Get a Turkey Game

This fun get a turkey game combines the idea of rolling a turkey in bowling with a Yahtzee style dice game that is perfect for the entire family to play together on Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Game for All Ages

One of the things we get asked for the most are games that all ages can play together, especially for Thanksgiving! While people love games like Thanksgiving Jeopardy, they want games that everyone can play together too!

This get a turkey game is perfect for those situations. It’s simple, fun, and engaging enough that kids all the way to grandparents can play! We played it with kids as young as age four all the way up to my grandma!

The game is inspired by the idea of rolling a turkey in bowling where you have to get three strikes in a row. Instead of rolling a bowling ball, in this game you’re rolling dice!

Who Will Love This Game

Similar to our Thanksgiving dice game, if you want a simple, low-prep game that everyone can play together, this is a must-try. It’s a quick one to play before or after dinner and great to get everyone playing something together!

Game Supplies

This game is super easy to setup and play! All you need are:

• Three dice per person playing – I have this pack and use it all the time!
• Bags or boxes – I used brown paper bags to make it easy! Or you can skip the bags and just put the prizes out for people to grab!
• Turkey pictures (optional, but fun!) – you can download some turkey pictures (they’re from my turkey hunt) along with the instructions for this game at the bottom of this post!
• Prizes – part of the fun of this game is grabbing a turkey prize once you win! I’ve included ideas in the prizes section of this post with prize ideas that are Thanksgiving themed!

Note!

If you’re using our turkey cards, you can theme the bags to match the turkey cards if you want. I did, and it was a lot of fun. For instance, the pirate one had a gold colored prize inside, the pizza one had cash (like a tip,) and the food one had some baking supplies!

How to play Get the Turkey

This is a super simple game, especially if you’ve ever played Yahtzee before!

Before you start, put all of the prizes in the middle of the table where everyone can reach them. Then give everyone three dice (ideally of the same color) and explain how to play.

The goal of the game is to get all three of your dice to have the same number within three rolls. When you say go, this is how the game works.

1. Roll 1 – Everyone rolls their three dice at the same time. (It’s a fast moving game.) They choose the dice they want to keep and set it aside.
2. Roll 2 – They roll whatever dice they have left (could be 1 or 2 depending on how many they set aside on the first roll) for a second roll. If they get a number that matches the one they set aside on the first roll, they add it to the set aside dice. If they do not, they pick up all of their dice and start over again with roll 1.
3. Roll 3 – If they get two of the same number on the first two rolls, they roll the dice a third time. If they get the matching number the third time (to have three of a kind in three rolls), they yell “turkey” and grab one of the prizes from the middle. If they don’t get it, they pick up all of their dice (including the ones set aside), and start their set of three rolls again.

What happens next?

Once someone gets a turkey, you have two options depending on how long you want the game to last (kind of like Thanksgiving bingo):

1. Keep playing – don’t stop the game, just keep going until all of the prizes in the center are gone. Then open them all together. This is the fastest way to do this and it will go pretty fast!
2. Reset the game – once someone gets a prize, everyone picks up their dice and watches while the person opens their prize. Then start the game again and play another round until someone else wins, repeating this until all the prizes are gone. This will make the game last longer and is a fun variation because it adds an element of urgency to the game because you not only have to get a prize, you have to beat other people to getting a prize that round!

Important Game Play Notes:

• If during roll 2 or 3, someone doesn’t roll the number they are going for (the one they set aside on the first roll), they have to pick up all three dice and go back to roll 1.
• If someone gets to a turkey (all three dice the same number) during roll 1, 2, or 3 – they still win. They don’t have to use all three rolls.
• You can choose whether or not someone who gets a prize is out of the game or if you want people to be able to win more than once!

How to Win

Everyone who gets a turkey and gets a prize from the center wins this game! You can either provide a prize for everyone who is playing so everyone gets something or just provide a handful of prizes that people are playing for – and everyone else gets a consolation prize (these turkey cookies would be fun).

Prize ideas

The prizes you provide will be totally dependent on your budget and how many prizes you want to do. I’ve included a number of prize ideas below that would work for any age and sort of have a Thanksgiving theme!

• Food gift cards – it is Thanksgiving after all!
• Thanksgiving book – this book is one of our favorites!
• Gobble gobble socks
• Thanksgiving candy dish – fill these with treats and everyone will happy!
• Cash – I told you I did cash for our pizza one and it was perfect!
• Thanksgiving treats – they turkey chocolates are fun or these autumn gummies are good too!
• Turkey plush – this little guy is so cute and makes great decor too!
• Thanksgiving bracelets

More Thanksgiving Family Games

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

If you do not see the form, click here to get to it.

If you do not see the email with the printable design templates immediately after you fill out the form, make sure to check your promotions, spam, and junk folders!

The file will include:

1. Use policy (everything is for personal use only)
2. Printable turkey tags for prizes – two pages, one with all the same turkey and one with the different turkeys