Calendar tool
National Games Week dates on the Thanksgiving calendar, year by year
When is National Games Week? Always the Sunday to Saturday that holds Thanksgiving. In 2026 that means November 22 to 28, with the holiday on Thursday the 26th. The calculator below works out any other year in a second.
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Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November. The week starts four days before it and ends two days after.
National Games Week
Nov 22–28, 2026
Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov 26.
National Games Week dates from 2024 to 2035
| Year | National Games Week | Thanksgiving |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Sun, Nov 24 to Sat, Nov 30 | Thu, Nov 28 |
| 2025 | Sun, Nov 23 to Sat, Nov 29 | Thu, Nov 27 |
| 2026 | Sun, Nov 22 to Sat, Nov 28 | Thu, Nov 26 |
| 2027 | Sun, Nov 21 to Sat, Nov 27 | Thu, Nov 25 |
| 2028 | Sun, Nov 19 to Sat, Nov 25 | Thu, Nov 23 |
| 2029 | Sun, Nov 18 to Sat, Nov 24 | Thu, Nov 22 |
| 2030 | Sun, Nov 24 to Sat, Nov 30 | Thu, Nov 28 |
| 2031 | Sun, Nov 23 to Sat, Nov 29 | Thu, Nov 27 |
| 2032 | Sun, Nov 21 to Sat, Nov 27 | Thu, Nov 25 |
| 2033 | Sun, Nov 20 to Sat, Nov 26 | Thu, Nov 24 |
| 2034 | Sun, Nov 19 to Sat, Nov 25 | Thu, Nov 23 |
| 2035 | Sun, Nov 18 to Sat, Nov 24 | Thu, Nov 22 |
Find Thanksgivingthe 4th Thursday of November
Go back to Sundayfour days earlier
End on Saturdaytwo days after Thanksgiving
The rule behind the National Games Week dates
When is National Games Week in any given year? Start with Thanksgiving. A 1941 federal law fixed the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, and National Games Week is the Sunday-to-Saturday week around that Thursday. Count back four days for the Sunday and forward two for the Saturday.
Because the fourth Thursday can only land between November 22 and November 28, the National Games Week dates have a fixed window. The earliest possible start is Sunday, November 18, as in 2029. The latest possible finish is Saturday, November 30, as in 2030. The week never spills into December and never starts before the middle of the month.
That is the whole calculation. No committee picks the days.
Why Thanksgiving week and not another one on the calendar
When the week was announced in October 2004, its organizers described it as the fourth week of November, Sunday through Saturday, chosen because families and friends gather for the holiday then and could use something to do together. In 2004 that meant November 21 to 27. The 2005 week ran November 20 to 26, and the 2006 week November 19 to 25. Each one held Thanksgiving.
The phrase fourth week of November gets slippery in some years. In 2024, November began on a Friday and Thanksgiving fell on the 28th, so a calendar that counts weeks from the 1st puts the holiday in the fifth week. Anchoring to Thanksgiving removes the doubt, and it keeps the point of the week intact: the days when the most people share a house and a table.
Planning a game night around the National Games Week dates
Once the National Games Week dates are on the fridge, pick the night. Thursday belongs to the turkey, so most hosts choose another one. Friday and Saturday are the easiest, since people are off work, still in town and often hunting for something to do with visiting relatives; that is a ready-made family game night. A school or library game day fits better on Monday or Tuesday, before the holiday break empties the building.
Store events tend to spread across the whole week. In the early years many game stores scheduled something every day, from demonstrations to a weekend tournament, and the pattern still works. For a home game night, send the invitation about two weeks ahead, because Thanksgiving week fills up fast. The game night planner includes a printable invitation for exactly that.
Thanksgiving Day itself still has room for a game. Short card and pencil games between courses are collected in games for the Thanksgiving table.
National Game and Puzzle Week, International Games Month and other days on the calendar
Search a holiday calendar for game days and several names come up. Two of them overlap with this week and two do not, and they are easy to confuse. National Game and Puzzle Week is listed for Thanksgiving week too, though calendar sites disagree on its 2026 dates, so the Thanksgiving rule is the safer guide. International Games Month covers all of November and belongs to libraries. On most calendars National Game and Puzzle Week lands on these same seven days.
The library event has its own story. It began in 2007 as a single library game day organized through the American Library Association, went international in 2012, stretched to a full week in 2017 and grew into a month in 2022. The 2007 library day shared a name with a term the original organizers used, but it was a separate effort from the games week launched in 2004, a tangle sorted out in the history of National Games Week. Libraries planning their own November event will find ideas in library game day planning.
A calendar of National Games Week dates through 2035
The table lists the National Games Week dates from 2024 to 2035. Each year the week slides a day earlier, or two days after a leap year, until it would start before November 18. Then it jumps six days later and the slide begins again: the 2029 week starts on the 18th, the 2030 week on the 24th. The leap-year skip happens because February 29 pushes every later date one weekday further along, so Thanksgiving moves back two dates instead of one.
Not to be confused with
Other game days on the calendar
A calendar listing tied to the same Thanksgiving week. No organizer stands behind it, and listings disagree on the exact 2026 days, so count from the fourth Thursday instead.
Run every November by volunteers in the Games and Gaming Round Table of the American Library Association, with partner libraries abroad. It grew out of a 2007 library game day and became a month in 2022.
An informal spring date that shows up on many online calendars and gets a nod from some game publishers. It has no tie to Thanksgiving and no organizer of its own.
Listed on two different dates depending on the calendar, and about screens rather than tables. It is the one day here that runs against the whole idea of National Games Week.
FAQ
Questions people ask
What are the National Games Week dates for 2026?
Sunday, November 22, through Saturday, November 28, 2026. Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The week always wraps around the holiday, beginning four days before it and ending two days after, so a game night held on any of those seven days is part of the week.
What are the National Games Week dates for 2027 and 2028?
In 2027 the week runs from Sunday, November 21, to Saturday, November 27, with Thanksgiving on the 25th. In 2028 it runs from Sunday, November 19, to Saturday, November 25, with Thanksgiving on the 23rd. The calculator on this page gives the dates for other years.
Is National Games Week always the fourth week of November?
Not if weeks are counted from November 1. When the month starts late in the week, Thanksgiving can land in the fifth calendar week, as it did in 2024. The original organizers called it the fourth week because in 2004, 2005 and 2006 that was Thanksgiving week. The Thanksgiving rule is the reliable one.
When is National Game and Puzzle Week in 2026?
It is listed for Thanksgiving week, which in 2026 is November 22 to 28. Some calendar sites print other ranges for 2026, such as a Monday-to-Sunday week, and there is no organizer to settle it. If the puzzle week matters to you, follow the same Thanksgiving rule used for National Games Week.
Is International Games Month the same thing?
No. International Games Month is a library event that fills the whole of November and is organized through the American Library Association's Games and Gaming Round Table. National Games Week covers only Thanksgiving week. The two overlap, so a library game day late in November can sit inside both.
How do you work out the National Games Week dates for any year?
Find Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday of November. National Games Week starts on the Sunday four days before it and ends on the Saturday two days after it. The calculator on this page does that count for any year, and the calendar below it lists the dates through 2035.
What is the earliest and latest National Games Week can fall?
Thanksgiving can only land between November 22 and November 28, so the week can start no earlier than Sunday, November 18 and end no later than Saturday, November 30. It never reaches into December: whatever the year, the week ends on the last Saturday of November, two days after the holiday.
Is National Games Week a public holiday?
No. It is not a public holiday, and it has no organizer today. It began in 2004 as a week promoted by a games publisher, and it carries on as a tradition kept by players, families, schools and stores. Thanksgiving, in the middle of the week, is the holiday on the calendar.
Updated Dates computed from the Thanksgiving rule