25 Friendsgiving Game Ideas to Play with Your Besties

Friendsgiving, a tradition among friends, brings people together to celebrate gratitude and friendship, and of course, enjoy a delicious feast.

It is one of the most beautiful days of the year. Usually, Thanksgiving week in the United States, this day celebrates all the great things about Thanksgiving, but with friends.

At Friendsgiving, people gather around the table to enjoy delicious food as well as have time to play a fun Friendsgiving game with their family and friends.

In this article, we shall explore the best Friendsgiving game ideas to entertain and engage your guests, ensuring a memorable celebration.

What is Friendsgiving?
Frequently Asked Questions

What is Friendsgiving?

Friendsgiving is a fun and informal gathering typically held around Thanksgiving time, where friends come together to share a meal and celebrate each other’s company.

It’s a way to enjoy the holiday season with your chosen family of friends, creating new traditions and memories. Friendsgiving often involves potluck-style meals, where everyone contributes a dish or two to share, making it a collaborative and communal event.

This modern tradition has become increasingly popular in recent years as people seek to extend the spirit of gratitude and togetherness beyond just their immediate family. It’s a great opportunity to bond with friends, enjoy delicious food, and express appreciation for the important people in your life.

How did Friendsgiving start?

It all started in 2007 when a group of friends got together to cook Thanksgiving dinner for each other and celebrate their friendship (hence “Friendsgiving”).

The idea quickly spread through social media (Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) and now Friendsgiving celebrations are being held across North America.

The day is so popular that people all over Europe host Friendsgiving. There’s no reason not to gather friends for dinner and fun, or entertain guests at games this year. After all, who doesn’t love games?

What are the Friendsgiving Game Ideas?

There are many different game ideas to give friends who are popular all over the world, but here are our favorites. We also included the popular Thanksgiving game.

Guess Who?

This is one of the most favorite Friendsgiving game ideas. This classic game can be played face-to-face or via Zoom. Ask questions starting with “What is your favorite TV show?” Players take turns asking questions and narrowing down their choices until they can guess who someone is thinking of.

Charades

If you’re looking for a fun Friendsgiving party game idea, try out charades. The aim of this game is for each player to act out clues of their teammates to guess what are trying to tell you without speaking or using body language alone.

One person from each team comes to the front of the room and teaches them as many words as possible in 60 seconds. Your teammates must guess what you’re trying to say before time runs out.

Pictionary

Pictionary is one of the popular Friendsgiving games. Similar to Charade, the object of this game is for the player to draw hints on a piece of paper without speaking. It’s a great opportunity for people who don’t know each other well to get to know each other.

From each team comes one person who teaches as many words as possible (depending on the number of words) within one minute.

The people guessing must guess which picture it is before time runs out. This game can be a lot of fun, so it’s a good idea to set some ground rules at the start of the game to keep it fun and fair for everyone involved.

Karaoke

Some would say karaoke is the perfect Friendsgiving game to get your friends out of their comfort zone. No need to rent a karaoke machine. Thankfully, there are now many apps that allow you to create your karaoke music videos.

Among all the other Friendsgiving game ideas, this one is a hit. The game allows players to use these tools to sing along to their favorite songs and sing as loud as they want.

The goal is for each player or team to demonstrate his vocal skills. Whoever gets the most likes for their video wins. Of course, you can also play this game on YouTube or just songs that everyone knows. The possibilities for karaoke songs are endless.

Whether you’re playing classics or jamming to your latest favorites, there’s no wrong way.

UNO

Another of my favorite Friendsgiving activities is playing Uno. Perfect for all ages, this card game starts with just one deck (or two). To play, each player must get rid of their hand by playing matching numbers or suits on the table in front of them.

After you play your first card, you can challenge other players to see if they have the right card for your game. If there is a challenge, both players present their cards and whoever has the higher number or color wins the round. The first player who reaches 500 points loses.

Drinking Jenga

If you’re looking for a Friendsgiving drinking game, you’ll love this drinking game. We all know that Jenga is a great game to play when you want to get tipsy, but there are many ways to make Jenga even more fun.

For example, the player can babyproof a by setting rules such as “no hands” or “everyone must have a drink” for each removed block.

This game can get pretty wild, so we recommend playing it with like-minded people who don’t overdo it or get drunk too quickly.

If you’re worried about how much alcohol you’ll be drinking at Friendsgiving this year, consider cutting alcohol out of the equation entirely and playing a healthier version of Jenga.

Different drinks require different challenges. For example, when playing with beer, the player removing the block must drink as much drink as it took to remove the block (i.e. 3 blocks = 1 shot).

Even if you don’t like alcohol, or if someone in your group doesn’t want to participate, these soft drink games are great fun.

Never Have I Ever

We recommend playing this game with someone you feel comfortable with. Just like drinking games can get a little wild, Never Have I Ever is also great for those who don’t take things too far.

In this classic party game, players start by saying “never done” and then name things they’ve never done. The goal is to raise your hand when the other player raises their hand.

Friendsgiving Quiz Game

This is a Friendsgiving printable game that you might enjoy. Test your friends’ knowledge of each other by playing this fun trivia game. The rules are simple:

One person receives the quiz sheet and reads all 25 questions aloud to the other person. The person with the most correct answers is declared the winner.

Questions range from casual questions like, “What is my best friend’s favorite food” to serious questions like ‘Who has a sibling that died recently”.

You know your friends and their preferences better than we do, so feel free to create custom quiz questions for them. This game does very well with 20 questions.

Write everyone’s answers down on paper and keep them anonymous for a true Friendsgiving experience. This encourages people to answer truthfully because no one knows who said what.

If you do, be sure to wait until the end of the game to reveal the answer so that players can continue to do their best throughout all 20 rounds.

Capture the Flag

Capture the Flag is a fun game for kids and adults. This is one of the Friendsgiving game ideas that are always a hit at sleepovers and camping trips, but it’s also fun to play with friends in your own backyard. He needs two flags (one for each team) that can be hidden somewhere at the beginning of the game.

Each flag should be placed on a separate side of a flat field such as a lawn or park.

The objective of the game is to find and capture the opposing team’s flag to score points. Each successful raid earns the team a point, bringing him closer to 20 seconds to victory.

The game is over if neither side can steal the opponent’s flag within 10 minutes (if each team has two players, he has 5 minutes). To make the game even more fun, play the light version of the Capture the Flag game with friends at night.

Heads Up

As the host, we have another cool game to add to your list of Good Friendsgiving games and activities. This game is great because you can play with between 2 to 20 people. The game Heads Up uses real-world objects as clues for word categories (such as ‘food’ and ‘animals’) that appear on the map.

When it is your turn, place the card on your forehead. Teams must then describe or act out something in that category, but cannot say any words in that category.

The game is passed on to everyone until they guess the contents of the card correctly. After that, move to the next map and continue playing until the time runs out.

First Letter Game

Among the Friendsgiving game ideas on this list, this game is fun to play with a large group because everyone is guaranteed to have two chances each round. At least you need four people for this.

Here’s how the rules work:

A person begins by saying the first letter of an object in the room. The next player must say a word that begins with the last letter of the object’s name.

This continues until you make a mistake, at which point the game moves to another category. The first person to get 2 items in a row correct is the winner.

Family Feud (with Friends!)

Many people are fans of Family Feud, so it had to be added to the list of ideas for the Friendsgiving game. We all know how addictive Steve Harvey’s Family Feud is, and this game is no exception. We’ve turned the classic formula into a fun and competitive Friendsgiving game event.

To play, come up with 5 questions related to Thanksgiving or a group of friends (e.g. ‘Name what you are grateful for’, ‘What was the best thing you did in high school? or “What’s the best Thanksgiving dish?”

If there is a question, he divides everyone into two teams. The first team writes down all the answers to each question on paper without agreeing with each other. Once they’re done, it’s time to reply. Everyone has 60 seconds to answer each question on a large whiteboard.

You can also buy the physical version in case you run out of questions. There’s also a virtual version if you’re planning on gifting a virtual friend.

Two Truths & One Lie

You need to think fast if you want to win this game. Each player’s turn to explain two truths and one lie about themselves. The group only has 30 seconds before the next person is given a chance, but everyone can write down who said what, or use their cell phones to record everyone.

This is another of my favorite Friendsgiving game ideas for her that you can enjoy with your friends.

I Spy

This game is simple but incredibly fun! Every player can choose items in the room. The first person then says, “I see something called __” and enters a description of what they see (eg, blue, out of focus, etc.).

The next player must come up with an object that matches the previous person’s description. So when someone says “blue” you might say “pen”.

Taboo

This game is perfect for competitive friends who want to laugh a lot. In this classic board game, each team takes turns coming up with a word that the other player must guess. Players may not use any prohibited words on the card. If used, the entire team is given an “X”.

Dirty Charade (A classic with a twist!)

Give your friends an adult game night, you’ll love this game! You need to make sure everyone understands what

Have the rest of the players guess as many words or phrases as they can within 30 seconds, then it’s time for the new player.

Catchphrase

This classic game is perfect for competitive friends. At least he needs 3 players, but more is better. Plus, it works well with large groups.

The goal of the game is to ask team members to guess the word or phrase on the card in front of them by saying a simple catchphrase. For example, if the word is “chicken”, you might say “Cluck Cluck”.

To play this game, players select cards and read their own sentences or words. The rest of the team should come up with a catchphrase as soon as possible, but they can only use the words listed in front of them.

Phone a friend

This game requires everyone to have their mobile phones ready. You will also need the “Phone a Friend Lifeline” included in the deck. A person who draws cards from the deck can select an acquaintance through the speakerphone to help them guess a word or phrase from the deck.

Trivia Showdown

This game is suitable for large groups as he needs two teams. One team acts as “Team A” and the other team acts as “Team B”. Each player chooses a category (music, science, sports, etc.) and in a notebook, he can write three answers.

Then each person in team A is given 30 seconds of his time to write down as many answers as possible (without using the same words) for the selected category.

When time runs out, one of her players on the team stands up and reads out all three of his answers for that round. Meanwhile, the other players write down their answers.

Team B must then guess the answer. Every correct answer counts as 1 point for him, but any wrong answer or time-out gives the team a point.

Then it’s time for the second round when everyone switches teams and chooses a new category. The team with the most points at the end of both rounds wins.

The Voting Game NSFW Edition

This version of the voting game is for adults only. Someone draws a “who” question card and asks the question aloud. There are no restrictions on questions in this version of the game.

We recommend playing with a group of friends who already have a pretty strong bond. After reading the question, everyone votes for who they think is the best fit for the question.

Voting results will be announced at the end of the round!

What Do You Meme?

This game is a lot of fun and perfect for people who love memes. One person draws a meme card and the remaining group members each choose the words they think best fit the meme. A meme card drawer selects the best card and that person wins the round.

Do You Know ME?

This game is a lot of fun and will test how you know your friends. Each player takes turns sitting in the “hot seat” and asking the person to their right a “yes/no” question.

Everyone else in the group uses their voting cards to guess whether the answer is yes or no. At the end of each round, the Hot Seat players reveal their answers, and the person in the group with the most correct answers wins that round.

Have a virtual Friendsgiving

If you don’t feel like getting together with your friends right now, host a Friendsgiving on Zoom. This way, you can enjoy a nice meal together without actually being together. Play some games, share what you’re grateful for, and enjoy a social evening.

Throw a potluck

If you’re comfortable getting together (and social distancing and being responsible), you don’t have to cook all the food yourself. Ask your friends to help in preparing the side dish. It reduces prep time and allows everyone to improve their cooking skills.

Work on a huge puzzle

Nothing brings people together like a common goal. Work on the puzzle together and try to put all the pieces together by the end of the night. But make sure you have a price. It could be something like a celebratory cake.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some Friendsgiving ideas?

host a Friendsgiving Tea Time (with turkey-filled tea sandwiches and pumpkin-spiced lattes)

What is a Friendsgiving party?

a large meal eaten with friends either on or near Thanksgiving

What do you say at Friendsgiving?

Use sweet captions to share positive vibes about the amazing friends you’re thankful for

What do you say about Friendsgiving?

Happy Friendsgiving!

Conclusion

If you’re hosting Friendsgiving at home this year, it might be worth writing down some Friendsgiving game ideas ahead of time. I hope you find this list helpful.

A little friendly competition between friends can be a great way to get the party started. Of course, games can be as simple or as complex as you want. The most important thing about Friendsgiving is to de-stress and have fun with your friends.