'Grandma accidentally poured dish soap on the turkey instead of oil': 25+ Thanksgiving celebrations gone totally wrong that the family will laugh about for years to come

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 25, 2023 11:00 AM EST

Nothing creates treasured memories faster than someone ruining a Thanksgiving turkey in front of the whole family. 

Hosting Thanksgiving is a big job. Even if you assign some relatives a food to bring, you suddenly realize, "Uh oh… I'm the one who has to make the turkey." When you're cooking a giant turkey like that, there are specific rules you need to follow. It needs to defrost, be stuffed and basted, then put in the oven for a certain amount of hours, depending on the weight.

I can't speak for everyone, but I never cook entire turkeys throughout the year; only smaller items like wings. And I think the average person is a little overwhelmed by the task---after all, to feed a whole family, you need like a hefty 16-20 pound bird, which doesn't even fit in everyone's oven. So some people try to take shortcuts, using the cooking techniques they know best. Microwave? Sure, why not!

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement

  • Others go the exact opposite direction, and think to themselves, “Sure, I've seen videos that firefighters post on social media every year, showing how deep frying a turkey can turn a yard into a fireball in seconds… but that won't happen to me.” Sure, Jan. Sure. 

    Every family manages to ruin Thanksgiving in their own special way. The folks below were kind enough to share their own stories of the time their relatives botched dinner, dropped it, or just straight-up forgot to put the oven on. Check out all these stories, then have some seconds with these turkey day dishes that no one would touch with a ten foot pole. 

  • 01
    'I thought it would be a funny prank to put a rubber chicken in the oven on Thanksgiving... 13-year-old me didn't realize adults usually preheat the oven.'
    via Pro Church Media on Unsplash
  • 02
    What was that incident during Thanksgiving?
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    Gjlynch22 My grandma accidentally poured dish soap on the turkey instead of oil... might have been one of the funniest but most upsetting things I've ever seen.
    via u/Gjlynch22
  • 04
    LondonIsBoss So my uncle didn't want to cook the turkey in the oven, so he just shoved it in the microwave for 2 hours. We called him asking how it came out later, and they were shooting hoops with it outside.
    via u/LondonIsBoss
  • 05
    Atlantis Luna Aunt opened the pressure cooker without releasing the pressure first. Went about as well as you can imagine.
    via u/Atlantis Luna
  • 06
    shhh_its_sneakos. I thought it would be a funny prank to put a rubber chicken in the oven on Thanksgiving. My mom would laugh and laugh. Ho ho ho, there's a rubber chicken in the oven, what a gag.
    via u/shhh_its_sneakos
  • 07
    13 year old me didn't realize that normal adults usually preheat the oven before putting the turkey in.
    via u/shhh_its_sneakos
  • 08
    CecilWeasle My cousin tried showing us "the boot trick". It was a way to get the cork out of a bottle of wine without a cork scr w. You put the bottom of the bottle in your shoe and hit it against the wall and it's suppose to get the cork out. He gathers us all outside to show us how it works. We're all
    via u/CecilWeasle
  • 09
    standing in my aunt's driveway to see the trick. Upon hitting the wall the entire bottle shatters and his shoe is soaked in red wine. I guess that's pretty mild. My family gets along pretty well.
    via u/CecilWeasle
  • 10
    Sp4cehorse My grandparents had a new oven, and my grandmother had never made a turkey in it before. The turkey drippings somehow caught fire and the kitchen filled up with smoke. We called 911 but by the time the fire department arrived, my dad and grandfather had put out the fire.
    via u/Sp4cehorse
  • 11
    So, when the firemen arrived, there was no more fire. They were really nice and understanding. My grandmother was mortified. My drunk aunt tried hitting on all of the firemen even though she had a good 25-30 years on them. My cousin and I just stood in the front yard drinking beers in silence, watching it all play out.
    via u/Sp4cehorse
  • 12
    Fortunately, the turkey was fine and dinner proceeded normally once everything settled down.
    via u/Sp4cehorse
  • 13
    Buttxtouch My aunt not being able to come because she was in jail for trying to shoplift a turkey from the grocery
    via u/B***xtouch
  • 14
    Annieruinsevrythng. At my friend's conservative catholic family's house for thanksgiving, and his older brother told everyone that my pal had gotten a tattoo. His parents were I and forced him to show them the tattoo. When they saw that it was a dollar sign on his left cheek, there were tears
    via u/Annieruinsevrythng
  • 15
    MeridianOne I heard some screaming from outside my apartment. I opened the door and saw this lady running to the dumpster with a turkey still in the pan on fire. She threw it into the dumpster which then caught fire. I called 911 so the fire department could put it out.
    via u/MeridianOne
  • 16
    KevinNoy This Thanksgiving would be special, we invited somewhere around 25 people (normally it would've been 12) and everyone arrived. Naturally, my mother bought a seriously large turkey, and had it slow cooking all day. It was going to be the highlight of the day and everyone was looking forward to it.
    via u/KevinNoy
  • 17
    Fast forward, the turkey is out of the oven and is being carved. It looks and smells delicious, the table is set. Everyone's sitting down at the table, passing around mashed potatoes and talking about whatever. My mom is bringing the turkey from the kitchen into the dining room.
    via u/KevinNoy
  • 18
    She drops the turkey platter. It shatters, turkey and porcelain shards litter the floor. Thankfully, most of the turkey was salvaged due to the 5 second rule. Some of us had shards of turkey platter on our plates but it wasnt a big deal.
    via u/KevinNoy
  • 19
    The turkey WAS as good as it promised to be, and it is sometimes mentioned as the legendary floor bird.
    via u/KevinNoy
  • 20
    HarryAndLana My uncle broke one of my grandmother's antique chairs during an aggressive game of spoons. It was too funny for anyone to be mad.
    via u/HarryAndLana
  • 21
    LibrarianSerrah Mom bought a new stove and had me, my brother, his very pregnant girlfriend, and a few others over for Thanksgiving. About a half hour to an hour before the turkey was supposed to be done, Mom checked on it. It was still raw. She had hit the wrong button when programming the new
    via u/LibrarianSerrah
  • 22
    stove and accidentally shut it off. Luckily we learned you can in fact microwave a turkey because, judging from the look my brother's pregnant GF gave, she was ready to eat my mom. (Not surprising the turkey was a bit dry but otherwise not bad.)
    via u/LibrarianSerrah
  • 23
    [deleted] Spent all day cleaning the house for the guests. Made sure the windows were incredibly clean and clear. Little brother and cousin were chasing eachother outside. Brother comes running through the door which was clearly open because you couldn't see the gla- uh oh.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 24
    He slammed through the plate glass window and got a massive gash on his face and leg. 80 stitches, plastic surgery, and a multiple day hospital stay. Don't clean your windows too well.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 25
    life_inabox My cousin stole a four wheeler from a police dispatcher and left it in our yard. Told us he and a buddy would come back later to get it cos it was out of gas. Mom sent me to Kroger that morning hoping they had pie shells and called me when I was driving back warning me not to speed cos police
    via u/life_inabox
  • 26
    were all over our road. (We lived on farm a mile long country road. We were the only house on it.) The police took our statements, retrieved the ATV, and we didn't have chocolate pie because of freaking course Kroger is gonna be out of frozen pie shells at 8AM on Thanksgiving morning, what were you thinking mama.
    via u/life_inabox
  • 27
    physicslover69 Someone will say "pass the dinner rolls" in front of my dad and he will pick it up and throw it at them. Every. Single. Year. You have to specifically say "please hand me the dinner rolls" or you get a bun thrown at your head.
    via u/physicslover69
  • 28
    LOTR4eva1 I was probably six or seven at the time. My mom's candles caught the kitchen curtains and some decorative greenery on fire. My sister and my cousins and I were at the "kid's table" in the kitchen while the adults were in the dining room, so no one of significance noticed anything except me. My mom
    via u/LOTR4eva1
  • 29
    threatened us with pain of death if we annoyed the adults during dinner, so I quietly walked to the dining room and stood silently for a minute or two, until someone noticed me, and only then did I politely say, "Sorry, but the kitchen's on fire." My mom still gives me grief about my prioritizing politeness over sense....
    via u/LOTR4eva1
  • 30
    SexySolemates My oldest sister called another sister "a fat || over some stupid fight they've been having for years, who then in turn picked up the bowl of green bean casserole and threw it at her. She missed (it wasn't that far, but I guess she was really angry and that messed up her aim), and it ended up hitting
    via u/S**ySolemates
  • 31
    my mother's favorite painting. It wasn't salvageable. We all stopped having Thanksgiving with the entire family after that.
    via u/S**ySolemates
  • 32
    LOU MortallyCrafty I'm leaving for basic training the day before Thanksgiving this year. So, my family celebrated on Sunday. My mom and step-dad were supposed to stop by (they live an hour South, and have a cabin an hour north) on their way home. Well, 6pm rolls around and they still haven't shown.
    via u/MortallyCrafty
  • 33
    Turns out, my SD decided that he didn't want to go to my uncles and instead wanted to meet us at my grandparents. Which he never told us. So he just drove right on home, denying my mother her last chance to see me before I'm gone until February. I'm honestly still pretty angry.
    via u/MortallyCrafty
  • 34
    ostentia My family had a Thai exchange student during Thanksgiving one year. Thanksgiving is huge in our family- -35+ people at dinner, tons of food, appetizers out the wazoo, etc--and this was going to be her first and only Thanksgiving, so we really played up how exciting it was. We told
    via u/ostentia
  • 35
    her that there was going to be a ton of food, so don't eat a big breakfast! Save room for the amazing Thanksgiving food! She ended up not eating anything at all on Wednesday or Thursday morning and fainted in my uncle's living room on Thanksgiving day. She hadn't even eaten any appetizers--turned out
    via u/ostentia
  • 36
    that she didn't know what that word meant, and didn't know she was allowed to eat the food that was spread out all over the coffee table and bar. We almost had to take her to the emergency room because her English wasn't quite good enough to explain why she fainted
    via u/ostentia
  • 37
    and we thought something was seriously wrong. After all that, she ended up not even liking the food.
    via u/ostentia
  • 38
    + [deleted] Three words: Deep- frying turkey. It's a good thing we decided to do it in the driveway, instead of in the garage.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 39
    Guiltnazan Not really a negative incident but we left my one aunt in charge of cooking the turkey. Fast forward a couple of hours and we're all playing cards when someone mentions "wait, why don't we smell the turkey?" Yep,
    via u/Guiltnazan
  • 40
    she completely forgot to turn on the oven and let it sit there for about five hours with no heat. We had pizza that year.
    via u/Guiltnazan
  • 41
    HotRod_Al One Thanksgiving my older brother took over cooking duties. He had just graduated from culinary school and was an amazing chef.
    via u/HotRod_Al
  • 42
    My aunt and cousins came over to find a juicy Turkey and amazing sides. She likes her turkey burned apparently and made her family not eat the dinner. They all watched us eat. My mom was so they never got invited back to our house for any event for years.
    via u/HotRod_Al
  • 43
    [deleted] The glass pan that Mom was using to cook the turkey exploded. Dad had to spend a while cleaning glass shards out of the oven. When he gathered them all, he put them into a plastic trash bag and it melted. He got so angry that he kicked the trash can, which destroyed it.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 44
    OpheliaPaine We had all of the food out in the kitchen at my aunt's house. We all were in the living room and heard a commotion. Merle, my cousin's boyfriend's huge yellow lab, had helped himself to the turkey. He had pulled it
    via u/OpheliaPaine
  • 45
    from the table onto the floor. It has been almost 14 years: I still give Merle the side-eye when we eat around him!
    via u/OpheliaPaine
  • 46
    cautiondrypaint Family member FLIPS OUT in front of their mothers side of the family because their sibling served salsa to their cousin in "a bowl that is too small, what if he wants more?!". They promptly left in a huff and everything was grand for the rest of the day.
    via u/cautiondrypaint

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

ask reddit family drama meals funny stories thanksgiving funny story meal askreddit Turkey dinner family grandparents eating funny cousins happy thanksgiving
Scroll Down For The Next Article