Friendsgiving games to play after dinner

By the Hangtime Games team · October 26, 2026

Friendsgiving is Thanksgiving with fewer rules and more folding chairs. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, November 26, so most Friendsgivings land the weekend before. The crowd is different from a family table, too: partners, roommates, a coworker someone brought. Half the room may not know the other half. The right game fixes that in about ten minutes.

What makes a good Friendsgiving game

• Nobody has to stand up. People just ate a lot.
• Strangers can play. No inside knowledge needed to have fun, though inside jokes help.
• It's short. 15 to 20 minutes, then switch or stop.
• Late arrivals can join. Someone always shows up at 9 with a pie.

Games to play at Friendsgiving

1. Two thanks and a lie. Go around the table. Everyone says three things they're thankful for this year, and one is made up. The table guesses the fake. No tech, any size group, about 10 minutes. It's a nicer version of the gratitude round, and nobody has to get sincere on the spot.
2. Best Answer Wins. Best Answer Wins is a fill-in-the-blank card game: a prompt goes on the TV, you pick the funniest card from your hand on your phone. Answers stay anonymous until the reveal. The Family deck is the default; for an adults-only Friendsgiving, the host can switch to After Dark. You also get 3 blank cards per game to write your own, which is where the jokes about the host's dry turkey go. 3 to 10 players, about 20 minutes.
3. Who's Lying? In Who's Lying?, everyone's phone shows the secret except the Liar's. One-word clues, then a vote. It's great for groups that don't all know each other, because you learn fast who bluffs well. 3 to 10 players.
4. Bowl Game. With 8 or more, Bowl Game (Fishbowl) is the one. Two teams, 4 to 16 players, about 30 minutes. Everyone writes 3 to 5 slips on their phone. Try a theme: dishes on this table, people in this room, things that went wrong at last year's Friendsgiving.
5. Friend group trivia. Trivia Board is free, Jeopardy-style, and plays in person only. Write a category about your group (more on that below), and fill out the rest of the board with built-in ones like Food & Drink or Sitcom Night. Up to 8 players, or up to 8 teams sharing phones.
6. Blind taste test. Blindfold a volunteer and feed them a forkful of three different sides. Name the dish and who made it. Bonus point for being polite about it.
7. Doodler. Free, 2 to 10 players: draw on your phone, everyone guesses on theirs. Good when the room is down to the last six people and the dishes can wait.

Write a category about your friend group

This is the one people talk about later. On hangtime.games/make, name a category and write five clues, easiest first, as statements with the answer. It takes a few minutes and you don't need an account. You get a code to type into the Trivia Board lobby. Some starters:

• “This is the city where most of us met.”
• “This person brought store-bought rolls last year and called them homemade.”
• “This was the name of our group chat before someone renamed it.”
• “This dish has appeared at every Friendsgiving and nobody has ever finished it.”

Keep the clues fond, not mean. The goal is a laugh from the person in the clue, not a quiet drive home. For more on writing clues, see how to make your own Jeopardy game.

Setting it up in two minutes

1. Open hangtime.games/host on the TV or a laptop and pick a game. A four-letter room code appears.
2. Everyone goes to hangtime.games/play on their phone and types the code and a name.
3. Pick settings on the big screen and press Start. When it ends, hit Play again or switch games.

Friend stuck in another city? Start the game on a phone at hangtime.games/play, under “Can't all be in one room?”, and send them the code. Then type the same code on the TV under “Already started a game on a phone?” so the room can watch. Every game except Trivia Board works this way.

Small things that help

• Pick a game host who didn't cook. The cook has done enough.
• Start before dessert. Once people move to the couch, half of them are gone.
• Festive mode. From a week before Thanksgiving to five days after, hosts see a Festive mode toggle in the lobby that puts falling leaves on every screen. If your Friendsgiving is November 19 or later, it'll be there.
• Cost. Trivia Board, Doodler and Wordy Birdy are free. Best Answer Wins, Who's Lying?, Bowl Game and Rummy are in the Launch Pack, a one-time $5 founder price ($10 later). Only the host buys it. Guests never pay or need an account.

Hosting the family side too? Our Thanksgiving games page covers a table with three generations at it.