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It can be hard to come up with new ideas for Thanksgiving family traditions, but this guide will help you find traditions that families love.
Thanksgiving Family Tradition #1 – Turkey Bowling
Turkey bowling is a fun tradition to start for your little kids or grand kids. Make the turkeys ahead of time.
2. Make A Gratitude Garland
Gratitude garland is where you make a garland banner, think about what you’re grateful for, then write it down on the garland. It also makes a pretty and festive decoration for your holiday home.
3. Make A Thanksgiving Dinner
The Thanksgiving meal and eating food is the main part of the day that everything else revolves around. Have fun making dishes together or divvying the menu up so that everyone makes a dish or two. Check out this list of vegan Thanksgiving recipes.
4. Make Thanksgiving Pies
Making pies together is a great way to bond. I love baking because it’s fun and you get a treat to eat. pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and apple pie are the most common pies for Thanksgiving, but you can make any kind you want to.
Related Content: 22 Vegan Pie Recipes For Every Season
5. Play Thanksgiving Mad Libs
Mad Libs are a great way to get everyone involved and laughing. This is a good activity if your Thanksgiving weather isn’t good and it prevents you from going outside.
6. Decorate The House For Thanksgiving
Decorations look really pretty on the Thanksgiving table. Try to get ones like this that are shorter so that everyone can still see each other across the table.
7. Run A Turkey Trot
If you have an active family, then running or walking a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning would be a lot of fun. If not everyone wants to participate, then some family members can watch and cheer the others on.
8. Read Thanksgiving Books
We love reading Mercer Mayer books to our little twins each holiday. We’ll definitely be getting Just A Special Thanksgiving next to read to them.
9. Make A Gratitude Jar
A gratitude jar is a good way to all say what you’re thankful for. I prefer this to going around the room and saying what everyone is grateful for because it’s not always fun to be put on the spot like that. Setup a jar and people can write what they’re thankful for and drop it in the jar.
10. Watch The National Dog Show
The National Dog Show is on after the parade. It’s fun to see the dogs and relax after dinner for a little bit.
11. Play Board Games
Board games are a fun activity to do with your family. One that we like is Apples to Apples.
12. Gratitude Tree
A gratitude tree is a great way for everyone to show what they’re thankful for. You write what you’re grateful for on the leaves and hang it on the tree. It looks really nice and pretty. This is a really cool Thanksgiving tradition.
13. Learn Thanksgiving’s History
This is a good time to brush up on the history of Thanksgiving for yourself or you can teach your kids about it.
14. Go For A Walk
I love going on a walk after Thanksgiving dinner if the weather is good. It can be hard to want to with how full you’ll be, but if you have kids, they’ll love running around.
15. Make A Fun Appetizer
Veggie trays that look like turkeys are the best appetizer IMO! So so cute. It’s also nice to have an appetizer to snack on while the big meal is cooking.
16. Watch The Friends Thanksgiving Episodes
The Friends Thanksgiving episodes are so funny! Adam and I start watching them early in November, but we’ve also watched them in just a day or two with my family. This is my favorite Thanksgiving recipe. There are 10 of these Friends episodes. They are:
- S1 E9 The One Where The Underdog Gets Away
- S2 E8 The One With The List
- S3 E9 The One With The Football
- S4 E8 The One With Chandler In A Box
- S5 E8 The One With All The Thanksgivings
- S6 E9 The One Where Ross Got High
- S7 E8 The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs
- S8 E9 The One With The Rumor
- S9 E8 The One With Rachel’s Other Sister
- S10 E8 The One With The Late Thanksgiving
Related Content: Your Guide To Thanksgiving Movies And TV Shows
17. Make Crafts Together
Doing a Thanksgiving craft is best to do early in November so you can enjoy looking at it on display for a while before the holiday.
18. Drink Sparkling Apple Cider
Marinelli’s Sparkling Cider is so delicious. Buy a lot so everyone can have as much as they want.
19. Throw A Football
A fun tradition that works for a lot of family members is going outside to throw the football.
20. Wear Thanksgiving Outfits
I love wearing festive graphic tees and this one that says “Thankful Grateful & Blessed” is perfect for Thanksgiving.
Purchase this Thanksgiving shirt here
21. Go To The Movies
A lot of really big movies come out in November right before Thanksgiving, so if everyone is looking for something to do together, this is a great option.
22. Do A Puzzle
We love to do puzzles and they’re a great group activity.
23. Get Ready For Black Friday Shopping
Thanksgiving is always on the fourth Thursday of November every year and Black Friday is the day after. A lot of stores start Black Friday on Thursday evening or even earlier online. You can get some awesome deals on Christmas presents.
24. Decorate For Christmas
If you need something to do in the evening on Thanksgiving, then why not get started on Christmas decorating? If you have people visiting they might be willing to help you with it.
Purchase these Christmas decorations here
25. Watch The Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade
I love to watch the parade on Thanksgiving morning while eating breakfast and starting to cook dinner. Kids love seeing their favorite characters as balloons in the parade. The parade takes place in New York City in the United States.
Which of these Thanksgiving family traditions are you adding to your line up?
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