Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26 this year, so you’ve got a few weeks to plan something your team will actually look forward to.
This can be a polarizing holiday. Whether employees dread family memories or dislike the day’s origins, it’s never a unanimous favorite. That’s why at work, we take extra care to focus on Turkey Day’s best PR representatives: food and thankfulness. Both are great for team bonding, and both are what HeyTaco is all about.
No matter how each employee feels, we can help forge a positive association with this time of year by highlighting togetherness and the spirit of gratitude. Here are 21 Thanksgiving team-building activities, with options for in-person, hybrid, and remote teams.
Why celebrate Thanksgiving at work?
Acknowledging holidays at work can help improve work-life balance. It breaks up the routine, makes employees feel appreciated, and mirrors real life, where holidays happen.
This also creates a more positive environment for camaraderie and familiarity across teams. Playing games, watching movies, or having lunch together gives us chances to see our coworkers in a new, more informal light. Employees need to feel they’re seen as humans at work. What we don’t discuss as often is that they can need help seeing one another that way, too.
Thanksgiving in particular is the perfect fit for a culture of appreciation. If you’ve wanted to center gratitude in your organization, but haven’t quite found the ideal time to begin, here it is.
Thanksgiving team-building ideas for the office
In-person teams can easily bask in the reason for the season. A few of these Thanksgiving team-building ideas throughout the week can create a new holiday tradition that reinforces team bonds.
1. Holiday food drive
Reach out to a local food bank and invite employees to gather canned goods and other non-perishables. Discuss which goods are in demand this season and meet those needs with higher-value items.
2. Gratitude card swap
Teams can buy or make holiday cards for a coworker they’re grateful for, or managers can write a quick note to each person on the team. Morale matters a lot right now, because the holidays are a high-turnover time of year.
Remote or hybrid? Do the card swap in Slack or Teams. Send a 🌮 with your thank-you note, and the whole channel can see it. It’s like a card, minus the hunt for a pen that works.
3. Chili cook-off
Who’s taking the prize–three-bean vegetarian or beef with extra taco seasoning? We won’t make our predictions yet. But we do encourage extra care and coordination when hauling your famous secret chili recipe to work.
4. Friendsgiving celebration
If Thanksgiving isn’t a part of everyone’s culture, or they’re far away from family, host a Friendsgiving. Let teams include foods or activities they’d like to make part of the tradition.
5. Gratitude wall
Clear the employee wall and dedicate the last half of November to gratitude. Tack up a cutout of a tree with bare branches. Employees add “leaves” of sticky notes sharing what they’re thankful for.
6. Pie-making contest
Pumpkin, sweet potato, berry, apple. Everyone’s a winner when the team gets to sample various seasonal pastries. This is an instance where a physical award won’t go unappreciated; every home baker loves a blue ribbon.
7. Gratitude jar
If the gratitude wall makes some people feel a little sheepish, let them add their thanks anonymously to a jar. Read a few out loud at meetings, and the team might find they’re grateful for the same small things. “I’m thankful that everyone here is also in a bad mood on Mondays. That way, mine doesn’t stand out.”
Want the jar to last past November? A dedicated #gratitude channel with HeyTaco does the same job year-round. Every thank-you lands in one place, and nobody has to empty the jar.
Gratitude, minus the Zoom fatigue
Your team doesn’t need another meeting to say thanks. With HeyTaco, a thank-you takes about 10 seconds in Slack or Teams, and everyone can see it. Start with our Gratitude Week quest, and keep the habit going after the pie runs out.
Try HeyTaco free8. Volunteer day
Shelters, soup kitchens, animal rescues, assisted living facilities–many of these places need extra hands during the holiday season. If you want to make charitable contributions part of Thanksgiving team building, there’s no better way to bond.
9. Thanksgiving potluck
Give the team some extra time mid-day to do Thanksgiving their way. Ordering in or homemade, a veritable cornucopia of their faves makes a great fall feast.
10. Afternoon movie
Surprise everyone before they break for the holidays by switching on a classic Thanksgiving movie instead of pushing for a deadline.
11. Holiday decorating
Every office has at least a few people who are crazy for Christmas. Let them head up an informal decorating committee and get the fun started. Thanksgiving is the traditional time to start decking the halls.
12. Thanksgiving coloring or crafting
If your organization supports mindfulness-as-wellness initiatives, swap out the meeting for a short coloring or crafting session. These activities help you switch off the brain, set adult concerns aside temporarily, and enjoy the present moment.
13. Administrative hours
Give teams time to play catch-up, collaborate to solve challenges, and clear the decks as the year winds down. If it’s been a high-pressure period, they’ll be grateful!
14. Caramel apple decorating
Sweet treat-oriented teams can dip apples in caramel and deck them out with candy, nuts, chocolate drizzle, and more.
15. Coffee break
Let coworkers treat each other to their favorite seasonal drink, from spiced chai and warm cider to the triple-shot latte that gets you through the afternoon. Pair people at random, and cross departments if you can.
Skip the spreadsheet: Taco Chats pairs teammates for you in Slack. It can match people who don’t usually cross paths, like a new hire and someone from another team. Your coffee break gets a new friendship, and you don’t have to schedule a single meeting.
16. Game day
From trivia tournaments to video games, any holiday is ideal for letting teams engage with their preferred games. When everyone looks forward to playing a particular game together, it’s a sure sign of an effective team ritual.
17. Autumnal icebreakers
“Do you prefer apples or pumpkins?” “What’s your favorite thing about fall weather?” “Do you have any fall traditions?” Steer your usual icebreaker sessions toward seasonal topics.
Remote team-building activities for Thanksgiving
Virtual employees want to build stronger team connections. However, they’re often too focused on their own plates to take initiative. These Thanksgiving-relevant team activities require little time, offer meaningful impact, and are easy to join.
18. Gratitude minute
It takes one minute at the end of a virtual meeting. Go around the “room,” and let everyone share what they’re thankful for.
Make it stick: Ask everyone to send their shout-out as a 🌮 in Slack or Teams right after the call. The thanks stays in writing where everyone can see it, and the recipient can reread it later. Trust us, they will.
Run a Gratitude Week in Slack or Teams
Install HeyTaco and launch our pre-built Thanksgiving quest in about 2 minutes. Your team sends a 🌮 and a thank-you each day of Thanksgiving week, and the tacos add up to real rewards. Free for 30 days. No credit card.
Try HeyTaco free19. Recipe swap
If your team is so inclined, create an annual holiday cookbook that finds its legs during the season of feasting. Let employees share their favorite recipes, and don’t forget to let them know how well it worked in your kitchen.
20. Volunteer day, virtual teams edition
Letting employees have the day off to do volunteer work in their area is a great holiday gift. After all, this is an activity people want to do but struggle to make time for. Have everyone who participates share their experience, helping to reinforce company values such as leadership and respect.
21. Virtual gratitude wall
Here’s the digital version of the sticky-note tree. Create a #gratitude channel in Slack or Teams, and dedicate the rest of November to it. Ask people to look for the small stuff: the teammate who covered a shift, fixed the bug at 5 pm, or remembered everyone’s coffee order.
With HeyTaco, each thank-you comes with a 🌮. The tacos add up on a leaderboard, and people can trade them in for real rewards. That turns a one-week holiday activity into a habit your team keeps after the leftovers are gone.
👉 Start your gratitude wall in Slack · Add to Microsoft Teams
🎄BONUS: Get a head start on Christmas cheer. Check out more holiday celebrations, team activities, and gift ideas.
Make Thanksgiving week the start, not the whole thing 🌮
Most of these ideas last a day. The good feeling they create can last much longer if thanking each other becomes part of how your team already works.
That’s what HeyTaco does. Your team gives tacos to say thanks right in Slack or Teams, and you can see the appreciation add up. Start with Gratitude Week on November 23, and you’ll have a habit going by December.
Used by 5,000+ teams since 2016. 30-day free trial, no credit card required.
