Celebrate Thanksgiving with New Horizons’ Turkey Day Event!

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As Fall begins to wind to a close, the time of the harvest is ripe at last! That’s right, Thanksgiving is here, as is its Animal Crossing event, Turkey Day!

Like Thanksgiving itself in the United States, the Turkey Day event begins on the 4th Thursday of November, and runs from 9AM to 12AM of the following day. Players will be tasked with gathering ingredients for the harvest feast, while the special event visitor, Franklin, prepares the dishes.

Everything simmering with this pre-heat of an intro? Great! Let’s get to the meat of the event, by speaking with Franklin at the island plaza!

Franklin’s Foody Fix

Franklin introduces himself to the player.
© 2020 Nintendo

As you approach your plaza, you’ll be treated to a fine sight: a gathering of your Island residents, two Thanksgiving themed tables, four dishes hidden under cloches, and a small cooking station, manned by the Turkey of the hour, Franklin.

While everything seems great from a glance, Franklin finds himself in a dilemma.

Despite having everything he needs to prepare a four course meal, Franklin prefers using locally sourced ingredients for the special harvest feast. And that’s where you come in.

Your goal for the event is to deliver the ingredients Franklin asks for, and act as a chef’s assistant to create the holiday meal!

The Four Course Feast

Island residents excitedly clap over the prepared Thanksgiving feast.
© 2020 Nintendo

As an overview, the entirety of the event revolves around gathering ingredients for Franklin to make his food, so players who have been holding onto a surplus of items and critters may find themselves at a tremendous advantage.

Players will need to do a combination of harvesting, fishing, diving, and digging, so a shovel, fishing rod, and wet suit will all be required to fully complete the event.

Dish 1

To start, Franklin’s first dish will be a Clam Chowder, and requires 3 Manila Clams to make. Once you’ve gotten the clams, return to Franklin, and he’ll whip up a chowder lickety-split.

If don’t know how to find manila clams, you’ll need to use a shovel, and head to your Island’s beaches, where you’ll wait to see small, dark spots in the sand ejecting water. Dig on these spots, and you’ll find your Manila Clams!

Dish 2

Next up, Franklin will need help in making a Pumpkin Pie, which honestly can be a relatively large stumbling block for your progress.

The recipe for a pumpkin pie calls for one Orange Pumpkin, and one of either a Yellow Pumpkin, White Pumpkin, or Green Pumpkin, which will be decided by the game at random.

This means that if you haven’t bought any pumpkin starts to grow pumpkins back in October (something we neglected to do ourselves…), you’ll need to ask a friend for help, or, help your at-home residents by trading them an ingredient for one you need. (Which we’ll cover in a later section).

Dish 3

The third dish will be a Gratin, and the ingredients here can vary quite a bit. It’s all luck of the draw!

Franklin will need a Mussel, guaranteed, as well as one of the following, according to the Animal Crossing Fandom Wiki

  • A Flat Mushroom, (Northern Hemisphere)
  • A Round Mushroom (Northern Hemisphere)
  • A Skinny Mushroom (Northen Hemisphere)
  • An Oyster (Northern Hemisphere)
  • A Squid (Southern Hemisphere), or
  • A Sea Urchin (Southern Hemisphere)

Mushrooms can be found around the island if the island is made in the Northern Hemisphere, and a Squid can be fished up from the Ocean. Mussels, Oysters, and Sea Urchins will require you to put on a Wet Suit and go diving around your Island’s oceans.

If you need a Wet Suit, be sure to buy one from the cabinet of the general store!

Dish 4

Lastly, for Franklin’s final dish, he’ll be making a fish meunière. (Yes, there will be no Turkey dishes on Turkey Day!)

The main course calls for that one ocean fish everybody loves to hate, the Sea Bass (who would’ve expected that?) as well as one of the following:

  • A Dab (Northern Hemisphere),
  • An Olive Flounder (Both Hemispheres), or,
  • A Red Snapper (Both Hemispheres)

Fortunately, all of the ingredients needed for this dish can be found from fishing in the Ocean. 

Once you’ve fished up the ingredients needed, return to Franklin to finish the dish, where you’ll be prompted to start looking into Unconvential Ingredients to further enhance the Thanksgiving spread.

For now, let’s stir back to what happens when you need an ingredient, but you don’t have access to it on your Island.

The Thanksgiving Ingredient Trade

Franklin advising the player to ask their neighbors if they can't find the needed ingredients for a dish.
© 2020 Nintendo

Not so hypothetically speaking, let’s say you’re currently stuck on making one of Franklin’s dishes, *cough cough* Pumpkin Pie and you can’t find the ingredient(s) needed on your island.

Maybe these ingredients are outside a seasonal availability window, or you’re finding it unusually difficult to find a certain critter…

What do you do? How do you find these scarce ingredients? And will we stop asking these non-rhetorical questions?! (Yes, yes we will.)

Puck, an island resident, thinking about how they can find an ingredient for their own dish.
© 2020 Nintendo

When push comes to shove, ask one of your at-home island residents for help! Not everyone on your Island is at the plaza; some are in their homes, cooking up their own Thanksgiving dishes. Pay those residents a house-visit, and see how you can help!

In our case, we humbly consulted one of our resident foodies, Puck, on how to proceed.

The gist of what’ll happen is that one of your residents will ask for a specific critter, and in return, they’ll give you a (random) ingredient to use in the main Turkey Day dishes.

Puck offers to trade one of his ingredients in exchange for a different ingredient.
© 2020 Nintendo

While we haven’t been able to create an exhaustive list of what they’ll ask for, we’ve seen them request the following:

  • Sea Bass
  • Black Bass
  • Horse Mackeral
  • Dab
  • Carp
  • Oyster
  • Seaweed

In addition to giving you a random ingredient, they’ll also give you some hints as to what unconventional ingredients can really make a dish pop.

Speaking of unconventional ingredients…

Unconventional Ingredients

Franklin hinting to the player that their existing dishes can be inmproved with certain ingredients.
© 2020 Nintendo

Did you know that you can enhance all of Franklin’s existing food courses with certain secret ingredients? If, not, you can! And there’s some extra event items in it for you, too!

All you need to do is carry the unconventional ingredients in your pockets, and Franklin should prompt you to give them to him to improve his four-course meal further! 

The best part? You don’t need to resupply the original ingredients to upgrade the dishes in question; just bringing the new ingredient is all it takes! Likewise, you don’t have to wait to complete the full course to upgrade the dishes. As long as the dish has been made already, it can be enhanced immediately.

As for learning what these mystery ingredients are, while you can get hints from your residents after trading ingredients with them, we’ve compiled a short list of each set of ingredients you need below:

  • A Scallop – (Upgrades Clam Chowder)
  • The other unused colors of pumpkins -(Upgrades Pumpkin Pie)
  • A Dungeness Crab – (Upgrades Gratin)
  • A Barred Knifejaw – (Upgrades Fish Meunière)

Of these ingredients, the Dungeness Crab and Scallop can be obtained from diving in the ocean, while the Barred Knifejaw can be found from fishing in the ocean. 

Regarding the pumpkins, you can either ask a friend to visit and drop them off, or, like the other ingredients, you can recieve them by trading for them with your neighbors.

And if you need a complete look at everything you need to make these Turkey Day dishes, we’ve compiled it all into this easy-to-digest table below.

Turkey Day Food Recipes
Dish Type Normal Ingredients Unconventional Ingredients
Clam Chowder 3 Manila Clams 1 Scallop
Pumpkin Pie 1 Orange Pumpkin, and one of the following: 1 Green Pumpkin, 1 Yellow Pumpkin, or 1 White Pumpkin. The other two unused “shades” of pumpkins.
Gratin 1 Mussel, and one of the follwing:

  • 1 Flat Mushroom, (Northern Hemisphere)
  • 1 Round Mushroom (Northern Hemisphere)
  • 1 Skinny Mushroom (Northen Hemisphere)
  • 1 Oyster (Northern Hemisphere)
  • 1 Squid (Southern Hemisphere), or
  • 1 Sea Urchin (Southern Hemisphere)
1 Dungeness Crab
Fish Meunière 1 Sea Bass, and one of the following:

  • 1 Dab (Northern Hemisphere),
  • 1 Olive Flounder (Both Hemispheres), or,
  • 1 Red Snapper (Both Hemispheres)
1 Barred Knifejaw

Turkey Day Event Items

Like all other real-time events, Turkey Day likewise has an assortment of exclusive items to earn. In total, there are 15 new items to collect, 4 of which must be earned directly from participating in the Turkey Day event, while the rest can be bought after Turkey Day has passed (more on that in the “After Turkey Day” section).

Turkey Day Event Items
Event Item Method of Receiving Other Notes
Turkey Day Rug Recieved from Franklin after helping him make Clam Chowder. This item is exclusively given by Franklin during the Turkey Day event. It is not part of the Cozy Turkey Day DIY Collection.
Turkey Day Wall Recieved from Franklin after helping him make Pumpkin Pie. This item is exclusively given by Franklin during the Turkey Day event. It is not part of the Cozy Turkey Day DIY Collection.
Turkey Day Flooring Recieved from Franklin after helping him make a Gratin. This item is exclusively given by Franklin during the Turkey Day event. It is not part of the Cozy Turkey Day DIY Collection.
Cornucopia Recieved from Franklin after helping him make a Fish Meunière. This item is exclusively given by Franklin during the Turkey Day event. It is not part of the Cozy Turkey Day DIY Collection.
Turkey Day Wheat Decor Recieved from Franklin after enhancing any dish for the first time; crafted from the Cozy Turkey Day DIY collection.
Turkey Day Garden Stand Recieved from Franklin after enhancing a second dish; crafted from the Cozy Turkey Day DIY collection.
Turkey Day Hearth Recieved from Franklin after enhancing a third dish; crafted from the Cozy Turkey Day DIY collection.
Cozy Turkey Day DIY Collection Recieved from Franklin after enhancing all dishes with unconventional ingredients; purchasable from the general store’s cabinet for 19,800 Bells after Turkey Day, for the rest of November. Contains the following DIY recipes: Turkey Day Decorations, Turkey Day Wheat Decor, Turkey Day table setting, Turkey Day casserole, Turkey Day hearth, Turkey Day garden stand, Turkey Day Table, Turkey Day chair.. Does not include recipes for the Turkey Day Rug, Wall, Flooring, or Cornucopia items.

After Turkey Day

So, you’ve helped make Turkey Day a resounding success, and you chewed through all the event had to offer on Thanksgiving Day. What’s next?

Well, aside from satisfaction for a job well done, nothing much! But we’d be remiss not to mention that the general store will begin selling Turkey Day furniture for the rest of the month.

The general store selling a Turkey Day Garden Stand, an event DIY item.
© 2020 Nintendo

In other words, you’ll still be able to obtain most of the event items after Turkey Day ends!

If your general store has been upgraded, you’ll notice that the bottom-left corner of the shop will now offer a random Turkey Day furniture item for sale.

However, whether your store has been upgraded or not, you should also see a DIY bundle titled “Cozy Turkey Day DIY” for sale through the cabinet for 19,800 Bells.

The general store selling the Cozy Turkey Day DIY recipe bundle.
© 2020 Nintendo

Whether you’re the type of player who tries to do and have it all, or the type who just wants to earn unique event items where you can, definitely be sure to give your general store a look before November ends!

Conclusion & Discussion

That’s all there is to November’s Turkey Day event! Did our guide help you? Were you able to enjoy the event? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Stay safe, and have a happy Thanksgiving!

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