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In this very special Thanksgiving episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to count down my TOP TEN FAMILY FUN FAVORITE GAME IDEAS FOR TURKEY DAY! And we’re gonna get to gobblin’ down on ’em… right now! Let’s step into the Fun House!

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we always go for extra helpings of your favorite retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! Today I’m going to count down the very best family fun game and activity ideas I’ve been able to find and I hope YOU’LL find them absolutely Dandy as well.

But before we go any further, I do want to extend a very big thank you to the legendary Count Drahoon for batflapping into the Dandy Fun House Studios here in beautiful Murfreesboro, Tennessee to co-host our annual Halloween episode last month. I have to say he’s the only guest this show has ever had that literally appeared from a cloud of smoke.

And speaking of smoke shows… I think it’s time to check out these smokin’ hot Dandy Fun House t-shirts. They’re super absorbent and perfect for soaking up all that giblet gravy dribbling down your chin at the dinner table this month. And not only are they super-stylish, but they also come with 4 holes in them. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your turkey neck out of and two to poke your wings through! Just head over to dandyfunhouse.com and get yours before the big bird thaws!

And while you’re there, you might as well pick up one of our infamous Coffee Badger t-shirts and / or coffee mugs and/or bags of dark french roast coffee! I’ll let you figure out what a coffee badger is for yourself. I’m tired of explaining it. Once again, head over to dandyfunhouse.com to visit the Dandy Fun Shop and see all the frivolities we have waiting for you!

Okay, without any further delay, I believe it is time to kick off our Turkey Day Top Ten Countdown of our favorite family fun game and activity ideas sure to make your Thanksgiving and absolute hoot! Ready? Let’s do it!

#10: Corn Shucking Race: This is obviously a competition best suited for the early birds helping with the meal prep. As the name implies, everyone competes to see who can shuck corn on the cob the fastest. I personally shuck corn on a weekly basis and I’m still terrible at it. I’m always digging out those corn silk strings with a fork. But I will tell you my secret to super quick corn on the cob! Leave the husk on, cut off the ends with a serrated knife so that not only is the husk completely unattached, but also so that you can stick your cob-holders in. Then microwave your corn cob with the holders stuck in and the husk still on for 2 minutes. When it’s done, simply hold it by one of the holders upright on a plate and use a fork to pull away the husk and silk threads. Voila! Two minute corn on the cob! I make it every week!

#9: Roll A Turkey Dice Game – This is a fun one. It involves game dice with arts and crafts. First you need to print out the game sheets with a turkey body on it along with the various parts of a turkey corresponding to the numbers on the dice. Secondly you need to print out sheets with all the turkey parts on them. Thirdly, you give everyone a pair of child-safe scissors so they can cut their various turkey parts out.

Basically, everyone takes turns rolling the die. If you roll a one, you’ll put eyes on the turky, two you’ll put the beak on your turkey, three the feet and so on and so forth. Of course if you roll something you already have, you do nothing and the next person gets their turn. Whomever succeeds at completley building their turkey first is THE WINNER, WINNER TURKEY DINNER!

You can find the game sheets ready to print at www.playpartyplan.com/roll-a-turkey/ I’ll leave a link in the episode posting for this show at dandyfunhouse.com if that’s too much to remember in your tryptophan fog!

#8: Thanksgiving Charades – If you’ve had enough of Thanksgiving parades, maybe it’s time to try THANKSGIVING CHARADES! TheSavvySparrow.com website calls this an easy, low-prep game that’s simple to understand and play. I like it already! Just like traditional charades except players act out Thanksgiving-themed words and phrases for others to guess.

All you need are the cards with the words and phrases which you can print out at www.thesavvysparrow.com/thanksgiving-charades (or you can just make your own, but these look amazing and they’re already done for you!). A one-minute timer (there’s one on your phone), a box or basket to jumble the cards in for blind-picking and cheap dollar store prizes to throw to or at the winners!

#7: Pumpkin Sweep – This is a great yard game and a great use of your decorative gourds! To play Pumpkin Sweep, you give each player a pumpkin and a broom and set up a finish line on the other end of the yard. The object is to maneuver your pumpkin using only the broom across the yard and over the finish line before your opponents! Losers could have their pumpkins smashed (that last part’s optional and reserved exclusively for Extreme Pumpkin Sweep).

#6: Turkey, Taters, & Terror, a Thanksgiving-Themed Murder Mystery Game

This is the ultimate Thanksgiving Murder Mystery Dinner Party Game! It does require 8 to play and they say it’s best suited for grownups.

It’s Thanksgiving dinner, and you’ve been invited to the home of Marissa Baron, one of the most innovative television producers in the past 20 years. Marissa has produced almost every successful show on Cluster, the entertainment industry’s most popular network. She has expressed interest in collaborating with a member of her inner circle and has invited her closest friends and family to pitch ideas for a new show at her holiday dinner. You find yourself at her mansion of a cabin in northern Minnesota. Shockingly, just before dinner, Marissa is tragically found dead! It seems she was electrocuted by a short circuit in the electric whisk while masking her beloved pumpkin pie filling. Let’s say she decided to “mix things up” a bit too literally! As you investigate the faulty wiring, you and the rest of the guests begin to wonder: “Could someone have tried to ‘whisk’ away this successful television producer on Thanksgiving?” That will be up to you and 7 of your closest friends and family to find out when you play TURKEY, TATERS AND TERROR – A Thanksgiving-Themed Murder Mystery Game! Find it at www.vanbiermurdermysteries.com

See I told you this was going to be good! Just hang with me! Because now we’ve counted down to…

#5: The Game of TRAFFIC YAM!

This is a race you can win with your face! You’ve done the egg roll at a picnic before where you hold a spoon in your mouth and try to roll an egg across the lawn and over the finish line faster than anyone else? Okay, same thing but with… YAMS! And yams are a lot harder to control than eggs because of their odd shapes. Just ask Popeye! (I yam what I yam!). And the best part is… you can eat your yam when you’re sick of rolling it! (disclaimer: this game is best played with raw, uncooked yams only, but that’s really your business not mine)

#4: Chicken vs. Hot Dog – A Flip it and stick it party game!

This game is like bottle flipping but waaay more fun! This is something everyone can play without learning loads of rules. Basically you get a flippable stickable chicken and a flippable stickable hot dog and a stack of challenge cards which will tell you exactly how you are supposed to flip and stick your hot dog or chicken. This isn’t necessarily a Thanksgiving game, I just came across this thing and thought it was amazing, so amazing that I might actually do a full review on it. It’s by a company called BIG POTATO and you could buy it directly from them on their website, but I went to their website and was instantly accosted by popup after obnoxious popup and I don’t want to inflict that on anyone, so just do yourself a favor and go online to just about anywhere else to buy this thing. I found it listed at just about every major retailer. I’d prefer to support the company directly, but when they drive me away with a pitchfork for the crime of visiting their website, they’re pretty much asking for it. Anyway, this is indeed an awesome game!

#3: THANKSGIVING BINGO – This of course is a turkey-day rendition of the game of BINGO. I think this is great because it’s something everyone young and old can play after dinner and spend some quality time together playing. You can do a search online to find plenty of printable Thanksgiving-themed bingo cards which is great if you already own a bingo set. You can also purchase a wonderful Thanksgiving Bingo set over at www.bigdotofhappiness.com

#2: Turkey Bowling – The only reason this did NOT make #1 is because the true version of this sport is not something you’re likely to play with your family on the actual day of Thanksgiving.

Anyway, the true version of this game is with a frozen Turkey and ten 2-liter plastic bottles for bowling pins. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Two strikes in a row is a gobbler, a 7-10 split is a wishbone, and a spare is a hen. If a turkey is too heavy to handle, a Cornish game hen is also acceptable.

But another actual practical version of turkey bowling also exists in the form of creating a set of turkeys out of plastic solo cups decorated with construction paper and googly eyes to resemble turkey bowling pins and rolling a whiffle ball or a small pumpkin at them on the living room floor.

I also found this amazing professionally-manufactured turkey bowling set at Oriental Trading Company that has plastic turkey legs as the pins and comes with two small bowling balls! What could possibly be more fun except…

#1: The Turkey Leg Wrap Game!

Have you been looking for the perfect excuse to bind somebody up and sic the dog on them? Okay, maybe don’t feed them to Fido, but The Turkey Leg Wrap Game is not something you can buy off the shelf, but if you have two rolls of burlap fabric and two chef’s hat, then you have the makings of an amazing Thanksgiving day race activity you’ll want to do over and over. Simply split into two teams of two players and see who can wrap their partner from head-to-toe in the burlap and then jam a chef’s hat on their head at the end to make them look like a turkey leg the fastest! I really don’t know why I was so drawn to this game or why it’s number one, but it’s just so simple, silly and stupid where else could I possibly put it???

And speaking of places to put it, I think it’s time to put this Thanksgiving episode of the Dandy Fun House away, but not before I grovel for your spare change!

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Have a very happy Thanksgiving everyone and don’t forget to be extra Thankful for everything the good Lord has blessed you and yours with over this past year! Come on back real soon. Right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!

Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed?