The Thanksgiving Table

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

John Hughes

Ad man Neal Page, stranded two days before Thanksgiving, is stuck with shower-curtain-ring salesman Del Griffith on a plane-train-and-rental-car slog from New York to Chicago.

Explores: Travel Misadventures, Odd Couple, Thanksgiving.

Home for the Holidays

Jodie Foster

Just fired from her Chicago museum job, Claudia Larson flies home to Baltimore for a Thanksgiving of squabbling siblings, prying parents and a turkey in her sister's lap.

Hannah and Her Sisters

Woody Allen

Three Thanksgiving dinners at Hannah's Manhattan apartment frame the affairs, hypochondria and second chances tangling Hannah, her sisters Lee and Holly, and the men around them.

Explores: Family Dynamics, Infidelity, Existential Angst.

Pieces of April

Peter Hedges

A fractured daughter attempting to host her estranged, dying mother at a cramped apartment captures the desperate tension of trying to create a perfect holiday.

The Ice Storm

Ang Lee

Over Thanksgiving weekend 1973 in suburban Connecticut, a key party and an overnight ice storm lay bare the affairs of two neighboring families, the Hoods and Carvers.

Explores: Dysfunctional Family, Infidelity, Sexual Experimentation.

Addams Family Values

Barry Sonnenfeld

Packed off to summer camp, Wednesday Addams plays Pocahontas in the cheery Thanksgiving pageant and turns it into a revolt that sets Camp Chippewa ablaze.

Explores: Family Dynamics, Greed, Outsiders.

The Humans

Stephen Karam

The claustrophobic setting of a lower Manhattan apartment amplifies the mounting dread and unspoken tensions as three generations confront their shared, uncomfortable history.

Scent of a Woman

Martin Brest

A student’s holiday job supervising a retired officer turns into a profound moral education, proving that unexpected mentorship can emerge during the loneliest breaks.

Explores: Moral Dilemma, Mentorship, Redemption.

Krisha

Trey Edward Shults

The return of a recovering addict to her family dinner illustrates how past trauma can threaten to dismantle even the most well-intentioned holiday gatherings.

Dutch

Peter Faiman

A man’s attempt to bond with his girlfriend’s abrasive son during a road trip highlights the difficult, often thankless work of integrating into a new family.

Miracle on 34th Street

George Seaton

The debut of a department store Santa during a holiday parade shifts the narrative from a simple seasonal gig to a complex legal battle over belief.

Explores: belief, innocence, the power of imagination.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Bill Melendez

A makeshift meal of toast and popcorn proves that the company kept is far more important than the traditional turkey dinner on a chaotic holiday.

Thanksgiving

Eli Roth

A slasher film set in the birthplace of the holiday subverts traditional cheer by turning the season's consumerist frenzy into a gruesome, vengeful nightmare.

Explores: Revenge, Small Town Secrets, Holiday Traditions.

Friends

“The One with All the Thanksgivings”Season 5, episode 8 (1998)

Marta Kauffman

Flashbacks to past holidays reveal the defining, humiliating moments that shaped the group's current relationships and solidified their bond as a surrogate family.

Explores: Friendship, Relationships, Coming of Age.

Cheers

“Thanksgiving Orphans”Season 5, episode 9 (1986)

Les Charles

With nowhere else to go, the Cheers regulars gather at Carla's new house, where Norm's slow-cooking turkey stalls dinner and tempers boil over into a food fight.

Explores: Friendship, Community, Finding your place.

WKRP in Cincinnati

“Turkeys Away”Season 1, episode 7 (1978)

Hugh Wilson

A radio station's disastrous promotion involving live turkeys falling from a helicopter serves as the ultimate cautionary tale for workplace holiday planning gone wrong.

Explores: Workplace Dynamics, Eccentric Characters, Underdog Story.

Master of None

“Thanksgiving”Season 2, episode 8 (2017)

Alan Yang

Across Thanksgivings from the 1990s to the present, Denise comes out to her mother and waits years for the family's acceptance, with friend Dev at the table.

Explores: Dating in the modern age, Existential crisis, Career aspirations.

Gilmore Girls

“A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving”Season 3, episode 9 (2002)

Amy Sherman-Palladino

Lorelai and Rory accept four Thanksgiving invitations — Sookie's deep-fried turkey, the Kims' Korean dinner, Luke's, and Emily's table in Hartford — and eat at every one.

Explores: Mother-Daughter Relationship, Intergenerational Relationships, Class Differences.

How I Met Your Mother

“Slapsgiving”Season 3, episode 9 (2007)

Carter Bays

Marshall's countdown website ticks toward Barney's third slap until Commissioner Lily relents at Thanksgiving dinner, while exes Ted and Robin test whether they can stay friends.

Explores: Friendship, Dating, Nostalgia.

The Thanksgiving Visitor

Truman Capote

Miss Sook invites Buddy's schoolyard bully, Odd Henderson, to Thanksgiving dinner, and Buddy's public exposure of him as a thief earns her rebuke: deliberate cruelty is worse.

The Ice Storm

Rick Moody

In New Canaan over Thanksgiving weekend 1973, a key party and an overnight ice storm break open the Hood and Williams families' affairs and adolescent fumbling.

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

Louisa May Alcott

When Mr. and Mrs. Bassett rush off to an ailing grandmother just before Thanksgiving, their seven children cook the New Hampshire farmhouse feast themselves, mishaps and all.

The Corrections

Jonathan Franzen

Enid Lambert's campaign to gather her three grown children in St. Jude for one last Christmas, as her husband Alfred slides into Parkinson's, drives this Midwestern family novel.

Explores: Dysfunctional family dynamics, Midwestern ennui, Intergenerational conflict.

Home

Marilynne Robinson

Prodigal Jack Boughton comes home to Gilead, Iowa, after twenty years, where his sister Glory is nursing their dying father, the town's old Presbyterian minister.

Explores: Prodigal son, Family secrets, Redemption.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Pairing the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address with her plant science, Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer argues for gratitude and reciprocity toward sweetgrass, strawberries and the land.

Explores: ecological stewardship, interconnectedness, traditional ecological knowledge.

Babette's Feast

Gabriel Axel

A meticulously prepared meal becomes a medium for a housekeeper to express her suppressed history and transform the lives of a rigid, pious community.

Explores: Generosity, Sacrifice, Artistic Expression.

Big Night

Campbell Scott

Two immigrant brothers betting their future on a single, perfect banquet underscores the immense pressure and passion required to create meaningful culinary art.

Eat Drink Man Woman

Ang Lee

Sunday dinners in Taipei serve as the central stage where a master chef and his daughters navigate changing cultural identities and evolving romantic lives.

Explores: Generational conflict, Cultural Identity, Changing family dynamics.

Salt Fat Acid Heat

Traveling to Italy, Japan, Mexico and home to Berkeley, Samin Nosrat gives each episode one element — salt, fat, acid or heat — and cooks a meal around it.

Explores: Global Cuisine, Food Culture, Cooking Techniques.

Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner

Connecting the act of cooking traditional Korean meals to the process of grieving a mother reveals how food acts as a bridge to cultural heritage.

Explores: mother-daughter relationships, grief and loss, cultural identity.

Julie & Julia

In 2002 Queens, Julie Powell blogs her way through all 524 recipes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, intercut with Julia Child's Paris years.

Explores: Self-discovery, Culinary passion, Career ambition.