10 Unique Activities to Make Thanksgiving More Fun While You Meal Prep
As the fall weather gets colder and Thanksgiving approaches, it is time for busy families to start planning for lots of home cooking and celebrating holiday celebrations. There are many tried and true ways we can celebrate this festive occasion with our families and friends, but we thought we’d get a little more creative! Here are some fun and unique activities for your family to try on Thanksgiving in the midst of all of the meal prep:
1. Host a Turkey Trot
Get your family up early and take a long walk or jog around the neighborhood Thanksgiving morning before you start home cooking. Better yet, organize a neighborhood walk so a large group of you can get a calorie burn in before the turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie hit the table!
2. Create a "I'm Thankful For" Table Runner
Lay a large strip of butcher paper from end to end on your dining room table with markers by each table setting. Invite guests to write what they are thankful for this year before the food is laid out. Then, once the food is served, you can all enjoy the wonderful sayings everyone wrote.
3. Host a Best Home Cooked Meal Election
If you typically do Thanksgiving potluck-style, hold an election with slips of paper and a ballot box to vote for the best dish. Have a prize to offer the winner. Let guests know you’ll be doing this ahead of time so they bring their A-game dish!
4. Have a Thank You Card Station
Lay out card supplies (paper, glue, colorful cut-outs, stickers, and pens) on a table for guests to create thank you cards for everyone that made this year memorable. They can exchange them with friends and family at Thanksgiving or mail them off to someone that could use a smile!
5. Create a Pin the Gobbler on the Turkey Game
Print out a turkey on a large piece of paper and hang it on the wall (or buy this one from Etsy). Then, cut out “gobblers” from red construction paper, and put a piece of double-sided tape on the back. Grab a blindfold and let the kids (and the adults!) pin their gobblers on to see who gets closest to the right spot on the turkey.
6. Host a Wine Tasting (Adults Only):
Buy three bottles of the same type of wine, Merlot for example, but buy different price points. A really cheap bottle, a mid-range priced bottle, and a high-end bottle. Have your guests guess which one is which. You might find out who has the most refined taste, or that you love cheap wine!
7. Recite a poem
Express gratitude for family, friends, and food with a meaningful Thanksgiving poem. Here’s one to try:
All in a Word by Aileen Fisher
T for time to be together, turkey, talk, and tangy weather.
H for harvest stored away, home, and hearth, and holiday.
A for autumn’s frosty art, and abundance in the heart.
N for neighbors, and November, nice things, new things to remember.
K for kitchen, kettles’ croon, kith and kin expected soon.
S for sizzles, sights, and sounds, and something special that abounds.
That spells ~~~THANKS—for joy in living and a jolly good Thanksgiving.
8. Mini Pumpkin Hunt
Instead of an egg hunt, hide mini pumpkins around the yard for guests to search for. The guest with the most pumpkins found wins a prize. They can double as a centerpiece once they’ve all been found.
9. Do a Puzzle
In the lag time between the big feast and dessert, busy families often like to slow down. Open up a new puzzle and spread it on a large surface so many people can participate. Guests will enjoy having a low-energy activity to do while their stomachs settle.
10. Use a Personal Chef
If you’d rather focus on all of the activities above vs. spending the day cooking, schedule a private chef through Foodom! Chefs are available for several days leading up to Thanksgiving to create a fabulous meal for your family and friends to enjoy.
If you’d like to use Foodom to meal prep for your Thanksgiving meal, we encourage you to book a private chef quickly! Learn how Foodom works here.
We have a section devoted to Thanksgiving food here.
However you choose to spend Thanksgiving this year, we hope you have a wonderful celebration. We are thankful for all of our Foodom clients and are happy to grant busy families more time in their life to do the things that they love!
