Fun Thankshallowxmas Games and Activities
Whether you’re hosting a few out-of-towners for the weekend or accommodating the entire extended family, we are confident that you can endure Thankshallowxmas festivities without one single criticism from your mother. Buy some cheap plastic dracula teeth, gather your Halloween costumes and think outside the holiday box to entertain your Thankshallowxmas guests like a pro.
Dirty Dice Gift Grab
Supplies: gifts, dice, timer
How to Play
- Have all guests bring an inexpensive funny or unusual gift. We suggest going to Archie McPhee, Oriental Trading or a party store and getting a variety of items as well as few premium items that guests would want to steal. Have 2-3 items (if small) per person, so for 10 people it would be about 20 – 30 items.
- Mound the gifts in the center of the group on a large table or on the floor. Items can be wrapped or unwrapped.
- Once everyone is gathered, give two dice to the first person and they roll the dice. If you have a large group of people, add more dice (for a group of 10, we use 3 pairs of dice). If they roll doubles of any number they can Grab a Gift from the pile and if they roll anything other than a double then the dice get passed to the person on their right.
- Guests roll the dice, grab gifts and pass the dice, this continues until all the gifts have been taken. Game Option: Rather than roll to pick a gift just distribute gifts evenly among guests and then start the game play. Note: Some players may have 4 gifts, others 2 and others 1. If the gifts are wrapped, have players unwrap their gifts once the gift is selected.
- Now it gets dirty! A timer is set for 10 or 15 minutes and the dice keep going around the room to each person. Now if someone rolls a double they can steal an prize / gift from anyone OR claim a gift as safe.
- Players who steal gifts, have to hope that the dice get back around to them and they roll another doubles so they can claim the gift as safe. (A gift that cannot be taken.)
- Play continues until the timer goes off. Now if everyone has gifts, the safe gifts and gifts in front of them is theirs and the game is over. If however, one or more players don’t have gifts. Then those players who don’t have gifts get to roll and once they roll doubles they can steal a gift. Once the last each player has at least one gift the game ends.
You never know what’s going to happen in this Dirty Dice gift exchange game / gift grab which is why it will quickly become one of your favorite Thankshallowxmas games. Versions of this white elephant gift exchange have been around for years but in the “Dirty” variety, some guests win more than one gift while others might win none. No gift is safe until after the last dice are rolled and even then, you just never know.
Dirty Dice is not fair.
Just roll them,
they don't care.
It's not about naughty,
it's not about nice,
it's just about rolling
the same number twice.
Peace Out
1. Dogs in Glasses: ADORABLE.
2. There really should be a White Wine Emoji.
3. Finding $20 in your jacket pocket never gets old.
4. WASPS ARE JERKS!!!
5. Mammograms—there’s got to be a better way.
6. Penicillin Rocks.
7. Pizza!
8. You can’t hear “flight of the Valkyries” without silently singing kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit.
9. Eggs are a freaking miracle.
10. Rose absolutely had room for Jack on that floating door.
11. Sometimes you really do feel like a nut…
12…and sometimes
you don’t.
Family Collage Art Project
This is an old school cut-and-paste project that will keep your Thankshallowxmas guests chuckling all the way to the dinner table. You will need to print several photos of each family member included in your gathering and provide magazine pages with pictures of people. Grab some scissors, cut off heads from family photos and paste to bodies of celebrities and models in magazines. The more the proportions of head to body are off, the better the results. Non-disclosure agreements optional.
DIY Spa
Decompress from holiday stress or treat yourself to some self-care during Thankshallowxmas downtime with lavish beauty treatments you would find at the spa for a fraction of the cost. Light a candle, pour a mimosa and catch up on your favorite magazines with visiting guests. For an extensive list of homemade spa treatments (made with pantry staples) and other ideas see Lisa McCreevy's article 24 Spa Treatments You Can Make at Home.
ROAD TRIP!
One of my favorite phone apps is Roadside America, an amazing guide to uniquely odd tourist attractions such as the largest catsup bottle in the world. I always search my surroundings when I travel so as not to miss the World’s 2nd Largest Ball of Barbed Wire or Human Skin of the “Candy Man.” The Roadside America site and app rates each site, not with stars, but water tower icons. Enthrall your Thankshallowxmas guests with a road trip to experience all the bizarre statues and strange museums that are hidden in your state and town. Remember, some of the greatest sites are just a highway exit away.
Some of OurFavorite Roadside America Sites
Everyone loves dinosaurs, right?! Dinosaur World is one of the best collections of life-sized behemoths in the country, with hundreds of thunder lizards—T-rexes, raptors, you name it—scattered around a dog-friendly property. Located near the spectacular Mammoth Cave, so that means that of course there are woolly mammoths kids (and adults) can climb on.
Leaning Tower of Niles, Illinois
Who cares if it’s only half the size of the famed Italian tower (94 feet to Pisa's 177-foot stature and much less leany ), this Midwestern version, built in 1934, holds its own as a great tourist attraction ranking 4 out of 5 water towers on Roadside America. Stop by and take all the goofy photos of your Dad pretending to hold it up.
The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things
Curator extraordinaire Erika Nelson visits epic roadside attractions, photographs them, goes home, then creates miniature versions to display at her little traveling museum of little versions of big things...how very meta of her. This site is one-stop shopping to see all of America's amazing roadside oddities in miniature.
Minnesota is home to many Roadside sites like the world's biggest Paul Bunyan statue, a massive Jolly Green Giant, and a ball of twine so massive that Weird Al wrote an entire song about it. This museum houses the world's most comprehensive collection of spiced pork artifacts. See a 12-foot-tall rocket made of SPAM cans, buy a SPAM air freshener for your car or a can of pumpkin spice SPAM (yum) in the gift shop, register as a SPAMbassador or just stand
outside and pose with the farmer-and-pigs statue.
OMG, this visitor's center is an amazing 4,000-square-foot wonderland where you can peruse the world's most comprehensive collection of PEZ dispensers. Pop-culture characters from the past century stare at you with all-watching PEZ eyes as you explore the kitschy, candy-colored paradise packed with such wonders as a bench made of giant rolls of candy and the world's largest dispenser. It's a high-tech, high-camp exploration of one of America's most popular and and tasty enduring candy brands.
This rest area is equipped with everything you need, well, minus the vending machines. It is worth the stop since it is near a well-known roadside attraction along US Highway 87 known as Carhenge (like Stonehenge with cars, which is a truly amazing site!). Keep driving just a couple of miles past Carhenge, North up the 87 and you will come to this actual rest area roadside attraction complete with lounge chair and free Wifi.
About that Ketchup Bottle
The bottle was originally built beside Illinois Route 159 to supply water to a Brooks Foods ketchup plant nearby, hence the Brooks Old Original Catsup bottle shape. Brooks Foods has since shut down, and the plant is no longer functional but the 170-foot-tall water tower still pays homage to the condiment company and was restored by local preservation efforts long after the company closed. This site is located in Collinsville, Illinois and this town does love its ketchup — every year they celebrate the Catsup Bottle Festival. There are car races, vendors (featuring the favorite local condiment) and a kid pageant to crown Little Princess Tomato and Sir Catsup each year. Whether you like Ketchup or Catsup, it sounds like a fabulous festival to us!