The best Thanksgiving movie depends on the mood you want to create. For a classic holiday road comedy, start with Planes, Trains and Automobiles. For an all-ages choice, pick A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving or Fantastic Mr. Fox. If your gathering can handle sharper family tension, try Home for the Holidays, Pieces of April, or The Humans. Horror fans have two especially natural options: Thanksgiving (2023) and Black Friday (2021).
This is a practical 20-film watchlist, not a definitive canon. Some selections take place directly at Thanksgiving; others use the holiday meal, Thanksgiving weekend, travel, or the post-holiday shopping rush as an important setting. That broader definition reflects the way Rotten Tomatoes approaches Thanksgiving movies.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
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| 1 |
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Planes, Trains & Automobiles | $19.95 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles [4K UHD | $39.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Planes, Trains & Automobiles - Steelbook | $44.91 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Funko Planes, Trains and Automobiles The Game | $9.92 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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It Happened One Night | $12.99 | Buy on Amazon |
The essential Thanksgiving classics
1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
John Hughes’s essential Thanksgiving travel comedy follows Neal Page, a tightly wound advertising executive trying to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. After a chain of transportation disasters, Neal is forced into an increasingly unlikely partnership with Del Griffith, an exuberant shower-curtain-ring salesman.
The premise is simple—one very difficult journey home—but the film gradually turns irritation into empathy. Its best scenes understand that holiday travel magnifies every inconvenience, while its emotional payoff argues that generosity can matter more than arriving on schedule. Paramount and the American Film Institute identify it as a Thanksgiving-centered Hughes comedy; AFI also notes that it opened on November 25, 1987, the day before Thanksgiving.
#1 Best Overall
- Genre: Comedy
- Number of Discs: 2
- Number of Tracks: 0
- Playback Duration: 92
- Rating: R
Best for: the classic group watch, especially when everyone has recently endured a difficult trip. Content note: adult language and comic situations. If you want to make this an annual tradition, a Planes, Trains and Automobiles 4K UHD can be a practical permanent-home-library option; check the current retailer listing for format, price, and stock. Disclosure: this article may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
2. Home for the Holidays (1995)
Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays is the choice for anyone who knows that returning home can be both comforting and exhausting. Claudia Larson goes back to her childhood home after her daughter decides not to join Thanksgiving. The familiar house fills with relatives, old grievances, unsolicited opinions, romantic complications, and the sort of dinner-table explosions that feel painfully recognizable.
The film is not interested in polishing family life into a greeting-card image. Its humor comes from embarrassment and friction, but its emotional center is compassionate: these people can hurt one another and still be bound by history and affection.
Best for: viewers who prefer a funny, candid family dramedy to a sentimental holiday fantasy. Content note: mature themes and language.
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In this compact indie dramedy, estranged daughter April Burns attempts to cook Thanksgiving dinner in her small New York apartment while her skeptical family drives into the city to see her. The meal is clearly beyond her experience, the apartment is far from ideal, and the family arrives carrying years of disappointment.
Pieces of April finds warmth in imperfect effort. It is especially effective for viewers who want a Thanksgiving movie about reconciliation without the glossy surface of a conventional holiday production. The food matters, but the real question is whether people who have drifted apart can make room for one another again.
Best for: a shorter, sincere adult or older-teen watch. Content note: mature family issues and language.
Family-friendly picks—with different kinds of cozy
4. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)
At approximately 25 minutes, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is the clearest all-ages choice on this list. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Linus try to prepare an unconventional Thanksgiving meal after Peppermint Patty invites herself and several friends to Charlie Brown’s house.
The special’s appeal is its modest scale: a child attempting to host, friends bringing their own expectations, and a meal that does not look like a traditional Thanksgiving feast. The official Peanuts holiday-specials page summarizes the story and identifies the current viewing destination, while Common Sense Media describes it as a classic Turkey Day special for all ages.
Best for: young children, short attention spans, or the opening chapter of a longer holiday marathon. Viewing destinations and physical editions can change, so verify current access before planning the evening.
5. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Wes Anderson’s stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox is not specifically a Thanksgiving movie, but its autumnal colors, harvest atmosphere, family dynamics, and communal feast make it a natural cozy fall alternative. Mr. Fox breaks a promise to his family and resumes stealing from three farmers, putting the entire animal community in danger.
It is fast, visually distinctive, funny, and layered enough for adults to enjoy alongside children. The movie is rated PG; Common Sense Media recommends it for approximately age seven and older, with some peril, rude humor, and animated violence to consider.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteBest for: families wanting autumn atmosphere without a literal Thanksgiving plot. Content note: mild peril, animated action, and humor that may land differently with younger viewers.
Uncomfortable family gatherings
6. The Humans (2021)
Stephen Karam’s The Humans confines Thanksgiving to a lower-Manhattan apartment, where an extended family gathers for a holiday meal. The physical space is cramped, the building unsettling, and the conversation increasingly burdened by anxiety about aging, illness, money, work, and the future.
This is a serious family drama rather than comfort viewing. Its power comes from the way ordinary remarks carry multiple meanings: concern can sound like criticism, silence can signal fear, and practical problems can expose deeper generational tensions.
Best for: adults who want an intimate, contemporary drama about family stress rather than a broad comedy. Content note: anxiety, illness, economic pressure, and mature themes.
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7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Woody Allen’s ensemble drama-comedy moves through recurring family gatherings while examining marriage, infidelity, belief, illness, sibling rivalry, and the desire to find meaning. Thanksgiving is part of the film’s recurring social rhythm rather than its only subject, but those gatherings give the story a clear holiday-family frame.
The film is sophisticated and emotionally busy: several relationships are changing at once, and no one has a completely reliable understanding of their own life. It is a strong selection for an adult audience that wants conversation and character complexity after dinner.
Best for: viewers looking for an adult ensemble film with literary ambitions. Content note: mature relationship themes and language; Common Sense Media characterizes it as brilliant but mature.
8. Krisha (2015)
A troubled woman returns to her extended family after years away in Trey Edward Shults’s raw, psychologically intense drama. The Thanksgiving gathering gives Krisha a chance to reconnect, but the reunion quickly becomes a pressure cooker of suspicion, memory, addiction, and unresolved pain.
Its handheld energy and increasingly claustrophobic perspective make the holiday feel less like a refuge than a test. This is one of the most formally unconventional films on the list, and one of the least suitable for viewers seeking a relaxing meal-and-movie experience.
Best for: adults who want an unsettling, independent family drama. Content note: intense addiction-related material, emotional distress, and disturbing situations.
9. The Ice Storm (1997)
Set during Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm follows two suburban families whose private dissatisfaction surfaces amid the energy crisis and a changing social landscape. The holiday does not heal the families; it brings people into closer proximity while making their isolation more visible.
Cold weather, strained marriages, adolescent confusion, and adult hypocrisy give the film a deliberately chilly tone. Choose it when you want prestige drama and period atmosphere, not a reassuring holiday resolution.
Best for: adult viewers interested in serious family and suburban drama. Content note: mature sexual themes, family dysfunction, and emotional distress.
Rank #3
- Planes, Trains & Automobiles - Steelbook
10. The Myth of Fingerprints (1997)
This under-the-radar Thanksgiving-weekend drama brings grown siblings back to their parents’ home in Maine. The visit revives old resentments, sibling competition, romantic complications, and questions about what family members remember—or choose not to remember—about one another.
It is quieter than Home for the Holidays and less overtly intense than Krisha, making it a good discovery for viewers who have already exhausted the familiar Thanksgiving titles. The film’s appeal lies in its subdued observation of adults who revert to old roles as soon as they return home.
Best for: a low-key, character-driven holiday weekend watch. Content note: mature family and relationship themes.
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Thanksgiving with a genre twist
11. Addams Family Values (1993)
Addams Family Values turns Thanksgiving mythology inside out. Wednesday Addams’s school pageant presents a sanitized version of American history, and her resistance to that performance becomes one of the film’s sharpest comic set pieces. Elsewhere, the Addams family’s own celebrations remain cheerfully macabre.
The movie works because the holiday satire is not separate from the family comedy: Wednesday’s refusal to accept a pleasant, simplified story is exactly what makes the Addams household feel more honest than the world around it. It is not a conventional children’s movie. Common Sense Media flags innuendo and violent scenes and recommends it for older viewers.
Best for: older teens and adults who want dark humor with their holiday viewing.
12. Thanksgiving (2023)
Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is the obvious slasher pick. After a Black Friday riot in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a killer wearing a Thanksgiving-inspired disguise begins targeting people connected to the event.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe film treats holiday imagery as horror material, from seasonal decorations to the commercial frenzy surrounding the long weekend. It is exceptionally gory and emphatically adult rather than a family selection. Sony confirms home-video availability in digital, Blu-ray, and DVD formats on its official film page.
Best for: adult horror fans who want a holiday slasher. If you are building a physical horror shelf, check the listing for a Thanksgiving 2023 Blu-ray or DVD, including the exact edition and current availability. Disclosure: this article may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
13. Black Friday (2021)
For a lighter, more knowingly pulpy horror option, try Black Friday. Employees at a toy store working the overnight shopping shift face a monster outbreak just after Thanksgiving. The setting naturally extends the holiday into its commercial aftermath: the family meal is over, and the retail rush begins.
It makes an effective double feature with Thanksgiving, especially if you want one film that leans toward slasher violence and another that mixes creature horror with workplace comedy.
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14. Spider-Man (2002)
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man is not a Thanksgiving movie in the narrow sense, but it contains a memorable Thanksgiving dinner sequence that brings Peter Parker, Aunt May, Mary Jane, and Norman Osborn into an emotionally charged family setting. The scene matters because superhero conflict abruptly enters an ordinary domestic ritual.
Rank #4
- It’s a journey of hijinks and hilarity in this two-player cooperative game based on the classic holiday film.
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That makes the film a useful Thanksgiving-adjacent choice: a recognizable superhero adventure with a holiday meal at its center rather than a movie built around the holiday itself. It is rated PG-13; Common Sense Media flags intensity that may be unsuitable for younger children.
Best for: families with older children or teens who want a superhero movie with a strong holiday scene. Content note: action violence, frightening imagery, and intense scenes.
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Under-the-radar and Thanksgiving-adjacent choices
15. What’s Cooking? (2000)
What’s Cooking? follows four Los Angeles families preparing Thanksgiving meals. Its central pleasure is the variety of food traditions, expectations, guest lists, and family structures that can coexist under the same holiday label.
Rather than treating one meal as the universal Thanksgiving experience, the film broadens the picture. Different households carry different histories and pressures into the kitchen, making this an especially valuable recommendation for viewers tired of the standard white-suburban-family template.
Best for: viewers who want an ensemble film about multicultural family life and food traditions.
16. Avalon (1990)
Barry Levinson’s family-history drama follows an immigrant family in Baltimore and uses Thanksgiving gatherings to explore assimilation, generational change, and the gradual weakening of extended-family traditions.
The film is reflective rather than plot-driven. Its Thanksgiving scenes gain meaning from the passage of time: the people around the table change, family customs evolve, and the idea of what counts as a successful American life becomes contested.
Best for: viewers who want a historical, immigrant-family perspective on holiday tradition.
17. Alice’s Restaurant (1969)
Based on Arlo Guthrie’s song, Alice’s Restaurant stars Guthrie as himself and connects Thanksgiving with the counterculture and political atmosphere of the late 1960s. Its holiday association is central enough to earn a place on this list, but its tone is very different from a conventional family comedy.
This is a good choice for adults interested in folk music, American counterculture, and films that use Thanksgiving as a doorway into wider political and social questions.
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Best for: adult viewers wanting a counterculture alternative to traditional holiday entertainment.
18. Son-in-Law (1993)
In this broad 1990s comedy, a small-town family meets an exuberant college friend during a Thanksgiving visit. The resulting clash of manners, assumptions, and lifestyles supplies the movie’s low-stakes conflict.
Best Value
Son-in-Law is best approached as nostalgic comfort viewing rather than a critical favorite. Its appeal is the familiar holiday-comedy structure: an outsider arrives, the family resists him, and the visit disrupts everyone’s assumptions.
Best for: viewers looking for uncomplicated 1990s family comedy.
19. Dutch (1991)
Dutch pairs an adult and a difficult child on a Thanksgiving-break road trip. Their journey provides a family-centered companion to Planes, Trains and Automobiles, though its emotional emphasis is on a strained adult-child relationship rather than two unrelated travelers becoming friends.
The film is a useful cult-comedy discovery for viewers who enjoy holiday travel stories and do not mind a more abrasive premise before the relationship begins to change.
Best for: a road-comedy double feature with a family angle.
20. The Blind Side (2009)
The Blind Side is a mainstream sports drama about family, home, opportunity, and belonging, with Thanksgiving and family-home themes that make it a natural holiday-weekend option. It suits viewers seeking an inspirational film rather than a story centered on Thanksgiving dinner.
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Best for: viewers wanting an accessible sports-and-family drama. Content note: sports violence, difficult social themes, and material involving race and class.
Quick guide: choose by mood
| If you want… | Start with… |
|---|---|
| The definitive Thanksgiving travel comedy | Planes, Trains and Automobiles |
| A painfully recognizable family gathering | Home for the Holidays |
| A short all-ages special | A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving |
| A cozy animated fall alternative | Fantastic Mr. Fox |
| A sincere indie family drama | Pieces of April |
| Serious adult family anxiety | The Humans |
| The most psychologically intense reunion | Krisha |
| Dark Thanksgiving satire | Addams Family Values |
| A gory holiday slasher | Thanksgiving (2023) |
| A horror-comedy double feature | Thanksgiving (2023) and Black Friday |
| A multicultural food-and-family ensemble | What’s Cooking? |
| A superhero film with a memorable holiday dinner | Spider-Man (2002) |
How to plan your 2025 Thanksgiving watchlist
- Decide who is watching. The two safest all-ages choices here are A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Several other films contain mature themes, strong language, disturbing material, or violence.
- Match the film to the room. Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Home for the Holidays are dependable group options, while The Humans, Krisha, and The Ice Storm demand a more attentive adult audience.
- Use a double feature with purpose. Pair Planes, Trains and Automobiles with Dutch for holiday road comedy, or Thanksgiving with Black Friday for seasonal horror. Pair A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with Fantastic Mr. Fox for a family-friendly autumn program.
- Check access close to the date. U.S. streaming and rental licensing changes frequently. Availability may vary by date and service, so check current digital rental, purchase, Blu-ray, DVD, or library options rather than assuming every title is on one subscription platform. Official pages confirm home-video information for Paramount’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Sony’s Thanksgiving, and the Peanuts specials.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Thanksgiving movie to watch in 2025?
For most viewers, Planes, Trains and Automobiles remains the strongest all-purpose choice because Thanksgiving travel is central to the story and the comedy develops into a moving friendship. Choose A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving for young children, Home for the Holidays for realistic family dysfunction, or Thanksgiving (2023) for adult horror.
Which Thanksgiving movies are appropriate for children?
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is the clearest all-ages option. Fantastic Mr. Fox is rated PG and is commonly recommended for approximately age seven and older, though it includes peril and animated violence. Spider-Man is PG-13 and may be intense for younger children. The rest of the list should be checked for mature themes, language, violence, or disturbing material.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteAre all 20 films actually about Thanksgiving?
No. The list uses a broad, clearly labeled definition. Some films are directly centered on Thanksgiving, while others include a major Thanksgiving meal, travel sequence, family gathering, Thanksgiving weekend, or Black Friday setting. Fantastic Mr. Fox is a fall-season alternative, and Spider-Man is a superhero film with a significant Thanksgiving dinner sequence.
Where can I stream these Thanksgiving movies?
There is no reliable single service for all 20 titles because U.S. licensing changes. Check the current digital rental or purchase listings, physical media, and local library catalogs near your viewing date. Official sources identify home-video or viewing information for selected titles, but they should not be treated as a permanent guarantee of availability.
The Bottom Line
For one film, choose Planes, Trains and Automobiles. For children, choose A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving or Fantastic Mr. Fox. For a realistic family gathering, choose Home for the Holidays or Pieces of April; for serious adult drama, choose The Humans or The Ice Storm. And for a deliberately unruly holiday night, pair Thanksgiving with Black Friday.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
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