teams to breakout rooms, then return to the main room for answers. Keep one scorer. The trivia game page works on any shared screen.
13. Would you rather in the chat: the host posts one question, people reply with A or B in the chat and then someone explains why. Try the would you rather game for questions.
14. Scavenger hunt in 60 seconds: the host calls an item (“something orange”, “something that is older than you”) and everyone runs off camera and returns. The first one back scores.
15. Shared gratitude board: open a shared document or a whiteboard. Everyone adds one thank-you to a teammate. Read a few out at the end.

Tips for hosting

• Keep it short. Twenty minutes is plenty, and 15 is better.
• Make everything optional. Someone can watch without being asked why.
• Skip personal questions. Prompts about family, home or holidays are not right for every workplace.
• Choose a clear start time and stick to it, particularly for remote teams across time zones.
• Bring small prizes. A pie, a gift card or the first pick of leftovers.

Planning something less formal? See the 30 Thanksgiving games or the more laid-back Friendsgiving games.