Family Fun to be Thankful For

Thanksgiving and all holidays like this are about being with the ones we love – family and friends and sharing the day with the people nearest and dearest to our hearts. The scene for most of these gatherings, however, entails people old and young lounging around a common area passing the time drinking and munching on a myriad of snacks waiting for the main course. My guess is that many of these people are already full as they sit down to their feast. These selfless heroes proceed to complete an entire plateful (or two) so as not to offend their hardworking hosts. While these acts of valor are most thoughtful, finding more active ways to pass the time but still visit and engage with family friends might be beneficial all around. Below are several family friendly activities geared specifically for Thanksgiving but could certainly be altered and used any time of the year, special occasion or not.

Turkey Trot –Start an annual family Thanksgiving tradition and invite friends and neighbors to join in. If you’re really motivated you could turn this into a fundraising event for a charity of your family’s choosing. Map out a route of 1 and 3 miles. You can do this in your neighborhood or go to a track or local park. Set it up for people to run, walk, bike, stroller or scooter. It’s an easy way to get everyone outdoors and active while the Turkey is roasting.

Thanksgiving Parade Commercial Calisthenics – If your family’s tradition is to sit and watch the very long Thanksgiving Parade on TV, incorporate active commercial breaks that ALL can participate in, at their level. You can take turns suggesting different calisthenics like jumping jacks, pushups, squats etc. You can go one step further and make it a competition such as who can get the most reps in before the parade starts, who can go the longest, who has the most unique technique etc.

Gravy Groove – Put your dancing shoes on, crank up the tunes and let loose. Have a variety of music to appeal to all ages and tastes. Kids can teach adults the latest dance craze like “Gangnam style” and adults can teach their kids their moves like the running man, or jive or fox trot etc. I promise you will make many memories and have a blast doing it.

Relays – You can get very creative here and anything can go. The basic rules should be to divide teams up equally and whatever the “race” is, the winning team is the first to complete it. You could set up simple obstacle course using chairs, tables, and other outdoor and household objects. The race could be that each member has to perform a set number of various calisthenics. It could be a cooperation type relay like passing an egg on a spoon down the line or filling up a buck with water passed along in a sponge. Click here for more fun relay ideas. (http://www.kiwifamilies.co.nz/articles/relay-games/)

Hot potato – Instead of using a ball try a balloon or two. This makes for a great indoor game without damaging anything and is also great for young kids to be able to participate too.

Treasure hunt – These work best outside. Similar to relay races, you make this scavenger hunt with anything you like. People can work individually, in pairs or teams. Have the “Hunt” pre- printed out. To make this easy do a nature hunt and suggest finding things like rocks, feathers etc. If you want to be more involved you can have an alphabetical hunt finding objects that start with all or most of the letters of the alphabet.

Stuffing Surprise – Fill a bowl full of papers with various exercises/activities – get everyone to pitch in. Take turns picking an exercise or activity and everyone tries to do each activity for a set time (i.e. jog on spot 30 seconds, hop on one foot, do a lap around the backyard, 3 somersaults etc).

Aside from these ideas, there’s the usual family football, soccer or softball game that you can organize or you can look into local fun runs/walks to participate in as a family. Whatever you decide to do, your family will enjoy the delicious meal that awaits them after their fresh air and activity. An added bonus, you will make some very wonderful memories and possibly begin some new family traditions.