Don’t Eat Pete has always been one of my favorite games from childhood because not only was it lots of fun, but it also included getting to eat a fair amount of candy. What kid doesn’t love that? Here is a free printable Thanksgiving version of the traditional gameboard, as well as some instructions on how to play it. It’s a great way to keep kids busy, and not underfoot,while preparing a feast.
What is Don’t Eat Pete?
Don’t Eat Pete has got to be one of the most fun free printable kids games out there…and I’m surprised whenever I talk about the Game, since it was a childhood favorite for me.
There are a lot of people that don’t actually know it exists or how to play it, but I found out that it’s because apparently other people in other areas call the game different things…
So, whether you know this game as “eat Pete”, “eat it game”, “don’t eat the pictures”, “eat this game”, “don’t eat it”, “pick don’t eat”, “pick up Pete”.
Or some people go so far as calling it “don’t eat Frank”… it’s pretty much all the same game, and should have similar rules.
I decided to have my awesome cousin design us a Thanksgiving version of the classic “Don’t Eat Pete game so that we can keep our kids, or grandkids, or any kids for that matter busy while we are in the kitchen slaving away over our Thanksgiving feasts (or during the clean-up afterwards).
How to play Don’t Eat Pete Game
Since not everyone knows how to play it, I thought that I would also include some instructions, or the rules, to go along with the free printable.
“Don’t Eat Pete” is a family friendly game most suitable for approximately ages 3-10, but older kids may enjoy it too.
These rules should work with any version of the gameboard that you find.
1. Place one piece of candy (or non-sticky snack item) on each square of the game board.
2. Send one player to another room, this person is “it”(they need to be out of sight and earshot). The rest of the players, pick one of the pictures on the game board to be “Pete”.
3. Have the player that is “it”, come back (make sure to tell very small players that they need to not tell the person that is “it” which picture is “Pete”).
4. The person that is “it” picks up one piece of candy, from the game board, at a time. If the candy is not on “Pete”, the person that is “it” can eat it. Repeat picking up, and eating, each piece of candy until the person that is “it” tries to eat the candy that is on top of “Pete”. When the person that is “it” tries to eat “Pete”, all players yell out “Don’t Eat Pete”. Once “Pete” has been found, the person that is “it” is done with their turn.
5. Refill the game board with candy on each square.
6. Send another player out to be “it”.
7. Repeat the process above until everyone has had a turn, or until everyone is tired of playing.
There is also a YouTube Video that shows you how to play, found here. 
Keep in mind that it’s actually much more fun to play this game with three or more players.
Here’s what my free printable game-board looks like. Keep in mind that I use an image optimizer on my website (it compresses the data so the page will load faster), so make sure not to just save this image that will look grainy, there’s a PDF embedded just below it that will take you to a more crisp/clear image.
*Please keep in mind that all of my free printables are for personal use only. Not to be sold or distributed without written permission and/or an associated cost from me. *
Don’t Eat Pete Thanksgiving Gameboard Printable PDF
Also, remember if you like this one, you’ll probably also like my Free Printable Winter Gnomes Version of the game as well, and that can be found here.
I recommend printing this out on some good quality cardstock and laminating it so that it will last you for endless years of Thanksgiving fun.
That’s really all that I had to share with you all today, so I hope you liked it.
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Check out my related articles
Here are several of my other posts that you’re also going to like:
Fall Coloring Pages
Halloween
Thanksgiving
*Please note that this post was originally shared to this blog on November 16, 2019, and has since been updated to improve user experience as well as share-ablity across the social medias.