10 ideas for spicing up turkey day

Ah, Thanksgiving. Food, family, football. In some ways, it is what it is, but if you're looking to liven up your holiday table, shake off turkey coma or wrench people away from the TV — if just for a while — there's lots to do. Here are a few ideas:

At the table

• Thankful centerpieces. Forget the cornucopia, floral or turkey table decorations. Use vases holding bare branches or wire stems instead. Place blank stick-on labels around the table with colorful fine-point markers. Ask each guest to write down what they're thankful for (one thought per label) and decorate with markers. Attach the notes to the branches or wire stems. Guests may explain their notes while dining.

• Bring a plate, tell a story. Who doesn't have part of a place setting or serving piece with a story? Invite guests to bring their favorite (but hopefully not fragile) old gravy boat from Grandma, condiment spoon from Niagara Falls or long-packed kid plate stained with memories. Take turns sharing. Put the pieces to use at dinner.

• Make a record of the feast. If Thanksgiving is potluck, ask guests to print out and bring along multiple copies of their recipes. Snap photos of each person with their dish. Print and paste into small, blank scrapbooks guests can take home.

• Avoid an election hangover. If you're looking to head off political table talk, try a conversation-starter game. TAOC, The Art of Conversation (www.taoc.com.au), has separate grown-up and kid questions. Another game, Table Topics (www.tabletopics.com), comes in a space-saving cube with family-oriented cards. Or write down your own conversation starters and throw them into a basket to pass around the table.

It's halftime, people!

• Use television for good, not evil. Ruling out TV altogether might be a Thanksgiving fantasy, but that doesn't mean the couch crowd can't get up and move around a little at halftime. You bought the Wii Fit. It's time to use it, share it, laugh while Uncle Harry tries it. Wouldn't you love to see Dad take a turn at karaoke, either Wii or otherwise? Snap some pictures.

• Give the gift of listening. The oral history project StoryCorps encourages people to record an interview with somebody they care about: an elderly relative, a guest with a cool job, a military veteran. Pack tapes or discs for guests in festive wrap or jewel boxes to mark the first National Day of Listening on Nov. 28 sponsored by StoryCorps, National Public Radio and the Library of Congress. Go to www.storycorps.netand search for "great questions" for a some ideas to get your interviews started.

• Pass the parcel. It's a British kid party favorite but there's no reason all ages can't enjoy it. Place a prize in a box and wrap. Add layers of all kinds of festive paper, sandwiching in smaller gifts each time. Form a circle and pass the parcel to music. When the music stops, the person with the parcel tears open a layer and claims the prize. Play continues until the final gift is revealed. Wrap more than one parcel and break into two or three circles for larger groups.

After dinner

• Remember when people used to read? Assign five kids to read a book aloud. The wackier the better. The readers get to pick grown-ups to act out the stories. Put out a box of funny hats or other props you might have around the house.

• A day at the races. The need to be outside after a Thanksgiving feast is great. Toss a football if you must, but consider some relay races instead.

Find a few pairs of garish men's boxers big enough to pull up over clothes. Split into teams and line up. At ready, set, go, the first in each line pulls on the boxers, runs a sprint and returns to pass off the shorts to the next person.

Another team relay idea: Each person takes off one of their shoes and throws it into a pile. Teams line up a sprint away from the shoe mountain. The relay begins with the first in line dashing for his shoe, putting it on properly and dashing back. That's one big pile of shoes for all teams — not one pile per team.

• Help others. The list of group good-deed projects is endless: help out at a soup kitchen, join a food drive, ask guests to bring donations and make food baskets to drop off at a food bank.