With November just a few days away, it’s time to stop thinking about getting candy and start thinking about gratitude! Everyone knows about Thanksgiving, but there are way more fun days in November that are worth celebrating too! Pick the ones that make the most sense to you for even more fun throughout the month!
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Fun Holidays in November
November is the perfect time to slow down, take some time to be grateful for things, and spend time with your family. The weather is cooler, the clothes are cozier, and the Christmas music starts playing.
So grab your favorite people for a family night, girls nights, or even just friends night out. Or just use these to give yourself something to look forward to throughout the month!
Oh and one thing to note – I know not every one of these holidays and activities is going to work for all of you. These are just meant to be ideas for various lifestyles and types of families and people.
Looking for More Thanksgiving Ideas?
This post includes ideas for Thanksgiving but the idea was to give people other things to celebrate than just Thanksgiving! If you want Thanksgiving ideas, here are some great Thanksgiving games, Thanksgiving recipes, Thanksgiving printables, and even a bunch of Thanksgiving craft ideas!
November 1 – Deck the Everything Day (Sunday)
HomeGoods had the right idea when they created this holiday all about getting into the holiday spirit right after Halloween is over! So sleep in a little later (thanks Daylight Savings Time) then break out the holiday decorations and deck everything!
You could even spend the day making some new DIY ornaments if you want to go so far as to get the tree out. Totally up to you, but I love the idea of using November 1st to switch from Halloween to the best holiday season of the year!
November 2 – Be the Impact Day (Monday)
Do something that has an impact on someone else (or yourself). Meet up with friends to do a service project or show gratitude to someone else with one of these gratitude activities.
Plan an activity with your own family that will have an impact on people around you. You could go buy someone dinner or write thank you notes to people. It’s a great way to get the month really started with some gratitude and thoughtfulness!
November 3 – Election Day (Tuesday)
Go vote and encourage your friends and family to vote too. You could even make it a group activity or meet up with people after you vote for dinner or dessert.
And if you’re really into things, you could even invite people over for an all night extravaganza with food and puzzles to enjoy while you watch the results come in together!
November 4 – Candy Day (Wednesday)
Remember all that leftover candy? Today is the perfect day to either use it or donate it to people like teachers, local hospitals, and more that actually want candy sitting around all the time!
I personally think inviting friends over to make all sorts of candy themed treats or even have a candy cook-off to see who can make the best candy themed desserts would be fun! If you need ideas, these are some of our favorites:
November 5 – American Football Day (Thursday)
Celebrate with a Thursday night football watch party complete with football brownies, football games like cup football or this pick a play game or football bingo, and of course football snacks like buffalo chicken dip and cheesy pigs in a blanket.
Don’t want to invite people over? This is a great excuse to meet up with friends to watch a game somewhere OR just pretend to watch the game and chat while it plays in the background. Thursdays are B1G1 free boneless wings at Buffalo Wild Wings (don’t ask me how I know that) if you need a recommendation!
November 6 – Cat in the Hat Movie Release (Friday)
Plan a Dr. Seuss night before going to see the movie! You could make this Cat in the Hat craft, do a Dr. Seuss scavenger hunt, or really any of these Dr. Seuss activities!
Or read the book together and do some of these fun reading activities before going to the movie!
November 7 – National Gratitude Month (Saturday)
This is technically the entire month but I love the idea of spending each of your Saturdays doing some sort of gratitude activity either with your own family or meeting up with friends somewhere to do it!
If you need ideas, these are some of our favorite gratitude activities and games:
- Make a gratitude jar
- Make a gratitude game (with activities for all month)
- Play this gratitude Skittles game
- Do something on this 24 days of gratitude turkey
- Play this Thanksgiving dice game
- Do one of these Thanksgiving activities associated with gratitude
November 8 – STEM/STEAM Day (Sunday)
There are so many fun ways you could celebrate this day. Build something, make something in your kitchen, do a science experiment, play logic games, or even a creative art project.
Want to get out of the house? Head to a children’s museum, an art studio, a science center, or even just a park that has things that get you being creative!
If you need ideas, these are some of our favorite building toys that my boys play with all the time!
- Magnetic building blocks – like Minecraft but off the screen
- Clixo magnetic building toys – these ones are flexible and can turn into anything!
- Magnetic tiles – you’ve seen these everywhere but they really are the best!
- Plus Plus blocks – these ones are little and great for travel!
- Marble run – who doesn’t love watching a marble go down a crazy path?
November 9 – Go to an Art Museum Day (Monday)
Meet up with friends to walk through an art museum or just go by yourself. Go with kids and do a scavenger hunt of sorts while you’re browsing to keep them interested if they’re younger.
November 10 – Sesame Street Day (Tuesday)
Introduce your kids to Sesame Street if they’ve never seen it or watch a few of your favorite episodes! Don’t forget to make Cookie Monster cookies or you could even make these fun Sesame Street ornaments as a craft!
November 11 – Veterans Day (Wednesday)
Celebrate the veterans in your life. Make treats to take to veterans you know (these homemade brownies are always a hit). Write notes to them. Call them if they’re not nearby and listen to stories about their lives.
November 12 – Chicken Soup for the Soul Day (Thursday)
Is there any better day for a soup swap than this one? Invite friends to bring their favorite soup and soup recipe to share. Everyone eats soup and you get to feed each other’s souls with time together at the same time!
If you want to go literal, grab one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books and spend the day enjoying your favorite soup and uplifting messages! There are variations for adults, kids, and even teens.
If you need some soup recipes to try, these are our favorites:
- Chicken noodle soup with egg noodles – this is probably the most perfect one for this day!
- Butternut squash soup – a great fall soup to share!
- Beef barley soup – a heartier soup with amazing flavor!
- Zuppa toscana recipe – an Italian classic!
- Corn and potato chowder – the caramelized corn flavor of this one is amazing!
- Strawberry soup – something totally different but this dessert soup is so good!
November 13 – World Kindness Day (Friday)
Spend the day being kind! Do any of these random acts of kindness or see how many kind things you can do for people even if it’s as simple as genuinely complimenting people as you go!
Invite friends over to have a treat making night and then take those treats to people in your neighborhood and community that could use some kindness!
November 14 – Family PJ Day (Saturday)
Spend the day in your PJs either at home or go see a movie in your PJs together! Go to a store and pick out matching holiday pajamas, take silly photos in matching PJs, or even just have a family pajama party with pajama party games!
If you want to do this with your non-blood family, this sounds like the perfect excuse to host a pajama girls night! You could do a painting in PJs night or just go old school slumber party vibes where everyone goes home and sleeps in their own bed!
November 15 – I Love to Write Day (Sunday)
There are so many fun ways to celebrate this one!
Invite friends over for a writing day where you decorate and write thank you notes, greeting cards, or letters to people. Or do this with your own family and encourage them to write notes to people they appreciate in their life!
Or turn it into a day to write jokes, write a story, write skits and act them out, or even just spend time writing in a journal memories you can think of that should be written down!
November 16 – Fast Food Day (Monday)
Take the night off from cooking and grab fast food for dinner. Make it a whole event by grabbing fast food, having a family picnic, and enjoying a special movie night together.
Or meet up with friends and do a who has the best food item challenge, like who has the best chicken nuggets. Hop from fast food place to fast food place and try out the different chicken nuggets and rate them together. It’s a simple, cheap, and fun way to enjoy each other’s company!
Or skip going out and make your own fast food for dinner at home with these copycat Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets and peppermint milkshakes for dessert!
November 17 – Take a Hike Day (Tuesday)
Get outside and go for a hike anywhere whether it’s a mile walk near your house or a longer hike somewhere.
Pack a picnic dinner to make it feel even more of a thing or really just go for a walk to celebrate this one!
November 18 – Mickey Mouse’s Birthday or Princess Day (Wednesday)
Disney lovers this one is for you! It’s both Mickey Mouse’s birthday and Princess Day so you could take this one either direction!
Play a Disney game like this Disney matching game or ask these Disney would you rather questions. Watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes. Make a Mickey Mouse treat like these butterfinger cupcakes or these Mickey Mouse cake pops.
Or use these Mickey Mouse party ideas and make a whole thing out of it! And don’t forget to put on your Mickey Mouse ears during it all!
If you want to go the princess route, you could make any of these fun princess foods (like grey stuff or frozen hot chocolate), play these princess games, or just have a princess movie night and watch any of the princess movies out there!
November 19 – Use Less Stuff Day (Thursday)
Think spring cleaning but in the fall! Declutter and donate items to people in need to get rid of things in your own house! Or take it a different way and do a use less energy evening with no screens, no lights (candles and flashlights are perfect), no bake items, and more. It could be a really fun thing if you make an event out of it!
November 20 – National Game & Puzzle Week (Friday)
Celebrate National game and puzzle week with a game night or puzzle night! Choose some of these board games for groups and invite your friends over for an epic game night – you could even combine it with Friendsgiving and start with food then finish with games!
Don’t want to do a whole game night? Just invite friends over to do a puzzle and chat together. There’s really nothing better (if you’re a puzzle person). I personally love these mystery puzzles that are more than just a standard puzzle!
November 21 – Family Volunteer Day (Saturday)
Another chance to do a service Saturday in November! Pick a service project of some sort to do with your family. It could be something for a family in your community, something like making bracelets for friends, or even an online project like making blankets together that you send in.
Rather than just choosing what you do, I recommend letting your family get involved in what you choose to do. They’ll be way more invested if it’s something they care about! Also, you could make an entire day of it by going out for dinner or dessert after you’re done volunteering!
November 22 – Go for a Ride Day (Sunday)
Go for any sort of ride – a bike ride, a train ride, a local trolley ride, or even a car ride to explore somewhere nearby you haven’t before.
This could be a really fun one to do with your own family or to do with friends, especially if you did something like a local trolley (we have one here in Kansas City) and hopped on and off to try out different places along the route! Or make it a day trip to a cute nearby city with great shopping and food!
November 23 – Eat a Cranberry Day (Monday)
Get started on the holiday flavors early in Thanksgiving week! Make one or multiple cranberry dishes to enjoy throughout the day. You could even invite friends over for a full baking day with all sorts of cranberry treats!
These are some of our favorites if you need something to try:
- Cranberry orange bread – this one is so good and perfect for sharing with friends!
- Cranberry orange muffins – my favorite holiday breakfast!
- Baked brie with honey and cranberries – a great holiday appetizer!
- White chocolate cranberry cookies – a holiday spin on white chocolate macadamia nut cookies!
November 24 – Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day (Tuesday)
Tuesday night talent show anyone? Make some of this fun popcorn snack mix and watch people share either real or unique talents with each other – the more absurd the better!
Don’t want to share your own talents? Watch YouTube videos together of ridiculous talents people have you’ve probably never even considered! Just search unique talents on YouTube and see what kind of things people share – still with popcorn of course!
November 25 – Play Day with Dad (Wednesday)
Send this one to the dads in your life and tell them to plan a day to play with their kids while you take it off (or prep for Thanksgiving)!
Need something to do together? Go see the brand new Disney movie Hexed in theaters!
November 26 – Thanksgiving (Thursday)
You probably don’t need ideas for this one but Thanksgiving is obviously the perfect opportunity to get together with your friends, family, and loved ones! These are some of our favorite Thanksgiving activities to make the most of the time together!
Oh and don’t forget to make this Thanksgiving punch to enjoy with any of these!
- Thanksgiving Jeopardy – or you could try Friendsgiving Jeopardy too
- Would you rather Thanksgiving – a ton of questions to talk about together!
- Thanksgiving Day bingo – bingo cards for a Thanksgiving version of the classic!
- Thanksgiving charades – another Thanksgiving version of a game everyone loves!
- Thanksgiving scavenger hunt – a fun way to make things a bit more fun for the kids!
- Thanksgiving scattergories – one of our favorite board games turned into a Thanksgiving game!
November 27 – Black Friday (Friday)
Shopping trip anyone? Meet up with friends for holiday shopping and sips! Or use today to write letters to Santa and make holiday shopping lists (and buy some of those things while you’re at it).
November 28 – Small business Saturday (Saturday)
This is one of my personal favorites. Meet up with friends somewhere that has a bunch of local shops and enjoy sales on holiday gifts while celebrating small businesses in your local community!
You could even make this a day of favorites too. Hop in a car together and let everyone choose one store to introduce everyone to, sharing all your small business favorites with each other!
November 29 – Secondhand Sunday (Sunday)
Do a secondhand store scavenger hunt with your family. Make a list of things you’re looking for (e.g., a Christmas decoration, a gift for your dog, an ugly sweater) and see what kinds of amazing things you can find in your local secondhand stores!
Or meet up with friends, draw a name, and everyone has to buy another person something to wear to dinner that night. Everyone wear it to dinner – the more ridiculous the better!
November 30 – Stay Home Because You’re Well Day (Monday)
I love this day. Send your kids and partner to school and take the day off just because. Do a puzzle, read a book, take an everything shower, go to lunch with a friend, or do anything you want.
No need to wait to take a day off until you’re actually sick or burnt out and the Monday after Thanksgiving seems like as good of a day to do it! It’s also Cyber Monday so if you really want, you could do your online holiday shopping too!
Which day this month are you the most excited to celebrate??
More Fun Days to Celebrate
Did you miss our other monthly celebrations? You can check out all months of the year that you missed below!
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