For many people, Thanksgiving provides a time and venue for families to spend time with one another. If you have a large family, this can mean a lot of children running around or a lot of guests who want entertainment as well as food. Keeping some inexpensive playing cards on hand can give your guests something fun to do as they socialize with friends and family. Read on to learn more about some classic card games for Thanksgiving that you can use to make your holiday lively and entertaining for all your guests.

Go Fish

The game “Go Fish” has seemingly been around forever, and many kids and adults of all ages enjoy it. The game works for 2-6 players. Each player begins the game with 5 cards. The rest of the cards form the draw pile. Players take turns, and on each turn the player asks an opponent for a specific type of card, saying something like, “Bob, give me all your fives,” or “Lucy, give me all your diamonds.” If the player being asked has any of the types of cards requested, he or she must give them to the player who requests them. If he or she does not, the player says, “Go Fish.” The person who asked for the card now must take a card from the draw pile. The goal of play is to collect four of a kind—all the kings, all the twos, etc.–and discard them from one’s hand. The first player to run out of cards ends the game, and the person with the most sets of four wins.

Crazy Eights

This game works for 2-6 players as well, and many people like to add variations and twists on the basic game to make it more complicated or more fun. Each player begins with 5 cards, and the cards that are left form the draw pile. The dealer flips over the top card of the draw pile to create a discard pile. Play rotates in a clockwise direction with each player attempting to run out of cards by discarding them. To legally discard a card, it must match either the rank or suit of the card already on top of the discard pile. If, on your turn, you don’t have any cards to discard legally, you must take a card from the draw pile until you receive one you can discard. Eights are considered wild, and players can place an eight on the discard pile at any time. The person who plays the eight can simultaneously call for a change in suit. Only another eight or a card matching the suit change can be discarded on top of an eight.

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This entry was updated on Wednesday, June 17th, 2015 at 4:06 pm. This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2012 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Party Planners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.