PULTEVENT
Thanksgiving trivia game: 6 rounds between the turkey and the pie
Grandpa Walt holds the phone at arm's length with his reading glasses pushed up on his forehead. “Which one is B?” His granddaughter, who is nine, leans over and taps it for him. Their team is in the lead. The pumpkin pie is cooling on the stove, and by house rules nobody cuts it until round six is done.
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That is the whole idea of this page. Thanksgiving puts three or four generations at one table for an afternoon, and most games split them: the kids vanish to a tablet, the adults talk football, the grandparents watch. A trivia game on the TV, answered from phones, keeps them at the same table and on the same side.
The laptop sits on the sideboard next to the gravy boat and runs the show in a browser. The TV shows the questions. Everyone points a phone at the QR code on the screen and they are in, with nothing to download and no sign-up. Each phone needs a connection, mobile data or the house Wi-Fi.
Six rounds for the Thanksgiving table
1 Round one: family history
Eight questions you write yourself in the quiz builder. What city was Grandma born in? What was the name of the first family dog? Which cousin got lost at the state fair? Four options appear on each phone, the bars rise on the TV, and the right answer turns green.
How to run it. Ask the oldest person at the table to check your facts a week before. They will add three stories you did not know.
It flips the usual order. For once the grandparents are the experts and the teenagers are guessing.
2 Round two: whose baby photo is this
Guess the Photo puts one picture on the full screen and the room tries to name the person. Then you open the name. Collect one baby or childhood photo from everyone at the table, including the in-laws.
How to run it. Mix the order so siblings are not back to back. Keep your own photo for last.
Nothing gets a table laughing faster than a senior accountant at age three in a cowboy hat.
3 Round three: the family timeline
Timeline gives each team a set of cards to put in order, earliest to latest. Load it with your family's own dates: the wedding, the move to Phoenix, the year the dog ate half the turkey.
How to run it. Let each team argue first and commit second. The captain taps the cards in order, or you do it from the phone remote.
It turns family stories into a puzzle, and every wrong answer starts a new story.
4 Round four: general Thanksgiving trivia
A short round for the people who married in: the holiday itself, the food, the parade, the football. Answers from phones against a 20, 30 or 45-second countdown that closes on its own.
How to run it. Keep it light and short. This round is a breather between the personal ones, not an exam.
It gives the newer members of the family a fair shot at points before the next round goes back into family lore.
5 Round five: the gratitude vote
Live voting with questions you write: Who made the best side dish? Who traveled the farthest? Who do we owe for hosting this year? Guests pick on their phones, and the answer appears only when you end the vote.
How to run it. Put the host last. It is the only question where you already know the answer, and so does everyone else.
It is the one moment in the afternoon when the thanks are said out loud, with a room watching.
6 Round six: the final scores
The team scoreboard shows the points from every round on the TV. The awards ceremony picks a fun award for each team, so the losing side gets something too, and one team takes the cup.
How to run it. Buy a cheap trophy and keep it in the family. The winners take it home and bring it back next November.
A proper ending, and a clear signal that it is time to cut the pie.
Teams across generations
One phone per team is enough. A teenager taps, a grandparent decides. The scoreboard on the TV keeps the family honest.
Questions only your family can answer
The quiz builder takes your own questions, photos and music, so round one can be about Grandma's first job instead of the Pilgrims.
Baby photos on the big screen
One photo fills the TV, the table guesses who it is, and then you reveal the name. Uncle Ray in a sailor suit does the rest.
A vote to say thank you
Live voting from phones for the host, the cook, the one who drove nine hours. The result shows up the moment you close it.
Teams for a table of three generations
Every phone counts once per question, so a team sharing one phone gives one answer. That is how I want it here. I build teams of three or four with one person from each generation, and the youngest one holds the phone. Grandparents do not need to touch a screen unless they want to.
Name the teams after the dishes. Team Stuffing against Team Cranberry is already half the fun.
Seat the teams at the table where they already are, and turn the TV so the far end can see it. Moving people around after a big meal is a battle you will lose, and nobody wants to leave their plate.
Photos without the scanning marathon
You do not need a scanner. Ask each household to take a phone photo of one old print, straight on, in daylight, and send it to you. Crop out the album page and the thumb. Fifteen photos is plenty for one round.
Keep a note of who sent what. When the room guesses wrong, the person in the photo will want to tell the story behind it, and that story is often better than the round.
Friendsgiving version
A Friendsgiving in a two-bedroom apartment has no grandparents and a lot more wine. Swap the family-history round for “how we met” questions, run the baby photos exactly the same, and turn the gratitude vote into a vote on the potluck: best dish, most ambitious dish, dish that should never come back.
The TV is usually smaller and the room is louder, so read every question aloud.
Fitting it around the meal
The gap between the turkey and the pie is about forty-five minutes, and that is all six rounds need if you keep moving. If the TV is also the football TV, negotiate. Halftime is roughly a round and a half.
Do the dishes after, not between rounds. The moment half the table disappears into the kitchen, the energy goes with them, and getting everyone back to the TV takes longer than the round itself. I ask the host to stack plates on the counter and leave them. Nobody has ever complained about that deal, least of all the person who usually washes up.
Relatives who could not make the trip can still play. Open a video call, share the stage window, and they scan the code straight off their laptop screen.
Before you promise the family anything
Phones need internet the whole time; the game does not run offline. The host console is being localized into English, and guest screens follow each phone's language. The quiz decks that ship with the platform are mostly Russian today, so the questions on this page are ones you write yourself in the quiz builder. For Thanksgiving that is the point anyway.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, an event host since 2014 with more than 500 events behind him. The TOP 100 Awards named him best host in Moscow in 2024 and in Saint Petersburg in 2023. He wrote the console for his own nights first: pultevent.ru/en.
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How to run a Thanksgiving trivia game
- 1
Two weeks ahead, ask everyone for one baby photo and collect family dates for the timeline.
- 2
Write the family-history round and the general round in the quiz builder, and type the vote questions.
- 3
On the day, plug the laptop into the TV with an HDMI cable and open the stage window there.
- 4
After the main course, split the table into mixed teams and have one phone per team scan the QR code.
- 5
Run the six rounds in order, adding points to the team scoreboard after each one.
- 6
Finish with the awards and the trophy, then let the pie out of the kitchen.
FAQ
Can Grandma play without a smartphone?
Does everyone need to download an app?
What if the Wi-Fi is weak in the dining room?
Is there a ready-made Thanksgiving quiz?
How long does it take?
Can relatives in another state join?
What if the family argues about an answer?
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See also
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