Gratitude is hard when Uncle Dave brings up politics (again) at Thanksgiving dinner table or when kids are arguing at Kindness Club (again), so you need to be ready with a diversion.
Enter: The Grateful Skittles Game.
The Grateful Thanksgiving Skittles game sneaks gratitude into your Thanksgiving party without making anyone write a paragraph or cry in front of the cranberry sauce.
It’s a sweet, simple family activity where you say nice things that ends with getting to eat candy.
You know, basically therapy, but in rainbow form.
You’re welcome.
How To Play The Thanksgiving Skittles Game
This Thanksgiving Skittles game is a fun family activity and gratitude game for a Thanksgiving dinner party, fall activities for kids at a classroom party, or for things to do at a harvest party.
This is an easy DIY Thanksgiving game that you play with — you guessed it! — SKITTLES candy!
It’s a simple game for kids or party guest to show the things they are grateful for.
Goal Of The Game
The goal of this grateful game is to choose a candy color and then give thanks for the item that matches the color of the candy selected from a game printable.
You can either print out your own items or write them down next to a dot of the same color of each candy.
Either way, just make a couple of cheatsheets for the table. (Or, maybe 5. You know someon’s brother will not share.)
For example, your color list may be:
- GREEN: Name a person you are thankful for (and why!)
- YELLOW: Name a place you are thankful for
- PURPLE: Name an object you are thankful for
- RED: Name an event you are thankful for
- ORANGE: Name a food you are thankful for
*GAME TIP: You can play this DIY game with Skittles or M&M candy or any small candies with different colors.
Thanksgiving Skittles Gratitude Game Supplies
To play the DIY Thanksgiving candy game, you’ll need:
• Bowl of Skittles candies (or other small candies with lots of different colors)
• Paper
• Colored Pencils or Markers (in the same colors of the candy)
*GAME TIP: If you buy different types of Skittles candies (regular, sour, wild berry, etc.) it will give you lots of different colors and more gratitude categories.
Skittles Thankful Gratitude Candy Game Instructions
To Play The Skittles Gratitude Game
Game Setup Before The Party
Make printable game cards by putting a colored dot the same color of each candy piece and then writing something to be grateful for next to each color.
For example, yellow could be “Name something that happened this year that you’re grateful for.”
You can make the gratitude prompts anything you like!
*GAME TIP: If you need gratitude prompt ideas, see the examples we give above. Or, if you're looking for hysterical game options (uh, always), see the Optional Chaos Add-Ons below.
To Play The Skittles Game
- Place a bowl of Skittles in the center of the table.
- On their turn, a player takes turns closing their eyes and taking out a piece of candy.
- Based on the color of the candy they get, they have to name something they are thankful for based on the matching color from the printable gratitude card.
- Play then passes to the next person until everyone has had a chance to play. Each player can eat their Skittle candy instead of putting it back in the bowl (because, germs. Gross). (Just make sure you have enough by placing several large bags of Skittles in the bowl if you’re playing several rounds.)
*GAME TIP: You can even play multiple rounds to give people different opportunities to talk about what they're grateful for by drawing different colors. It's especially fun to play multiple rounds if you're using the Chaos Add-Ons in the next section because it really gets everyone laughing and telling stories.
*Custom Game Twist Ideas for Optional Chaos Add-Ons
Also known as the teen game rules to keep eye-rolling to a minimum.
• The "Double Down" Rule: If two people draw the same color in a row, they have to say what they’re grateful for about each other.
Bonus points for awkward compliments like Uh, your gravy was… interesting this year.
• Reverse Uno Gratitude: If someone draws yellow (or pick whatever color you want to assign), they get to make someone else answer. Best used for calling out that one person who’s just been playing on their phone the whole time. SURPRISE!
• The Rogue Skittle Rule: Drop a Skittle on the floor? You must reveal an embarrassing childhood memory. Or do 5 jumping jacks. Or both. We don’t make the rules. (Actually, we do. We totally made all of these up.)
• The Candy Confessional: If you eat a Skittle before you're allowed to… confession time. Share something you were NOT thankful for this year. (Like your neighbor’s 27 inflatable turkeys display that emanates spotlights shining into the bedroom window and whirs all night.) (Sorry, that was my personal one...)
• Gratitude Roast Mode: Instead of a heartfelt thank-you, players have to give a sarcastic reason they're thankful for something annoying. "I’m grateful for the traffic jam this morning— it gave me time to scream into the void." (You get the idea.)
GAME FAQ SECTION FOR QUESTIONS YOU’D NEVER ASK
Q: Can I play this with toddlers?
A: Yes—just expect sticky, licked candies, hoarded Skittles (complete with screaming when you try to take one to play the game), and wildly off-topic answers like “Bluey’s color is blue.” or my daughter’s favorite to pull out was this fun fact: “A pizzly bear is when a grizzly bear and polar bear have a baby.” (It’s true. Look it up.)
Q: Can this be played without candy?
A: Sure, if you hate joy. OR, you can substitute with colored paper or buttons to make sure there’s sadness at your celebration.
Q: What if someone eats all the red ones before the game starts?
A: Congratulations, you’ve discovered who not to trust with around the dessert table. Take note for next year.
Q: Does this game REALLY promote thankfulness?
A: Considering everything going on in the world, if people are saying some form of “thanks” and not flipping the table, we call that a WIN.
Q: Can I use this in the classroom?
A: Who knows. Please refer to section 2: How We Squash Fun In School in your school handbook. Then, look into Subsection 2:A1.23.27 for the list of 1,322 things that you are not allowed to eat in your class.
But if you want to play this in your class, I say go for it! It’s actually a great classroom game!
Q: Is there a winner?
A: The winner is the person who makes it through Thanksgiving without passive-aggressively using Skittles as projectiles.
(I’m out.)
Anyway…
I hope you enjoy the grateful skittles game at your holiday party (and survive Uncle Dave’s droning on and on)!
