Thanksgiving Games for Work

Work-safe games for the office potluck: press Pick 3 new games for three, each with a way to sit out.

Thanksgiving Games for Work

  1. Thanks Chain, Door to Buffet1. A basket of paper strips and pens stands at every door from the morning on. 2. Each person writes one thing they are thankful for at work on a strip, signed or not, and loops it through the last link with a stapler or tape. 3. The floor has one goal: a chain long enough to reach from the door to the buffet by noon. 4. At noon two volunteers walk it out and the floor counts the links aloud. 5. If it reaches, the chain hangs over the table for the meal. Prepare: cut the strips the day before. Sitting out: the chain needs no particular link. Players: 30 to 200. Time: 5 min. Props: paper strips, pens and staplers or tape.
  2. Twelve Leftover Boxes, One Bag1. Each team gets the same odd set of twelve clean, empty food containers, closed, and one paper grocery bag. 2. On go, the team packs all twelve into the bag so that it stands with the top folded over. 3. One person packs and the others pass boxes and call the order. 4. The first bag that survives being lifted by its handles wins the round. 5. Unpack, swap the packer and play twice more. Prepare: collect the containers over the week before. Sitting out: lift-testers and the timer. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: twelve closed empty containers and a paper bag for each team.
  3. Buffet Alphabet, Checked Against the Cards1. Each table writes the alphabet down a sheet. 2. In eight minutes the table fills in one thing for each letter that is truly on the buffet or in a dish on it: A for apples in the pie, B for butter. 3. Scouts may walk to the buffet and read the ingredient cards, which is the point. 4. When time is up, tables swap sheets and check each claim against the cards. 5. One point a letter; the letters nobody else filled score two. Allergies: every dish on the table carries a card that lists what is in it, and nobody has to taste anything to play. Prepare: nothing beyond the ingredient cards. Sitting out: a table can skip the sheet. Players: 6 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: paper and pens.

Next step Thanksgiving icebreaker questions for the table

How it works

These Thanksgiving games for work fit a potluck or the last team meeting before the holiday. All 30 are played in person, none is an eating contest, and every one says how to sit out.

Read the full guide

Thanksgiving office games by how much notice you have

More filters, the last entry of the All games menu, holds Prepare. Nothing to prepare keeps the games that run on paper, pens and what is on the desks, such as Desk-Supply Cornucopia. Start a week ahead keeps the ones that need colleagues to bring or send something first, such as Recipe Mix-Up: Match the Card to the Dish, where cooks hand in a card first.

Thanks without a spotlight

In Thanks games that put nobody on the spot, nothing is read aloud about one person. Notes are posted, sealed or delivered to a desk, so nobody is praised or passed over in front of the room.

Tips
  • Number the dishes as they arrive. Who Brought the Dish? and Compliment Cards for Dish Numbers both use the numbers.
  • Ask every cook for an ingredient card. The food games are played from the cards, not by tasting.

Questions and answers

Which Thanksgiving team games fit a ten-minute slot in a meeting?

The ones under Team contests of about ten minutes. Teams of four build a standing bird in Paper-Bag Turkey Build, or draw one in Spreadsheet Turkey, Cell Colors Only. Each contest ends with a vote or a clear winner.

What can a whole office floor play together?

Choose Whole-floor games for 30 or more. In Canned-Goods Sculpture by Department, each department builds with what it collected for a food bank. In Pass the Pie Tin the Length of the Floor, everyone is on one side and the clock is the opponent.

What keeps a Thanksgiving game work-safe?

Nothing here asks about family, faith, diet or weight, and no game stakes anything. The screen follows the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission page on harassment, which names ridicule and offensive jokes as examples of offensive conduct. Your employer's own policy comes first.

How do the food games handle allergies?

Every food game is played from ingredient cards, and nobody has to taste anything to take part. In Buffet Alphabet, Checked Against the Cards, reading the cards is the game.

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All 30 games

Potluck table games 8

  • A Question at Every Serving Spoon 1. The host writes one question about the office on a card for each dish: how many steps from the lobby to this room, which year the team moved in. 2. A card stands beside every serving spoon. 3. People answer on a slip as they move down the line, one question a dish. 4. Slips go in a box at the end of the table. 5. After the meal the host reads the answers; anyone with all of them right is cheered. Questions are about the building and the work, not about people. Prepare: write and check the questions the day before. Sitting out: skip the slip and take the food. Players: 10 to 100. Time: 15 min. Props: question cards, answer slips, pens and a box.
  • Buffet Alphabet, Checked Against the Cards 1. Each table writes the alphabet down a sheet. 2. In eight minutes the table fills in one thing for each letter that is truly on the buffet or in a dish on it: A for apples in the pie, B for butter. 3. Scouts may walk to the buffet and read the ingredient cards, which is the point. 4. When time is up, tables swap sheets and check each claim against the cards. 5. One point a letter; the letters nobody else filled score two. Allergies: every dish on the table carries a card that lists what is in it, and nobody has to taste anything to play. Prepare: nothing beyond the ingredient cards. Sitting out: a table can skip the sheet. Players: 6 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: paper and pens.
  • The Buffet, Renamed in Office Speak 1. Each table gets a strip of blank tent cards and five minutes. 2. The table renames five dishes on the buffet the way a project plan would: Phase Two Sweet Potatoes, Cross-Functional Stuffing. 3. A runner stands each new card behind its dish, beside the real label. 4. As people go back for seconds they put a tally mark on the card they like most. 5. The table with the most marks wins the first slice of pie. Names are about the food and the jargon, never about a colleague. Prepare: nothing. Sitting out: anyone can eat and skip the cards. Players: 8 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: blank tent cards and markers.
Show all 30 games (27 more)

Potluck table games, continued

  • Compliment Cards for Dish Numbers 1. Every place has three small cards. 2. During the meal each person writes one specific compliment on a card and the number of the dish it is for: the crust on number 7, the heat in number 12. 3. Cards go face down in a basket that travels around the tables. 4. The host sorts them by number, and nothing is read aloud. 5. At the end each cook collects the stack for their dish with the empty pan. Allergies: every dish on the table carries a card that lists what is in it, and nobody has to taste anything to play. Prepare: number the dishes and cut the cards the day before. Sitting out: writing is optional, and every cook still gets their stack. Players: 8 to 100. Time: 10 min. Props: small cards, pens, number cards and a basket.
  • One Odd Ingredient, Which Dish? 1. Before the meal each cook writes on a slip the one ingredient in their dish that nobody would guess. 2. The host draws a slip and reads only the ingredient. 3. Each table agrees on the dish it hides in and holds up that dish's number on a napkin. 4. The cook stands if they want to, or the host simply reads the answer. 5. A point for each right table; play six slips. Allergies: every dish on the table carries a card that lists what is in it, and nobody has to taste anything to play. Prepare: nothing but numbering the dishes as they arrive. Sitting out: a cook who writes no slip is not in the game, and tables can pass. Players: 8 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: slips, a bowl, number cards and napkins to write on.
  • Recipe Mix-Up: Match the Card to the Dish 1. Each cook hands in a recipe card with the name of the dish and the list of what goes in left off: three steps of the method in the cook's own words, nothing else. 2. The host numbers the cards and pins them along a wall near the buffet. 3. In pairs, people walk the wall and write which dish on the table each card belongs to. 4. Cooks answer for every card but their own. 5. The host reads the answers; the pair with the most right keeps the stack of cards to photocopy for everyone. Allergies: every dish on the table carries a card that lists what is in it, and nobody has to taste anything to play. Prepare: ask for the cards a week ahead. Sitting out: a cook can bring a dish without a card. Players: 8 to 40. Time: 15 min. Props: recipe cards, pins, answer slips and pens.
  • Sealed Guesses About the Buffet Line 1. Before the line opens, each table writes four guesses and seals them in an envelope: which dish is finished first, which serving spoon ends up in the wrong dish, which dessert is cut first, and the minute the last person sits down. 2. The host keeps the envelopes and appoints one spotter. 3. The meal goes on as usual. 4. At dessert the spotter gives the true answers and the host opens the envelopes. 5. The table with the most right picks next year's theme. Nothing is staked on a guess. Prepare: nothing but an envelope for each table and a notepad for the spotter. Sitting out: the spotter does not guess. Players: 8 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: envelopes, paper, pens and a notepad for the spotter.
  • Who Brought the Dish? Numbers on the Table 1. As dishes arrive, the host stands a number card by each one and keeps the only list of who brought what. 2. Every table gets a sheet with the numbers down one side and the names of the cooks, shuffled, down the other. 3. Tables draw lines from dish to cook while they eat. 4. The host reads the key, and each cook waves when their number comes up. 5. One point a match; the top table goes first to the dessert table. Allergies: every dish on the table carries a card that lists what is in it, and nobody has to taste anything to play. Prepare: number cards and one sheet a table, printed the day before. Sitting out: cooks who would rather stay unnamed are left off the sheet. Players: 8 to 60. Time: 15 min. Props: number cards, one match sheet for each table and pens.

Team contests of about ten minutes 8

  • Corn Maze on Graph Paper, Draw and Swap 1. Each team gets one sheet of graph paper and a pencil. 2. In five minutes the team draws a corn maze: one way in, one way out, and as many dead ends as it can fit. 3. The team solves its own maze once in pen on a copy, to prove there is a way through. 4. Mazes swap between tables, and every team races through another team's field with a highlighter. 5. First team out scores two; the maze that took longest to solve scores two for the team that drew it. Prepare: bring graph paper, pencils and highlighters the day before. Sitting out: a timekeeper for each pair of tables. Players: 4 to 40. Time: 15 min. Props: graph paper, pencils and highlighters.
  • Desk-Supply Cornucopia 1. A cornucopia is a horn of plenty: a horn overflowing with the harvest. 2. Each team rolls a file folder or a sheet of poster board into a horn and tapes it. 3. In seven minutes the team fills it so that it spills over with the harvest of its own desks: highlighters for corn, binder clips for grapes, a stapler for a squash. 4. Every team gives a ten-second tour of its harvest. 5. The room votes by applause, and everything goes back to its desk before the meeting ends. Prepare: nothing but a folder and a roll of tape for each team. Sitting out: applause is the only thing asked of the room. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: file folders or poster board, tape and whatever is on the desks.
  • Painter's Tape Turkey on the Meeting Table 1. Each team gets one roll of painter's tape and a stretch of the meeting table or a whiteboard. 2. In seven minutes the team draws the biggest turkey it can in straight lines of tape: no scissors, tearing only. 3. The roll passes to a new pair of hands after every five strips. 4. The host takes one photo of each bird from the same spot. 5. The photos go up side by side and the room points to its favorite on a count of three. Every strip comes off before anyone leaves, and painter's tape lifts clean. Prepare: buy a roll for each team the day before. Sitting out: the photographer. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: a roll of painter's tape for each team.
  • Paper-Bag Turkey Build 1. Each team of four gets one large paper bag, two sheets of newspaper, a roll of tape and scissors. 2. On go, the team builds a turkey that stands on its own: a stuffed bag for the body, a rolled neck, a fan of tail feathers. 3. Stop at eight minutes; hands off. 4. The host taps the table once, and any bird that falls is out. 5. Three judges from other teams give ribbons for tallest, proudest tail and most likely to be mistaken for a pigeon. Prepare: bags, paper and tape for each team the day before. Sitting out: judges and the timekeeper do not build. Players: 8 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: paper bags, newspaper, tape and scissors for each team.
  • Pie Chart of Our Year, on an Actual Pie Plate 1. Each team gets a paper plate, a ruler and markers. 2. In six minutes the team divides the plate into slices that show where the year went: waiting for a slow elevator, renaming one file, the two weeks of the big launch. 3. Slices are labeled and must add up to the whole pie. 4. Plates are passed table to table for a silent read. 5. Each person puts one sticker on the plate that made them nod; most stickers wins. Slices are about the work, never about one person. Prepare: bring plates, rulers, markers and a sheet of stickers the day before. Sitting out: read the plates and skip the sticker. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: paper plates, rulers, markers and stickers.
  • Plan the Dinner Backward From Four O'Clock 1. The host hands each team the same twelve task cards for an invented dinner, each with a made-up length: thaw 2 days, roast 3 hours, rest 30 minutes, set the table 20 minutes. 2. Two rules are printed on top: the oven holds one thing at a time, and dinner is at four. 3. Teams lay the cards on a paper timeline working back from four, as they would plan a launch. 4. At eight minutes the teams swap tables and look for a clash in the other plan. 5. Every plan with no clash scores, and the earliest finish wins. The times are invented for the puzzle and are not cooking directions. Prepare: print and cut the card sets the day before. Sitting out: the host needs one checker. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: printed task cards and a strip of paper for each team.
  • Spreadsheet Turkey, Cell Colors Only 1. One person in each team opens a blank spreadsheet and shrinks the columns until the cells are square. 2. The team has eight minutes to draw a turkey using only the fill color of cells: no shapes, no pictures, no text. 3. Teammates call out cell names while one person fills, and the mouse changes hands every two minutes. 4. Each team puts its sheet on the big screen in turn. 5. The room votes with a show of hands for best bird and best use of orange. Prepare: nothing but a laptop for each team and a screen to share to. Sitting out: voters only need a hand. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: one laptop a team and a shared screen.
  • Twelve Leftover Boxes, One Bag 1. Each team gets the same odd set of twelve clean, empty food containers, closed, and one paper grocery bag. 2. On go, the team packs all twelve into the bag so that it stands with the top folded over. 3. One person packs and the others pass boxes and call the order. 4. The first bag that survives being lifted by its handles wins the round. 5. Unpack, swap the packer and play twice more. Prepare: collect the containers over the week before. Sitting out: lift-testers and the timer. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: twelve closed empty containers and a paper bag for each team.

Thanks games that put nobody on the spot 8

  • A Handful of Slips a Week Until New Year 1. Every person gets two slips. 2. On each they finish the sentence, This year went better because, with a piece of work, a habit or a tool, and add a team name if one fits. 3. Slips go into a jar that lives in the meeting room. 4. Nothing is read at the potluck. 5. From the next Monday, whoever opens the weekly meeting draws a handful and reads them, so that the jar is empty by New Year. Prepare: nothing but slips, pens and a jar with a label. Sitting out: a blank slip goes in the jar like any other. Players: 5 to 100. Time: 5 min. Props: paper slips, pens and a jar.
  • Department Cards That Travel the Tables 1. The host folds a sheet of poster board for each department and writes its name on the front. 2. The cards start on different tables and move one table to the left every three minutes, on a bell. 3. Each table adds a line or a drawing to the card in front of it, signed or unsigned. 4. A table never writes in its own department's card; it passes it straight on. 5. After the last bell the cards are stood along the buffet and go home with their departments. Prepare: fold and label the cards the day before. Sitting out: pass the card along. Players: 10 to 100. Time: 20 min. Props: poster board cards, markers and a bell.
  • Floor Plan Sticker Map of Help 1. The host pins a large floor plan by the door, with rooms and desk clusters drawn and no names. 2. Everyone gets three dot stickers on the way in. 3. Each sticker goes on the spot where help came from this month: a desk cluster, the print room, the front desk. 4. No names are written and nobody watches. 5. Before dessert the host holds up the plan, reads out the three thickest clusters and thanks every corner with a dot. Prepare: draw or print the floor plan the day before. Sitting out: keep your stickers. Players: 10 to 200. Time: 5 min. Props: a large floor plan and sheets of dot stickers.
  • Gratitude Squares, Filled In at Your Seat 1. Each person gets a grid of nine squares, each naming a kind of help: covered for me, taught me a shortcut, fixed it before I noticed, answered the same question twice. 2. In each square you write the first name of a colleague who did that for you this year. 3. Nobody has to walk around or ask for a signature. 4. A full row is a line; the host asks for a show of hands at one, two and three lines. 5. Each person keeps their grid, and may show a square to the colleague named in it. Prepare: print the grids the day before. Sitting out: a blank grid is fine. Players: 6 to 100. Time: 10 min. Props: printed nine-square grids and pens.
  • Postcards to the People Not in the Room 1. The host lists on a board the people the office leans on who are not at the meal: the night shift, the front desk, the other site, the cleaners, the courier. 2. Each table draws one from a hat and gets three blank postcards. 3. In eight minutes the table writes and signs all three, each with one specific thing it is thankful for. 4. A runner brings the cards to the host, who checks that every group on the board has at least one. 5. The cards are delivered by hand the next working day. Prepare: buy the postcards and write the list the day before. Sitting out: signing is optional. Players: 6 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: blank postcards, pens and a hat of slips.
  • Unsigned Thanks, Drawn by Name 1. A week ahead, everyone who wants to play puts their name in a jar and draws another. 2. Before the potluck each player writes one note to the name they drew: something that person did this year that made the work easier. 3. Notes are unsigned and go into the host's folder. 4. At the meal the host hands them out sealed, to be read privately. 5. At the end, anyone who wants to guess their writer says a name, and writers own up only if they like. Prepare: the name draw a week ahead, and a spare note written by the host for any late joiner. Sitting out: only names in the jar are drawn. Players: 6 to 50. Time: 10 min. Props: a jar of names, note cards and envelopes.
  • Walk-Up Thanks Relay to the Mailbox 1. Each team lines up across the room from a table of blank cards and one mailbox. 2. On go, the first person walks to the table, writes a thank-you to a named colleague on another team for one specific thing, posts it and walks back. 3. The next person goes. 4. Stop after eight minutes. 5. The host counts cards without reading them: the team with the most wins, and every card is delivered to its desk that afternoon. Nothing is read aloud, so nobody is thanked or left out in front of the room. Prepare: nothing but cards, pens and a box with a slot cut in the lid. Sitting out: write from your seat, or not at all. Players: 8 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: blank cards, pens and a box with a slot.
  • Which Team Is Being Thanked? 1. A week ahead the host asks every team for one line of thanks to another team, about a piece of work and not a person. 2. The host types the lines on cards with the team names taken out. 3. At the meal the host reads a card: thank you for the report that arrived a day early, twice. 4. Tables write down which team it is about. 5. The host gives the answer and the thanked team gets a round of applause; a point for each right table. Teams with no card are thanked by the host, who writes those cards personally. Prepare: collect the lines a week ahead. Sitting out: tables can listen without writing. Players: 10 to 100. Time: 15 min. Props: typed cards, paper and pens.

Whole-floor games for 30 or more 6

  • Canned-Goods Sculpture by Department 1. For a week, each department collects cans and boxes for a local food bank at its own desks. 2. On the day, every department gets a table and fifteen minutes to build a sculpture from what it collected: a turkey, a pie, the office building. 3. Nothing is opened or taped; labels may be turned. 4. Three judges from different departments give ribbons for tallest, cleverest and most cans. 5. Everything is boxed together and delivered, and the total count is announced to the floor. Prepare: announce the drive a week ahead and ask the food bank what it takes. Sitting out: giving is optional and no list is kept of who gave. Players: 30 to 200. Time: 20 min. Props: collected cans and boxes, tables and three ribbons.
  • Mail Cart Parade Floats, One Lap of the Floor 1. Each department gets something on wheels, a mail cart or a desk chair, and a bag of paper, streamers and tape. 2. In fifteen minutes it turns the cart into a parade float with a theme from its own work. 3. The floats line up at the kitchen. 4. One at a time they roll a slow lap of the floor, pushed at walking pace, while the department walks behind and the rest of the floor lines the route. 5. The crowd votes by cheering, and the loudest cheer leads the walk to the buffet. Nobody rides a float. Prepare: carts and craft bags the day before. Sitting out: the route needs a crowd. Players: 30 to 200. Time: 25 min. Props: carts or wheeled chairs, paper, streamers and tape.
  • Our Year on a Paper Table Runner 1. The host rolls brown paper down the middle of the long table and marks the twelve months along it. 2. Markers lie beside every plate. 3. As people sit down, each writes one moment from the working year under its month: the move, the launch, the day the power went out. 4. During the meal the host walks the table and reads one line from each month. 5. The runner is rolled up and kept for next year's table. Prepare: buy the roll of paper the day before, and write the month headings as it is rolled out. Sitting out: eat on the runner and write nothing. Players: 30 to 100. Time: 15 min. Props: a roll of brown paper and markers.
  • Pass the Pie Tin the Length of the Floor 1. Everyone stands in one line that snakes from one end of the floor to the other, an arm's length apart. 2. The host puts a table tennis ball in an empty pie tin and starts a stopwatch. 3. The tin passes hand to hand down the line; if the ball drops, the tin goes back three people. 4. Write the time on a whiteboard. 5. Send it back the other way and try to beat it: the whole floor wins or nobody does. Prepare: bring an empty pie tin and a table tennis ball the day before. Sitting out: people who would rather not stand in the line cheer from their desks, and the line closes the gap. Players: 30 to 200. Time: 10 min. Props: an empty pie tin, a table tennis ball and a stopwatch.
  • Potluck Passport, a Stamp at Every Station 1. Six departments each host a two-minute station at their own desks: guess the number of paper clips, sign the big card, add a link to the paper chain. 2. Everyone gets a passport card with six boxes. 3. For twenty minutes before the meal, people walk the floor in twos and threes and collect a stamp at each station. 4. A full passport is handed in at the buffet. 5. The host pins the full cards on a board and reads the count; the prize, first place in the buffet line, is shared by every full card. Prepare: ask six departments for a station a week ahead and print the cards. Sitting out: a passport with no stamps still gets lunch. Players: 30 to 200. Time: 20 min. Props: printed passport cards and a stamp or sticker for each station.
  • Thanks Chain, Door to Buffet 1. A basket of paper strips and pens stands at every door from the morning on. 2. Each person writes one thing they are thankful for at work on a strip, signed or not, and loops it through the last link with a stapler or tape. 3. The floor has one goal: a chain long enough to reach from the door to the buffet by noon. 4. At noon two volunteers walk it out and the floor counts the links aloud. 5. If it reaches, the chain hangs over the table for the meal. Prepare: cut the strips the day before. Sitting out: the chain needs no particular link. Players: 30 to 200. Time: 5 min. Props: paper strips, pens and staplers or tape.

How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors for the person who organizes a potluck or the last team meeting before Thanksgiving, in our own words; player ranges and minutes are our estimates. Every entry passed a work-safe screen: nothing about family, faith, diet or weight, no eating contest, no alcohol, a stated way to sit out, and an ingredient-card line wherever food appears. This is planning help, not legal advice, and your employer's policies come first. The screen follows the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's harassment page, read on 2026-10-03 at https://www.eeoc.gov/harassment, which carried a notice that day that its information was being reviewed and would be revised. The meaning of cornucopia was checked the same day at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornucopia. Licence: own work