I spend every other Thanksgiving with family on Sanibel Island in Florida. It’s always a bit odd to eat turkey and mashed potatoes at picnic tables alongside the beach, but we make it work. We have our own games and traditions, including an ornament decorating contest using natural items from the beaches (I am SO winning this year! Take that, Johns Family!). Last time we did a tag-team sort of race (which I lost for our team, quite miserably).
Continuing with this theme of advice for a holidays, I thought I would find some Thanksgiving party ideas that might help you start your own traditions. Here’s a few from the 1928 edition of How to Entertain at Home. These are sure to be crowd-pleasers!
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Rollicking games and stunts that “have a big laugh in them” are indispensable to a party where young people are present. Some good ones are described here.
Sports with doughnuts are highly seasonable at this feast of New England origin. A good one is a race in which players kneel on one knee with hands clasped behind their backs and pursue with the teeth wobbly doughnuts suspended on strings. The player first to devour his cake (without touching it with his hands) wins the race.
“Thanksgiving Dinner” is a nonsense game or stunt which can be enjoyed after the feast on the great day, or after a Thanksgiving supper at the church, if weighing scales are on hand. Each person is asked to step on the scales and “see how heavy a dinner he has eaten.” The mistress of ceremonies singles out some vivacious persons of both sexes, weighing a little lighter or heavier than the usual run. These are pronounced to have eaten too much or too little, according to their appearance and weight, and are sentenced to perform stunts for the amusement of the company.
Very jolly and yet very easy to prepare is a Thanksgiving Contest. Give each player a carrot or turnip (all vegetables to be in the same class, however) and ask him to “carve the turkey.” The entertainer can furnish knives but should anyone have a favorite penknife he is allowed to use it. The idea of the contest is to carve the vegetable provided, into little replicas of the November bird. The turkey can be presented either as living or on the platter. The best sculpture wins the prize.
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