Pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and the unmissable turkey: the traditional menu at the Thanksgiving dinner table. The festive moment of sitting down around this table is an extra Thanksgiving for the housewives who have been preparing hours long the ceremonial meal that usually disappears within 20-30 minutes. When everybody has become satisfied with the delicious meal, the main point of the Thanksgiving night just begins! Finally, the loved ones have gathered; everybody has a little time to relax and enjoy the reunion. We can do it by having evening-long conversations or just watching each other. However, American Escape Rooms have some more amusing ideas! Thanksgiving dinner is over! The time to play’s just arrived!

Mother, father and the children around the Thanksgiving dinner table

Family “mapping”!

At Thanksgiving, we usually do an inventory about all the benefits we’ve obtained from fate, including material assets, spiritual supports, people around us, opportunities, etc. However, during the year, we might have “fights,” argue with our family members or other loved ones, we love and need each other.

At Thanksgiving 2021, celebrate these special days spending more focus on the family bonds! When the Thanksgiving dinner is over, remain gathered around the table, but switch the plates and the dishes to a great sheet of paper, colored pencils or crayons, and photo albums! Hopefully, the grandparents will have dinner with you because they can provide valuable data, heart-warming stories, family legends while composing the family tree.

Blueprint of a family tree

At the bottom of the paper, let’s start the family-tree construction with you and go upwards gradually. Assure that there will be enough space for every family member and generation! Don’t worry; you are supposed to be stuck several times. Mark those points and ask your grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other relatives. If they are around you, that’s the best option. If not, it offers you an excellent opportunity to contact them again after a while via phone, email, or chat message.

Every family member should enjoy this family exploration, learning more about the next of kin, maybe unknown relatives, old family customs, and traditions. It is a cooperative task, in which you should involve directly or indirectly the whole family. Let’s start the family-tree construction at Thanksgiving 2021, but don’t aim to complete it within one night! It might last for days, weeks. Anyway, if you are efficient, you will finish with it by Christmas. Make copies of this family ”map” and use them as Christmas presents for your loved ones!

Little girl with her father drawing

Family bond-training.

Since the exact day of Thanksgiving 2021 is a federal holiday, and those working at American Escape Rooms have a family as well, on the day of Thanksgiving, they are closed; however on the very next day, when the previous night’s dinner is over, they are waiting for the teams of family members! Why do we suggest playing escape games in the holiday season of Thanksgiving 2021?

The most crucial strategy for finding the exit from the escape room is cooperation, the same as the key factor of successful and satisfying family life. In the hustle and bustle of day by day, we cannot spend enough reasonable time with our loved ones. We might forget the main point of family life: supporting each other, being there for others, taking responsibility.

In escape rooms, we will have 60-minutes to remind ourselves of this message! In escape rooms, we can count on only our teammates, actually our family members, to solve the mind-boggling puzzles. Escape games offer the opportunity to put aside the previous misunderstandings, wounds and rediscover the strength of the family bond. There we cannot miss-communication, and otherwise, we remain closed!

While playing escape games, solving the complex puzzles step by step, by the end of the game, we will realize that, nevertheless, at the beginning of that 60 minutes, we might have thought that it is a mission impossible, together, we have managed to successfully find the exit! Consequently, if it could work in the escape room, why do we think that in reality, it couldn’t? Practice family cooperation in escape rooms and create the best, most tight-knit team from your family members not only for the escape games, not just at Thanksgiving 2021, but for the real-life situations, all year long!

Father and his son in his neck showing LIKE with his thumb

Find and match.

Another family-learning activity for Thanksgiving 2021 is this find and match family puzzle. This lovely game aims to earn more profound knowledge about your former, older, and actual family members and the friends of the family. To play this game after the Thanksgiving dinner, mummy and daddy should make some preparation in advance. They should write questions in connection with the family members, family legends, anecdotes on distinct notes. Moreover, they should answer them on different messages. In the case of 30 questions, they are supposed to have 60 notes together. Hide these pieces of paper inside of the house! When the Thanksgiving dinner is over, ask the children and other relatives around you to look for the notes. They should collect all of them and settle down in the center of the living room as soon as they complete the search on the night of Thanksgiving 2021.

Then the teamwork continues! Discussing with each other, try to match the questions with the answers! This game provides you with funny, family-learning progress strengthening and renewing family bonds.

Mother, father and the children sitting in the living room watching books together

Thanksgiving is the feast of gratitude for all of the material and spiritual assets we have gained from life. Put an emphasis on family bonds at Thanksgiving 2021, consolidate and fortify the family connections in escape rooms, remember family anecdotes while answering the family quiz, or just get to know further unknown relatives to be aware of your origin! Let Thanksgiving 2021 be about family!