Thanksgiving BINGO Board with a Personal Touch

Many many years ago I discovered 'Parade BINGO' through Family Fun Magazine, one of my most treasured sources for holiday craft/decoration ideas plus numerous other family activities.  It essentially is your standard BINGO game with each square having a phrase or word of something that you would see and cross off while watching the NYC Thanksgiving parade.  I think they provided 5 versions of the board that you could print out and give your children or other family members to play while they watched.  

I used there 5 boards and then created several of my own and made this an activity when I worked at a resort.  The guests really liked it.  It was a relaxed morning activity that they could casually play at their own pace and maybe win a prize.  I definitely could have used more variety of boards and a better way to regulate the legitimate wins but really they left with happy faces so that's all that mattered.  

This year I thought it would be a great spin on the idea for Thanksgiving BINGO to personalize a few boards and have them reflect a day at our or 'your' house on Thanksgiving.  Including fun phrases you know will be uttered by relatives, events that can be 'assumed' to happen, and maybe even some wishful thinking.  

Here is some BINGO background to help you plan your boards.

• Each board contains 25 boxes, the middle board being your 'FREE SPACE'
• Sit with another family member or two and come up with 24 different things you 'know' will happen or will be said during your fun family event.  All you have to do is change the order in which they are on a board to change up the probability of the different people winning at the same time. If you can and want to make it more challenging come up with more.  It just make take a little more ingenuity that's all.
• You can make a board on your computer through Microsoft Publisher or any design program- or go old school and grab some festive plain paper, a ruler, and a pencil and draw away.
• Here is a link to an already made blank BINGO board: http://tothesquareinch.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/bingo-game-blog.pdf
• Be prepared to have a few prizes or honors that you can assign to said winners.  Like first pick at the dessert table, the honor of cutting the first slice of turkey, a 'get out of dish washing' ticket,  or control over the remote for a certain amount of time.

Brainstorm Session:

Here are a few squares I came up in regards to my future event-

• Wine is spilled.
• Two kids cry at same time.
• Aunt E - tells a dirty joke.
• Gram talks about Frank Sinatra
• An adult falls asleep.

Hope this helps and you have fun with this.  I recommend start planning and making your list now to make it a quality one!