Fun Games to Play After Thanksgiving Dinner

Want a game to play after Thanksgiving dinner but don’t know what to play? Are you maxed out when it comes to Monopoly? Bored stiff by Scrabble? All Apples to Apples-ed out? Well, here are seven games (for kids and adults) you can order for the family now to have ready for Thanksgiving. We bet there’s at least one new thing here for everyone—and that they are all a whole bunch of fun.

1. Looping Louie, Amazon, $38.50 This was a mass-produced, plastic kids’ game that somehow, for some reason, became a popular bar game in Germany, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. Scrap that, I know how that happened: this game is really fun. Four players have stations protecting eggs while an aviator in a motorized airplane spins around in the center and attempts to knock your eggs out of your hold. Lose your eggs: you lose; keep your eggs longest: you win. It’s simple and strangely addictive for all ages, and even though you can only play four at a time, you could easily take it in turns. The original game is out of print in the US, so it’s a little expensive, but Hasbro has re-released it as a Star Wars-themed 3-player game: Looping Chewie! It’s available on Amazon for $17.63, and the promo video is on YouTube.

2. Jungle Speed, Walmart, $14.70 Jungle Speed is the most difficult, most intense game of Snap you will ever play in your life. The collection of cards features patterns with only slight variations. All players have a pile of cards they are trying to lose, and together everyone turns over a card in front of them. If two are identical, those two players race to grab the totem at the center of the table. But if you grab the totem when your card was different, you’ll be forced to add more cards to your deck. This is a fun, hi-energy family game for up to 10 players. See the promo video for the game here.

3. Ultimate Werewolf, Amazon, $17.10 Did you ever play the game Mafia? This is basically a werewolf-themed version of that, with a few special effects. People are given cards which indicate their role/ability in the game, and one person is moderator and directs the game. The two basic teams are werewolves and villagers, and the winners are the team that survives to the end. This particular game comes with a very helpful rule book that gives great instructions to the person moderating the game; make sure to read that before Thanksgiving if you’re going to play! The best thing about Ultimate Werewolf? You can play with a large group—up to 30 players. A how-to-play video can be found here.

4. GiftTRAP, Amazon, $39.99 This is a great getting-to-know-you game. It is centered around the idea of everyone—up to 8 players—imagining giving gifts to each other, and choosing which ones you would like best. You deal a selection of gift ideas, everyone allocates who they’d give them to, you pick the ones you like the most, and the best gift givers and happiest gift receivers score points. It’s a friendly and sometimes silly family game… which might even give you a few present ideas for the holidays. For more info, head to the GiftTRAP website.

5. Pluckin’ Pairs, Amazon, $13.46 Playing Pluckin’ Pairs is simple: lay out 11 cards on the table and put those cards into pairs on your paper; one card will be left out at the end. The trick is to make pairs that match up with the others you are playing with, as well as leaving the same card out that other players left out. The fun is in the crazy combinations of cards you and your family make, as well as the quest to find out who is most like you in the way that they think. It’s a different kind of compatibility game, for 4-8 players.

6. Dixit: Odyssey, Amazon, $39.13 This game involves a huge deck of cards with outlandish original artwork on each—and they are absolutely gorgeous cards. In Dixit, you pick a card from your hand and describe it, playing it facedown. Everyone else plays a card from their deck face down, and then the group tries to find the card that you described. The challenge is in describing the card in such a way that only one or two people will find your card, but not all and not none; this is the only way you win points. Not a loud and crazy game, it’s more of a thoughtful, ingenious game perfect for up to 12 storytellers or a creative family. A how-to-play video is online here.

7. Bohnanza, Amazon, $13.18 If your family is made up of more nerdy board game types—ones who will want to strategize and who love to win—and you want something a little more complex for Thanksgiving evening, try the German classic Bohnanza. Bohnanza is a card game in which you try to collect, or “grow”, sets of beans (bohn is the German word for bean) in your bean field. Beans are harvested in sets for points. Beans can also be traded with other players, making this game highly interactive and a stack of fun. Bohnanza can be played with up to 7 players and you can watch a video of a bunch of awesome nerds playing it together here.