Animal Crossing Thanksgiving 2021— recipes, rewards and more

If you’re well-versed with Animal Crossing: New Horizons — one of the best Nintendo Switch games, you will be aware of the celebratory days and events which pop-up throughout the year. On each of these days, you can experience a unique gameplay, with dedicated music and opportunities which you won’t find on any other day — Thanksgiving 2021 is no exception. 

Animal Crossing is celebrating this Thanksgiving with its branded ‘Turkey Day’ on November 25th. On this day, you can earn specialist items and furniture by gathering the ingredients needed to craft Thanksgiving recipes. Want to know more? Here’s what you need to do, where to find the ingredients and the rewards that are up for grabs.

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When is ‘Turkey Day’ on Animal Crossing?  

First things first, Turkey Day will be celebrated on November 25th. There's no exact confirmation on the times yet, but if you want a giveaway that the event has started, specialist music will be playing on your island. 

Where do I go to find Franklin?  

Another sign that the event has started: a turkey called Franklin should appear with a cooking table outside of the Resident Services. Plenty of residents will be celebrating in this area too; eating and drinking everything he has to serve. 

Turkey Day Ingredients 

If you speak to Franklin, he will ask you to help him gather some ingredients for the Harvest Festival feast. With these, he can cook up some traditional Thanksgiving recipes, and you will be handsomely rewarded with specialist Turkey Day decor and furniture. You can earn up to 12 different Turkey Day furniture items or their recipes. 

Of course, it’s never as straightforward as it could be. You will need to scavenge far and wide to find the ingredients by fishing, diving and foraging. Plus, Franklin will ask for three to four main ingredients per recipe — one of which will be a secret ingredient. 

How can an ingredient be secret? Put simply, the majority will be quite obvious, while the secret ingredient will be alluded to. 

Nintendo may throw some new ingredients into the mix this year, but here are the ingredients Franklin requested last Thanksgiving and how to get them:

If you’re unable to get hold of any of the above, remember you can trade fish with villagers in their homes. The villagers can also help with deciphering the secret ingredients.  

What are the secret ingredients on Turkey Day? 

Once you’ve got the ingredients for each recipe (there’s usually four in total to work your way through), bring them to Franklin and he will reward you. You can get even more rewards if you successfully guess the secret ingredient and bring that to enhance the dish. 

Here are the full ingredients for each recipe which has been requested in the past, although Nintendo may introduce some new ones this year:

Turkey Day rewards 

Do this and there’s all kinds of rewards up for grabs, from rugs and chairs to a casserole pot and even a Hearth. You’re rewarded with four items of furniture for producing the initial recipes and these are non-craftable. Then there’s eight additional items you can get if you guess the special ingredients.

All of our personal favorites, such as the casserole pot, hearth and wheat decor, can be gained at random by guessing and supplying the secret ingredient, so it’s worth taking your time to do this.  

However, if you miss out on these ‘special ingredient’ items, Nook’s Cranny will sell the Cozy Turkey Day DIY collection the next day, so don’t worry if you run out of time! If you manage to complete the event, and find all of the ingredients, Franklin will also give you the Cozy Turkey Day DIY recipe pack, so you can craft any remaining bonus furniture.   

Here are the possible rewards and which recipes you need to complete to get them. Again, Nintendo may introduce some new Turkey Day decor this year, so this list is subject to change: