Thanksgiving Icebreaker Questions for Work and the Family Table
Press Next card for one question before the meeting or the meal.
Thanksgiving Icebreaker Questions for Work and the Family Table
Which container in your kitchen really belongs to someone else's past dinner?
Pie for breakfast the morning after: a fine idea, a step too far or the whole point?
Office potluck sign-up sheet: do you claim a main, a side, a dessert or the napkins?
What is the most thankless task at work, and who deserves a thank-you for doing it?
Which leftover should go first from the fridge, and which can wait until Sunday?
Who gets your first thank-you note: the inventor of coffee, heat or the weekend?
Topic
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All 60 questions
Work-safe 46
A Thanksgiving plate should be mostly: turkey, sides, rolls or room for pie?
Cranberry sauce: love it, skip it or only there for the color?
Every team has a carver who splits big jobs into fair slices. Who is ours?
Finish this: at work this year, I am thankful we finally...
The Friday after is best spent: at the shops, asleep, outdoors or back at work?
Give thanks to a food that would never make a holiday menu.
Gravy goes on: the turkey only, the potatoes too or the entire plate?
Green bean casserole: a classic, a mystery or the reason you came?Green bean casserole dates to 1955, when it was created for a soup company.
How long should leftovers stay on the menu: one day, three days or until they become soup?
How many kinds of pie is the right number for one Thanksgiving dinner?Pumpkin is the pie most tied to the day; apple and pecan pies are common too.
If the parade let you add one marching band song, what would they play?
Mac and cheese at Thanksgiving: essential, welcome or wrong holiday?Baked macaroni and cheese is a Thanksgiving side dish for many families in the American South.
Mashed potatoes: smooth, lumpy, skins on or loaded with everything?
Office potluck sign-up sheet: do you claim a main, a side, a dessert or the napkins?
Out-of-office reply for Thanksgiving week: formal, funny or forgot to set one?
Parade watching: glued to it, on in the background or what parade?
Pie for breakfast the morning after: a fine idea, a step too far or the whole point?
Rolls: a side dish, a gravy tool or a tiny sandwich waiting to happen?
Say what you are thankful for today in exactly three words.
Short week: what are you not going to start until Monday?
Should the bread side dish cook inside the bird or in its own pan?Stuffing or dressing: the name changes with the region. In the South it is usually dressing, made from cornbread.
Sweet potatoes with marshmallows: side dish or dessert in disguise?
Thank a thing, not a person: which object on your desk has earned it this year?
Thank something smaller than your hand. What is it?
What did you grumble about last month that you are secretly thankful for?
What does not belong on a Thanksgiving plate, no matter who made it?
What is something free that you are thankful for?
What is the correct leftover sandwich? List the layers in order.
What is the most creative use for leftover turkey you can think of?
What is the most thankless task at work, and who deserves a thank-you for doing it?
What is the office version of the kids' table?
What is the work equivalent of going back for seconds?
When may the December music start: already, after Thanksgiving or not at all?
Which chore are you thankful a machine does for you?
Which container in your kitchen really belongs to someone else's past dinner?
Which invention are you most thankful for on a dark November morning?
Which leftover should go first from the fridge, and which can wait until Sunday?
Which part of your job is the gravy: the bit that makes everything else better?
Which project from this year deserves its own parade float?
Which side dish could carry the meal if the turkey never showed up?
Which sound are you thankful for: a kettle, a key in the door, rain or quiet?
Which stranger's job are you thankful somebody does?
Which Thanksgiving dish gets a polite spoonful and nothing more?
Which Thanksgiving food would you happily eat in July?
Which tool, app or shortcut at work are you most thankful for?
Who gets your first thank-you note: the inventor of coffee, heat or the weekend?
Family table 14
After dinner today: who is napping, who is walking and who is on dishes?
Hands up: who has already picked out a container for leftovers?
Is your own plate neat sections or a landslide?
Kids answer first: what is the best thing on your plate right now?
Point to the person who should be in charge of the gravy next year.
Tell the person on your right one thing you are glad they brought, food or not.
What are you thankful the host did before everyone arrived?
What could you smell from the door when you walked in today?
What is one thing on this table that was not here when you were little?
What is the official family word for being too full?
What time did the cook get up this morning? Closest guess wins the first roll.
Which dish on this table did you sneak a taste of before dinner?
Which story gets told at this table every single year? Give only the first line.
Who at this table is most likely to fall asleep first after dinner?
How it works
These Thanksgiving icebreaker questions are 60 cards for the week of the holiday: the potluck sign-up sheet, gravy rules, small thanks, the correct leftover sandwich. Press Work-safe and 46 remain, none asking about family or travel.
Read the full guide
Start with the Work-safe topic
Work-safe is the set for Thanksgiving icebreaker questions for work: 46 cards of food opinions, small thanks, the parade, leftovers and the short week. The tag means nothing personal: no card asks where anyone is going or who they will see. November meetings narrows that to 12 cards about the office, such as "Which project from this year deserves its own parade float?"
At the family table
Family table is the one topic without the tag. Its 14 cards belong to the room: who sneaked a taste, who should run the gravy next year, what time the cook got up. In the list under the deck, four menu cards carry a checked fact, such as why one side dish has two names.
With a team across several countries, stay on Small thanks: 10 cards that thank a kettle or a stranger's job and never need the holiday.
Settle the leftover sandwich card on paper. Everyone lists their layers in order, then reads them out while the dishes soak.
Questions and answers
What makes a Thanksgiving question safe for work?
It asks for an opinion, not a life story. Plans, relatives, travel and how someone marks the day can be sore subjects, and not every colleague celebrates. The 46 Work-safe cards stay on food opinions, small thanks, leftovers and the office.
Can a Canadian team use this deck?
Yes, in October: Canada's Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October, the American one the fourth Thursday in November. Most menu cards and every Small thanks card suit both. Press Next card past the parade, Friday-after and December music cards, which follow the American calendar.
How many cards should a host deal at dinner?
Two or three. These are ten-second questions, meant to get every seat talking once before side conversations start. Deal one as plates are passed and one before pie. For slower questions about recipes and family stories, open the Thanksgiving conversation starters deck.