Turkey Hunt Game Ideas

Three fun turkey hunt game ideas for all ages! Three different Thanksgiving games with variations for kids, teens, and adults! And all you need are these turkey hunt printables!

My son is always asking me to do a scavenger hunt. Whether it be a regular clue based Thanksgiving scavenger hunt or something more like this indoor scavenger hunt , scavenger hunts are always a winner.

So I’m always coming up with new scavenger hunt ideas . But unfortunately scavenger hunts aren’t necessarily the most fun for teens and adults. I mean some are but in general, they’re more geared toward kids.

I thought it would be fun this year to try out a twist on a normal scavenger hunt with these fun turkey hunt games.

There are three different games that all use the same exact printables, unless you want to up the ante a bit with an actual turkey (more details on that below). And you can really play any of the three with any age – just change how hard you hide the turkeys!

Supplies

As I mentioned, all three turkey hunt variations use the same supplies, all things you likely have at home.

• Turkey hunt printables (download at the end of this post)
• Scissors to cut out the turkeys
• Tape to tape/hide the turkeys
• Pens/Pencils (optional)
• Prizes (optional)

Turkey Hunt 1: Find All the Turkeys

Okay so the first variation of this game is probably the easiest. The downloadable game file comes with the turkey hunt sheet you see above with nine turkeys AND it comes with a half sheet version of each of those turkeys as well.

indoor scavenger hunt for preschoolers

For this first game, hide the half sheet version of each of those turkeys somewhere inside, outside, or wherever you are hosting your hunt.

Tip!

If you want to make it easier for young kids to find, hide the turkeys based on their “outfits.” Then tell the kids that the turkey outfits are a clue to their location. For instance, the swimming turkey gets hidden by the bathtub. The chef turkey gets hidden in the fridge. And so on.

Once the turkeys are hidden, give anyone playing a printed out turkey hunt sheet. When you say go, they have to go search for the hidden turkeys and mark them off as they find them.

You’ll notice that each turkey has accessories or decorations of some kind, so they should be able to distinguish and mark off the turkeys as they find them.

When they’ve found all the turkeys, they can come back to claim a fun Thanksgiving prize (ideas at the bottom of this post!). Or you can skip the prize and just make it something fun to do!

Difficulty : This is definitely the easiest of the options, although you can make it more difficult simply by hiding the turkeys in more difficult locations – kind of like with any of these Easter egg hunts .

Best For: This works best with a small group of kids, like I would do this with my two boys as just one of their Thanksgiving activities . You could also do it with a big group but I’ve found with big groups, one person tends to find a turkey and people just follow them around.

So if you have a bigger group, I recommend the next option.

Turkey Hunt 2: Find One Turkey

Okay so for this one, you will need prizes. Okay need may be a little strong, but I would recommend prizes.

In this game you’re going to hide the turkey cards just like in the first one, but you can use the small cards and hide them a bit more difficult. I mean use your best judgement on hiding based on who will be finding them but you get it.

You need to hide one turkey per person playing, unless you’re playing with teens/adults and it doesn’t matter if everyone finds a turkey and wins a prize.

If you have more than nine people playing, simply print out another sheet of turkeys and add numbers. Easy peasy. I recommend printing out a second copy of the turkey hunt card OR writing down the numbers (if you’re using numbers) so when people bring them back, you can mark them off.

Hide all of those turkeys and don’t tell people you’re hiding them. There are two ways you can do your turkey hunt. You can either send everyone on a turkey hunt all at once or you can just tell people as they come in the door to be on the lookout for turkeys throughout the day.

Once someone finds one turkey, they bring it back and can turn it in for a prize. They’re then out of the game and if people want help, they can help others but only if they want help. No finding turkeys and pointing them out and ruining the fun for others.

Oh and make sure to read the section below on prizes for some fun tips and tricks for the prizes!

Once everyone has found a turkey, the game is over and you can move onto other Thanksgiving games like Thanksgiving Outburst and Thanksgiving charades !

Difficulty : This can be easy or difficult as you want depending on how hard you hide the cards. If you have a mixed group, you could also split your space into sections so you can hide easier cards in one room for younger kids and hide more difficult cards in another room for teens.

Best For: This works great for any size group. Just use my tip for adding numbers to the cards when you’re playing with larger groups to keep track of the ones you’ve found.

Turkey Hunt 3: Find the Turkey Again and Again

Okay so I absolutely love this turkey hunt idea that one of my email subscribers shared with me. I’m totally doing it this year for Thanksgiving and couldn’t wait to share it with all of you.

In this version of the game, you can either use one of the cards OR you can get an actual turkey object of some kind. I just happened to have this cute little guy, so we used him. You could also use a turkey stuffed animal or just the turkey cards included in this post.

You’ll also need prizes, or at least one prize.

For this game, you start by hiding the turkey somewhere in your space without telling anyone you’re hiding it. I recommend taking a picture of the turkey (not in the hiding place, just out in the open) so that when you’re ready to play, you can show the group what they will be looking for.

This isn’t a quick go out and hunt really fast game, this is an all-day, keep an eye out type of turkey hunt.

You start by hiding the turkey. Explain to everyone (and show them the picture) that you’ve hidden the turkey. If they find it during the course of the day, they bring it back and can choose a prize.

This is my favorite part – after they choose their prize, they then go and hide the turkey instead of you. When someone else finds it at some point, they’ll pick a prize as well then THEY HIDE THE TURKEY.

You can either let people find the turkey multiple times (I’d make them small prizes) or just let them find and hide it once so that everyone gets a turn. That’s up to you and your group since you know them best.

Keep playing until all of the prizes have been claimed or until your event is over.

Tip!

Don’t want to get that many prizes? Get one prize and every time people find the turkey and bring it back, they get one point. Most points at the end of the event wins the prize.

Difficulty : Since the difficulty really depends on how hard people hide it, this one can be super easy (if a toddler hides it) or super challenging (if a teen hides it and wants to be tricky). You can always give guidelines on hiding but part of the fun of this is coming up with a good hiding spot.

Best For: This works great for any size group and is a good one to just play throughout the day rather than an organized hunt.

Turkey Hunt Prizes

Okay so I’ve mentioned that I recommend prizes for at least two of the three variations of these turkey hunt games.

There are a few ways you can handle prizes. You can just have an open basket of prizes, kind of like if you were playing Thanksgiving bingo, that someone can just choose from when they win a prize.

Or you can add an element of mystery (because who doesn’t love a blind bag) and add a copy of the turkey hunt cards to bags, like I did with these brown paper bags. Fill the bags with a variety of different prizes so people get different things but don’t get to choose anything other than the turkey on the front of the bag.

Or you could make each bag tied to a particular turkey if you’re doing the find one turkey hunt. So if they found say the fashionable turkey, they’d get the bag with the matching fashionable turkey on the front.

Make it even more fun by matching the contents of the bag to the turkey on the front! The turkey with all the kitchen tools could have a turkey cookie kit and some chocolate turkey treats. The pirate turkey could have chocolate coins, an eye patch, and other treasure.

There’s a lot you can do with the prizes so have fun with it!

If you want to go with a variety of Thanksgiving themed prizes, here are some ideas to get you started, including ideas for all ages and genders! These would work great for the winners of Thanksgiving Family Feud too!

• Plaid fall scarf
• Thanksgiving cookies
• Candied bacon
• Thanksgiving gift basket
• Thanksgiving activity book

More Thanksgiving Family Games

Here are some other fun activities to do in addition to this turkey hunt!

• Thanksgiving dice game
• Thanksgiving danger words
• Thanksgiving matching game
• Thanksgiving trivia
• Roll a turkey

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Download the Turkey Hunt

Enter your first name and email address in the form below to get the printable PDF. You will receive a link to download the PDF to your email within minutes.

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The file will include:

• Instructions
• One page turkey hunt with nine square turkeys
• One page turkey hunt with nine circle turkeys (same turkeys, just in circles in case you want to use a circle punch )
• Half sheet turkeys of all nine turkeys in squares only