Thanksgiving Traditions to Start This Year
A gratitude jar by the door, a Turkey Bowl in the park, the dinner’s credits read before pie: one new tradition per card.
- Time
- 10–30 min
- Players
- One or more people
- Best for
- Planning Thanksgiving dinner, Friendsgiving and the long weekend
- Deck
- 60 traditions in 5 categories
How to use these Thanksgiving traditions
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the tradition on the top card. If it sounds like your table, try it this year and see whether it sticks.
- Swipe the card away, or tap “Next tradition”, for another. Traditions do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save a tradition on this device, or tap “Make a 10-tradition list” to share the plan with everyone coming.
When to pick your Thanksgiving traditions
Most traditions start by accident: someone tries a thing once, and the next year everyone asks for it. Picking one card ahead of time gives the day a small new habit to test, without changing the meal everyone looks forward to.
The week before
While the grocery list is still being written, draw a few cards from Before the meal and choose one, whether that is a phone basket by the door or kitchen job titles.
When the host asks what to bring
Offer a tradition along with a side dish. A gratitude jar or a set of paper leaves fits in a bag next to the rolls.
Planning Friendsgiving
Friendsgiving and small gatherings helps a group pick a theme, a date and a host, and choose who keeps the platter until next November.
Ways to use these Thanksgiving traditions
One new tradition a year
The week before, draw from every category and pick a single card to try. Keep everything else the same. If the table asks for it again next November, it has become a tradition, and you can add another one.
Let the guests choose
Send a 10-tradition list to everyone coming and ask each guest to name a favorite. Bring the top two to the table, and give whoever suggested each one the job of running it.
A plan for a small table
Hosting four friends or just the household? Draw from Friendsgiving and small gatherings and Before the meal, and choose one card from each. A small table has room for the traditions a crowd would struggle with.
Tips for a tradition that lasts
- Choose something cheap and easy to repeat. A paper leaf, a jar or a serving spoon is more likely to come back next year than a big production.
- Write down what you tried and who was there. A tradition grows from small records, like the list of dinner names or the album of set tables.
- Keep a new tradition short enough that the cooks can join in. Ten minutes between dinner and pie works better than an hour before the meal.
All 60 Thanksgiving traditions by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and pick there.
At the table
Gratitude jars, a talking spoon, a name for every year’s dinner and seat swaps before dessert.
- Keep a gratitude jar by the door: everyone drops in an unsigned note, and one is read aloud with each course.
- Give every guest a paper leaf to write a thank-you on, and tie the leaves to a bare branch centerpiece by dessert.
- Ask the whole table one question before the first bite, like the best thing anyone learned this year.
- Give each year’s dinner a name, like The Year of the Smoky Rolls, and keep every name on one list.
- Stick a gold star under one plate; whoever finds it after dinner picks the evening’s game.
- Hold a best-bite vote after the main course, and the cook of the winning dish gets the first slice of pie.
- Ask every guest to bring one dish with a story behind it, and tell the story as the dish goes around.
- Record one short audio clip of the table talking each year, and play last year’s just before dessert.
Show all 12 in At the tableShow fewer
- Let the newest face at the table choose which dish gets passed first.
- Keep one notebook where everyone writes what they’re thankful for, and read a few lines from past years aloud.
- Switch seats before dessert, so everyone ends up next to someone they haven’t talked to yet.
- Pass a big serving spoon as a talking stick: whoever holds it gets the floor for one good story.
Before the meal
Morning touch football, kitchen job titles, a phone basket by the door and predictions for the day.
- Play a Turkey Bowl of touch football in the park before dinner, with teams picked by drawing names from a bowl.
- Hold a pie night on Wednesday where each baker makes the pie their own family always made.
- Have everyone write predictions for the day, like what time dinner really starts, and read them aloud at dessert.
- Send everyone out to gather leaves, pinecones and bare branches, then decorate the table together with what they bring back.
- Open a thousand-piece puzzle on Thanksgiving morning and try to finish it before everyone heads home.
- Hand out kitchen job titles as guests arrive, like Gravy Captain, Roll Warden and Chief Taste Tester.
- Pair an experienced cook with a newer one for one dish each year, so the family recipes keep getting passed along.
- Photograph the set table before anyone sits down, and keep every year’s picture in one album.
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- Write the full menu on a chalkboard by the door, with a silly name for every dish.
- Keep a slow cooker of hot apple cider by the door, so every guest walks in to something warm.
- Put a basket by the door for phones, and leave them there until the pie comes out.
- Make a welcome sign for the front door with every guest’s name on it, added to each year.
After the meal
A card tournament with a trophy, the dish relay, a quiet hour and the first holiday lights.
- Set up a cornhole tournament in the driveway after dinner, with the bracket drawn on a paper plate.
- Turn the cleanup into a relay: the cooks put their feet up while everyone else washes, dries and stacks.
- Call a half-hour quiet time after dinner for naps, books or simply doing nothing.
- Bring out an old photo album and let everyone guess where and when each picture was taken.
- Read the dinner’s credits aloud before pie, movie-style, naming who cooked, carried and washed each dish.
- Draw names to split into teams for the late football game, and the losing side serves the pie.
- Step outside after pie and find one constellation together, adding a new one every year.
- Drive around after dinner to spot the first houses with their holiday lights already up.
Show all 12 in After the mealShow fewer
- Gather in the kitchen around ten for late-night sandwiches, everyone building their own.
- Plan next year’s menu before anyone leaves, while everyone still remembers what they loved.
- Sing the same three songs everyone knows around a piano or guitar before the guests head home.
- Push the chairs back after pie for a ten-minute dance party, one song picked by each generation at the table.
Giving back
Coat drives, food bank shifts, a pie for the fire station and thanks for the people working the holiday.
- Pick a turkey trot that raises money for a local cause, and sign up everyone who’s staying for the weekend.
- Spend Thanksgiving morning serving at a community meal as a group, then head home to cook your own.
- Set a box by the door and ask every guest to bring one pantry item for the local food drive.
- Spend an hour on Saturday helping a neighbor hang their holiday lights or clear their gutters.
- Before dinner, have every guest text one person who helped them this year to say thank you.
- Ask each guest to bring one warm coat they no longer wear, and drop them at a coat drive on Friday.
- Let the table vote on one local cause, and everyone gives what they can before the year ends.
- Fill small bags with warm socks, snacks and hand warmers to give out through a local shelter.
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- Spend an hour on Friday picking up litter in a local park with whoever stayed the night.
- Thank the cashier, bus driver or nurse working on Thanksgiving with a small handwritten card.
- Welcome a neighbor who moved in this year with a slice of pie and a list of everyone on the street.
- Sign up as a group for a sorting shift at the food bank the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Friendsgiving and small gatherings
Rotating hosts, theme years, blind pie contests and small tables where everyone cooks a course.
- Ask each friend to bring a dish from somewhere they’ve lived or traveled, with a card saying where it’s from.
- Rotate the host every year, and hand the new host a serving platter to keep until next November.
- Pick a new theme each year, like brunch foods or soups only, and announce it with the invites.
- Hold Friendsgiving on the Saturday after, so friends can come once their family plans are done.
- For a table of four, skip the whole bird and let each person cook one course of the meal.
- Throw a leftovers potluck on Saturday where everyone brings what’s left in their fridge and nothing is cooked fresh.
- When friends of friends come, give everyone a name tag with one fun fact to start conversations.
- Invite the neighbors over for pie and coffee on Thanksgiving evening, a dessert-only open house.
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- Hold a work Friendsgiving lunch on the Tuesday before, with everyone bringing a dish to share.
- Cook the same recipe as friends in other cities, then eat together over a video call.
- Ask every guest to write down the recipe they brought, and bind the cards into a little cookbook for next year.
- Hold a blind pie contest with numbered plates and paper ribbons for best crust and best filling.
Frequently asked questions
How many Thanksgiving traditions are there?
There are 60 traditions, 12 in each of five categories: at the table, before the meal, after the meal, giving back, and Friendsgiving and small gatherings. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
Are these traditions for a big family dinner or a small one?
Both. At the table, Before the meal and After the meal work for a long table of relatives, and Friendsgiving and small gatherings has ideas for a group of friends, a work lunch or a table of four. None of them needs special supplies.
Do you have Thanksgiving ideas for couples?
Yes. Thanksgiving date ideas are written for two people, from the week before to the long weekend. For conversation once the guests go home, try Thanksgiving questions for couples.
What should we play once dinner is over?
Try Thanksgiving trivia for a quiz round between dinner and pie, or Thanksgiving jokes for a few groans before everyone heads home. Both use the same card stack, with answers instead of traditions.