Thanksgiving bingo for a mixed-age table: how to run it between dinner and dessert

The best slot is right after the main meal, while dessert gets ready. People are still at the table and nobody has to cook. A one-line round takes about 15 calls, five minutes or so. A blackout takes nearly all 40 words, about 10 to 15 minutes, which is how long a pie needs to cool.

Plan for two or three rounds. The first one teaches the rules, the second gets competitive, and by the third someone's uncle has announced he's never lost at bingo.

You don't have to pick one. The TV (or a laptop, or a projector) shows the called word and the board. Players join by scanning the QR code on the screen, and each phone gets its own card. Nobody installs an app or signs up.

Grandparents and the youngest kids often prefer paper, so print a few cards from the same set and they play along with the calls on the TV. Our printable bingo cards come ready to print, and a free account gives you 20 a month.

A tip for mixed tables: put a small kid and a grandparent on one paper card. The kid finds the squares and the grandparent shouts bingo. It beats handing a five-year-old a phone.

The host picks the winning pattern before each round: one line, two lines, four corners, an X, the frame or blackout. Players mark their own squares (auto-marking stays off unless the host turns it on), and the game checks every bingo against the pattern, free space included. That settles whether Aunt Linda really had Gravy boat called.

More on bingo patterns and blackout bingo.

The Thanksgiving bingo set has 40 words: the food (turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, green bean casserole), the day (parade balloon, football game, kids table, family photo, wishbone) and the aftermath (leftovers, turkey nap, stretchy pants). Every card draws 24 of them in a different order, so no two players hold the same card.

The rounds people remember use words only your family would get. With a free account you can make your own list: paste it in, and 24 words fill a card. Mix a dozen of your own into the Thanksgiving words and the calls start getting laughs.

• The dish someone brings every single year, by name: Grandma's Jell-O salad.
• Things that always happen: Dad checks the score, the dog gets a scrap, someone brings up the year the oven broke.
• One square for each guest's catchphrase.

Small prizes keep it fun without making it serious. Our bingo prize ideas list has more, sorted by budget.

• First pick of the pie slices.
• Out of dish duty, the most valuable prize at Thanksgiving.
• The wishbone, or choosing who breaks it with you.
• A chocolate turkey or a bag of candy corn.
• Choosing the movie after dinner.

1. 1Open the Thanksgiving bingo set on the TV or a laptop and press Play this set live.
2. 2Everyone scans the QR code, or types the game code on the join page, and gets a card.
3. 3Pick a pattern and start calling. The game checks each bingo.
4. 4Print a few cards first for anyone playing on paper.