No matter your Thanksgiving plans, playing Thanksgiving Family Feud is a great way to make it memorable!
Once the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is over, the turkey’s been eaten, and the football game’s been played, it’s time for some fun family game time!
You can certainly go the board game route and have a blast, but why not recreate one of America’s most beloved TV game shows instead?!
In this article, you’ll find everything you need to know about how to play Thanksgiving Family Feud – including how to modify it for a virtual game.
You can also get access to the Thanksgiving Family Feud survey questions and answers from real-life respondents to our blog, email, and social media channels!
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What is Family Feud? And why do people love it?
Family Feud is a super fun TV game show that made its debut on ABC way back in 1976. It was hosted by Richard Dawson and quickly became the number-one TV game show in its first year.
After a 4-year hiatus, the show was revived on CBS and ran until 1994, with Ray Coombs as the host. (This was the version I remember watching as a kid!)
Now in its third iteration, Family Feud has been hosted by Steve Harvey since 2010. In fact, Family Feud was ranked number three on TV Guide’s list of the 60 greatest game shows of all time!
The basics
In the television game show, two families play against each other to win a cash prize.
Each team gains points by correctly guessing the most popular answers to simple survey questions given to 100 different people.
Here are a few sample survey questions:
“Name something you wear when the weather is cold.”
“What is a phrase you never want to hear your doctor say?”
“Name a vegetable that grows in the ground.”
Players have to think quickly – which often results in completely hilarious answers!
It’s also a fantastic game because you get to cheer on your teammates and build some family unity at the same time!
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into how you can make Family Feud a part of your Thanksgiving Day festivities!
What is Thanksgiving Family Feud?
Thanksgiving Family Feud is an at-home (or virtual!) spin-off of the popular game show.
While there won’t be any TV cameras rolling, studio lights blazing, or fancy digital scoreboards, you can absolutely recreate Family Feud at home!
The survey questions and answers we’ve provided all have a Thanksgiving theme, so you’ll be able to keep your Thanksgiving celebration feeling festive too.
How to Play Thanksgiving Family Feud
Let’s cover how to prepare, set up the room, and the actual game mechanics.
Preparation
To prep for your own Thanksgiving Family Feud, you’ll need survey questions and answers all centered on a Thanksgiving theme.
Thanks to the help of Jen Bradley|MOMs social media followers, email list respondents, and family and friends, we collected over 300 survey responses to 15 Thanksgiving questions.
We’ve whittled down all the information for you in the Thanksgiving Family Feud Questions and Answers! To get access, click on the image below.
(And if you don’t want to join our email list, that’s okay too – you can grab your Thanksgiving Family Feud from our Etsy shop right here instead!
Once you have the survey questions and answers, you’ll need to write them out on a poster board. (A half-size poster works great!)
Don’t worry about making these fancy! Just write the question at the top and list the survey answers below.
Then cover each individual answer with a separate strip of paper so the players can’t see them.
(If you’d like to save time, head on over to our Etsy shop right here to get the upgraded Thanksgiving Family Feud printables – all of the question posters are ready for you to simply download and print!)
Finally, if you’re going to be offering prizes, you’ll need to get those in advance too (check out our list of prize ideas at the bottom of this article!).
Setting Up the Game
Next, you’ll need to set up your space.
Simply set out chairs on either side of the living room (or move the couches!), so the two teams can sit together and face off against the other team.
You’ll need a small space for two contestants to come to the front of the room to answer the Face-Off questions (more on that soon!).
And if you can get your hands on two buzzers, that’d be great too, but they’re not necessary.
This fun set of four colorful buzzers is perfect!
Finally, since you’ll have all the answers, it’s best if you are the host of the game. You may also want another person to help you manage your posters and pull off the strips of paper during the game.
Teams
Before you start to play, divide your guests into two teams.
On the TV game show, teams are limited to 5 people and players need to be 15 years or older.
But don’t worry! In this version, you can definitely have more than five people per team.
(Do keep in mind that every player may not have a chance to do a Face-Off though.)
Also, all of our Thanksgiving Family Feud questions are super kid-friendly, so kids ages 6 and up should be good to participate.
It’s helpful if each team stays seated in the same order throughout the game, so everyone can easily keep track of whose turn it is to answer or do the next Face-Off.
Once you have your teams settled on opposite sides of the room, it’s time for Thanksgiving Family Feud to begin!
Family Feud Face-Off
To start the game, each team will send their first player up to the front of the room for the first Face-Off.
As you begin to read the first question, either player can buzz in with their answer. (If you don’t have buzzers, the players can either smack a table, clap or raise their hands.)
If they get the first-place answer at the top of the board, their team automatically gets to finish the round.
But if the first person to answer doesn’t get the first-place answer, the other player gets a chance to guess. If they get a higher-placed answer than the first player, their team gets to finish the round instead.
If neither player guesses the first-place answer, the player’s team that got the highest-place answer in the Face-Off gets to finish the round.
Related article: 80 Thanksgiving Questions the Whole Family Will Love
Question Round
The team that won the Face-Off gets to finish the question round. This means that four more players on the team get a chance to answer the same question, trying to guess all 5 of the top answers listed on the board.
Each team receives points for their answer according to how many people gave the same answer on the survey. (Use the handy scorecard in the Thanksgiving Family Feud printable to keep track!)
If a player gives an answer that isn’t on the board, their team receives one strike.
After three strikes, the other team gets a chance to confer together and try to guess any of the correct answers on the board. If they offer a correct answer on the board, they get to steal all of the points.
At this point, all of the remaining answers are revealed and it’s time for another Face-Off!
On the TV show, only 4 rounds of questions are played so different families have a chance to be featured.
Since you probably don’t have the same time constraints as a network TV game show, you can definitely play more than 4 rounds!
Related article: 9 Awesome Thanksgiving Day Activities for Young Kids and Toddlers
The Fast Money round
You don’t have to include a Fast Money round in your at-home version of Thanksgiving Family Feud, but you can!
Fast Money is designed to help the winning team increase their overall score and win more money. So if you want to offer some bigger prizes, this is for you!
To play Fast Money, the winning team chooses two people to participate. One of them must leave the room so they can’t hear what is being said.
The first Fast Money player answers 5 survey questions in 20 seconds, giving one answer for each question. If needed, the player can pass and move on to the next question.
Points are earned based on how many people gave the same answer, just as in the question rounds of the game.
After the first Fast Money player is done, the second player comes back into the room and is asked the same 5 survey questions.
For the second time around, the time clock is set for 25 seconds. If the second player gives the same answer as the first player, they can try again.
Once both Fast Money players are done, their total points are tallied. If they get more than 200 points combined, their team wins the grand prize!
Prize ideas for Thanksgiving Family Feud
Whether you choose to play Fast Money or not, it’s a great idea to have a few prizes on hand for the winners!
Here are some of our favorite Family Feud prize ideas, all available on Amazon:
What Do You Meme – Family Edition – this hilarious game can be played by anyone who can read! It would be a fantastic follow-up game to Thanksgiving Family Feud!
Family Feud Disney Edition – If you have any big Disney fans coming for Thanksgiving, this prize is perfect for them!
Family Feud Kids’ Edition – Intended for ages 8 and up, this game also includes a complimentary app that allows you to access sound effects used on the real TV show!
$100 Bill Erasers – If you can’t give out real $100 bills to the winning team, how about these cute erasers instead?
$100 Bill Playing Cards – This set comes with 12 individually packaged sets of 52 playing cards, all with $100 bills printed on the back!
Money Mazes – You can put a small cash prize in the center of each of the 6 mazes for the winning team!
Variations for Thanksgiving Family Feud
It is really easy to adapt Thanksgiving Family Feud to almost any type of Thanksgiving gathering!
Whether you’re having a virtual gathering, joining in a large group celebration, or participating in a Friendsgiving event, keep reading to see how Thanksgiving Family Feud can work for you.
Virtual Family Feud
If you’re having a virtual Thanksgiving, you can have several people in one location form a team, or you can assign people in completely different places to be on the same team.
During a Face-Off on Zoom, the first player to raise their virtual “hand” gets to give their answer first.
If a team needs to confer with each other after the opposing team gets three strikes, they can either break into a separate Zoom room or make comments to each other using the chat feature.
Fast Money is a little trickier via Zoom, but the second Fast Money player would have to be on the honor system to either mute their sound or go into another room so they can’t hear the questions before it’s their turn.
Large group
If you have a very large group of more than 14 people, you may want to consider breaking the group into smaller teams of 4-5 people. Then play fewer question rounds, just like they do on the TV game show. This way, everyone gets a chance to participate in a Face-Off.
If your group doesn’t want to break into smaller teams, that’s perfectly fine. But be sure to make it clear that with a team of more than 6 people, not everyone will get to do a Face-Off or participate in every question round.
Friendsgiving
Family Feud is actually one of the most ideal games for Friendsgiving! You can have different families comprise different teams, just like the real TV show!
You can certainly have smaller families, couples, or individuals join teams as needed.
Thanksgiving Family Feud Questions and Answers
Here’s a look at 8 of the 15 questions we asked in our Thanksgiving Family Feud survey.
- Name an activity you do on Thanksgiving, other than eating.
- Name something you eat on Thanksgiving that starts with the letter “P.”
- What is the best way to cook a turkey?
- Name something you do on the day after Thanksgiving.
- Name something you’d see in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
- What food always has the most Thanksgiving leftovers?
- Name a food that you eat on Thanksgiving, but not any other time of the year.
- Name something that someone preparing the food on Thanksgiving might stress about.
We had over 300 responses, thanks to our social media audience, email list subscribers, and family and friends!
Click on the image below to get the results and 7 more survey questions for Thanksgiving Family Feud!
(If you don’t want to join our email list, or you’d like to save time with our pre-printed Q&A pages, you can purchase our upgraded version of Thanksgiving Family Feud from our Etsy shop right here!)
Final Thoughts about Thanksgiving Family Feud
If you absolutely love playing Thanksgiving Family Feud (and we hope you do!), you can always consider auditioning for the real TV show right here!
Who knows?! Maybe your family will make their incredible TV debut and win $20,000!
Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Related articles about Thanksgiving:
- 100+ Kids’ Thanksgiving Jokes to Make Them LOL
- What’s Your Turkey Name? – A Funny and Easy Thanksgiving Activity
- A to Z Gratitude List – 26 Unique Things to Be Thankful For
- How to Teach Gratitude to Your Kids
- The Perfect 30-Day Thanksgiving Gratitude Challenge for Moms
Do you think you’ll play Thanksgiving Family Feud this year?
