Celebrate togetherness with games that make holidays and special occasions more meaningful, inclusive, and fun.
Cooperative Games for Holidays
and other Special Days
Infinite Story
Directions: Make a story as a group. Each person adds a sentence or two that takes off from where the person before them left the story. Game is over when everyone has a chance (or two or three chances, etc.) to contribute.
Suzanne’s notes: You may want to start the group off by providing the first part of the story. Special occasions can make good story beginnings. For example, on Halloween begin a story about a black cat wandering into a school yard.
Clap Happy
Assemble a fun group of friends, family, co-workers, etc… A volunteer leaves the group while those remaining decide on a gesture or position that the volunteer should strike. For example, the group may decide that the volunteer should salute or touch her toes. When the volunteer returns to the group, she randomly strikes different poses. As she gets “warmer”, the group claps louder and more frequently until clapping reaches a crescendo when the correct pose is reached.
Suzanne’s notes: This game is really great! It’s fun to be part of the frantically clapping audience with the cooperative goal of helping the volunteer find his way. When you’re the volunteer, you get lots of supportive attention as well as perhaps good-natured ribbing! I have had lots of success with it at family holiday gatherings of mixed-age players.
Basket of Plenty
Players sit around the Thanksgiving dinner table. Pass around a small basket (or bowl) full of dried flowers, fruits, or favorite things, a cornucopia of your own making. The group recites this poem: Basket of plenty, around you go…. Where you stop, nobody knows… But when you halt, one of us will say what he is thankful for this day. In this way, each player chooses when they will stop passing the basket and tell the group what that player is thankful for.
Gobble Happy
A player leaves the room while those left behind hide small treats or funny objects. When the player returns, the group guides him or her to the treat by saying “gobble, gobble” louder and louder as the player gets closet to the prize. Gobble very softly or not at all when the player is “cold” and raise the gobbling to a happy cacophony as the player nears the sought-after object.
Thanksgiving Joke-a-thon
Put two strips of paper under each dinner plate. One strip has a joke, and the other has a punch line to a different joke. On each player’s turn, she reads her joke. The player who thinks he has the punch line reads it. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what the correct punch line is, but mismatched jokes and punch lines are part of the fun! Here are some corny Thanksgiving jokes and punch lines you can use.
Why was the turkey the drummer in the band? Because he had the drumsticks.
If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims.
What has feathers and webbed feet? A Turkey wearing scuba gear.
What key has legs and can’t open doors? A turkey.
What kind of vegetable do you like on Thanksgiving? Beets me!
Why can’t you take a turkey to church? Because they use such FOWL language.
Can a turkey jump higher than the Empire State Building? Yes – a building can’t jump at all.
Who is not hungry at Thanksgiving? The turkey because he’s already stuffed!
What does Dracula call Thanksgiving? Fangs-giving.
Which side of the turkey has the most feathers? The outside.
What kind of music did the Pilgrims like? Plymouth Rock.
Why did the police arrest the turkey? They suspected it of fowl play.
What did the turkey say before it was roasted? Boy! I’m stuffed!
Where did the first corn come from? The stalk brought it.
How did the Mayflower show that it liked America? It hugged the shore.
Why did the turkey cross the road? It was the chicken’s day off.
More Fun & Free
Cooperative Games
Games for Community Building
Games that Teach Academic Subjects
Games for Children
Games for Teens & Adults