Sandwiched between the kitschy horrors of Halloween and the commercialized merriment of Christmas, Thanksgiving is often unfairly overlooked as a cinematic main course. But while there might not be a feast’s worth of Thanksgiving movies, there is undoubtedly an appetite for Thanksgiving fare in film. Look no further than the inclusion of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Miracle on 34th Street or Wednesday Adams’s sinister (if historically-accurate) re-enactment in Addams Family Values for proof that audiences love turkey’s least favorite holiday. Of course, Thanksgiving tends to get a better treatment on TV, inspiring canonical episodes of Gossip Girl, Friends, Master of None, and, of course, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
Nevertheless, we’ve collected 21 Thanksgiving movies (and Thanksgiving-adjacent movies) that capture the spirit of the holiday—turkey-trotting, tossing the pigskin, carb-loading, fighting with your family, and then overheating in a gorgeous cashmere sweater. Here’s to finding post-meal common ground with one of the titles on this list.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Steve Martin and John Candy in ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles.’Paramount Pictures
This isn’t known as the quintessential Thanksgiving movie for nothing. You know the story: Steve Martin’s uptight marketing executive, Neal, just wants to travel from New York to Chicago for turkey with his family. His plans for an uneventful trip are foiled again and again by John Candy’s boisterous shower-ring salesman, Del, who’s eager to make friends with Neal during their wayward journey. We will never look at pillows—or rental car agents—the same way again.
Almost Christmas
From Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection.
Don’t let the word Christmas in the title scare you away. This 2016 ensemble comedy starring Danny Glover, Kimberly Elise, Mo’Nique, and Gabrielle Union has undeniable Thanksgiving vibes. Produced by Will Packer and originally sold to Universal Pictures under the title A Meyers Thanksgiving, Almost Christmas follows the dysfunctional Meyers family as the family patriarch, Walter Meyers (Glover), tries to get through his first holiday season after the death of his wife. While it isn’t exactly about Thanksgiving per se, most of the best moments in Almost Christmas—including Elise chasing Romany Malco away from the table with a shotgun, or the whole table having to pretend to like Mo’Nique’s terrible food—take place during large family gatherings around the dinner table. What could be more Thanksgiving-coded than that? With an all-star cast of Black actors that also includes J.B. Smoove, Nicole Ari Parker, Omar Epps, and Gladys Knight, Almost Christmas feels like a homecoming full of your favorite uncles and aunties. And, to be fair, isn’t Thanksgiving almost Christmas?
Thanksgiving
The turkey isn’t the only thing getting carved up in this holiday slasher. Starring Patrick Dempsey and Tik Toker turned recording artist turned film actress Addison Rae, Thanksgiving begins with a Black Friday sale gone horribly awry in Plymouth, Massachusetts, leading to the death of multiple customers. The following year, a murderous slasher wearing a John Carver mask is wreaking havoc in Plymouth, and targeting Rae’s Gaby and her friends. If you’re not feeling warm and gooey on over the holiday, you might want to throw on Thanksgiving and watch Rae and Dempsey’s Sheriff Eric Newton try and track down and escape the clutches of a grisly murderer.
Home for the Holidays
Ronald Siemoneit
