ColorCollectThanksgiving scavenger hunt: a free printable for the whole family
An indoor color hunt for the hour before dinner: two printable sheets — one for the kids' table, one for everyone else — and 20 things to find around a house full of family.
There is always an hour on Thanksgiving when the food is not ready, the kids are restless and the adults are in the kitchen. A color scavenger hunt fills it: it runs indoors, needs nothing but a printed sheet, and mixes ages, so cousins who see each other once a year end up on the same team.
Everything on these sheets can be found inside a house on Thanksgiving Day — on the table, in the kitchen, on the coats piled by the door. No yard, no weather, no setup.
How to run it
- Print one sheet per team. Mix the teams by age — one grown-up and one or two kids each. The kids' table sheet is all kitchen and table colors; the family sheet sends players to find colors on people.
- Set the rules of the house. Which rooms are in, which are out (the oven is always out), and that nobody touches the food. Twenty minutes is plenty.
- Find it, then name it. Each find gets written next to its color — "Gold: Aunt Lisa's earrings". Snap a photo if there is a phone on the team.
- Read the finds out at the table. Go color by color once everyone sits down. The funniest find wins, and it beats asking the kids what they are thankful for, cold.
The printable sheets
Each sheet prints on its own page. Tick the box when you spot the color, and write down what you found.
Kids' table color hunt
Eight harvest colors to find around the house before the food comes out. Ages four and up.
- Orangea pumpkin, a carrot, or a sweet potato
- Browna pie crust or a bread roll
- Redcranberries or an apple
- Yellowcorn or a candle flame
- Greengreen beans or a herb
- Whitea napkin or mashed potatoes
- Goldsomething shiny on the table
- Purplegrapes, a cabbage, or a sweater
Free printable from colorcollectapp.com — a color scavenger hunt game for phones, too.
Family gathering hunt
For mixed teams of adults and kids. Find each color on a person or their things, not on the table — you will meet everyone.
- Burgundya sweater or a glass of something
- Rusta scarf or a jacket
- Creama knit hat or a mug
- Navya coat by the door
- Golda ring, a watch, or a button
- Greena phone case or a bag
- Orangea football jersey or a cap
- Browna pair of boots
Free printable from colorcollectapp.com — a color scavenger hunt game for phones, too.
20 Thanksgiving things to find, by color
Want more than eight rows? Every one of these counts for the color in front of it — use them to make the sheets harder, or as a list to read out on the go.
- Orange: a pumpkin pie before anyone cuts it
- Orange: a sweet potato or a carrot
- Orange: a decorative gourd on a shelf
- Brown: the turkey, once it is out of the oven
- Brown: a basket of bread rolls
- Brown: a wooden spoon in use
- Red: cranberry sauce, canned or homemade
- Red: an apple in the fruit bowl
- Yellow: a cob of corn or a cornbread square
- Yellow: a lit candle
- Green: green bean casserole
- Green: a sprig of sage, rosemary, or parsley
- White: a pile of mashed potatoes
- White: a folded napkin at a place setting
- Gold: a serving dish rim or a candlestick
- Purple: a bunch of grapes or a red cabbage
- Cream: a gravy boat
- Burgundy: a sweater someone is wearing
- Navy: a coat in the pile by the door
- Silver: the good cutlery, set out for once
Four ways to play it
Thankful colors
For each color, the player says one thing they are thankful for that is that color. Red: Grandma's car that drove her here.
Find it on a guest
Every color must be found on a different person. The fastest way to get shy cousins talking to relatives they barely know.
Leftovers hunt
Run the kids' table sheet again on Friday with the leftovers in the fridge. It is a different hunt, and it is over in five minutes.
Photo finish
Each team photographs one find per color, and the whole table votes on the best photo per color after dessert.
Keep the photos, not just the ticks
ColorCollect is the same color hunt on a phone, with the finds kept: pick a color, everyone photographs their matches, and the shots snap into one shared photo montage the whole family keeps. Friends and relatives in other towns can join the same hunt with a 6-letter room code — no accounts.
Free to play, no ads, optional in-app purchases. Prefer paper? The sheets work perfectly well on their own.
More seasonal hunts
For any time of year, there are four more free printable color scavenger hunt sheets, and the color scavenger hunt guide has the rules and ideas for every age.
Frequently asked questions
How do you do a Thanksgiving scavenger hunt indoors?
Give each team a list of harvest colors — orange, brown, red, yellow, green, gold — and have them find each one somewhere in the house: on the table, in the kitchen, or on a guest. Set the off-limits rooms, give it twenty minutes, and compare finds at dinner.
Is this Thanksgiving printable free?
Yes. Both sheets print from this page with no email signup or watermark, so you can print one per team.
What age is it for?
The kids' table sheet works from about age four with a grown-up reading the colors. The family gathering sheet is meant for mixed teams, so it works for any age that can walk up to a relative and look at their sweater.
Can we do it outside instead?
Yes — the outdoor version is our fall scavenger hunt, which is built around leaves and a walk rather than a house full of family.