14 Thanksgiving Movies About Family
Watch these movies about different families in the days preceding, including and following Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving in the United States is a national holiday that occurs on the fourth Thursday of November — after one of the biggest bar nights of the year and before the official launch of the Christmas shopping season known as Black Friday.
On Thanksgiving, parades are broadcast in the morning, football games are broadcast in the afternoon and, meanwhile, families around the country reunite, reconnect and reflect on what they’re thankful for. The day culminates in the evening with a shared feast of turkey, side dishes and pie.
In this post, I’m going to share 14 movies that are about family in the days preceding, including and following Thanksgiving.
1. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)
Peppermint Patty invites herself and a few friends over to Charlie Brown’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and learns about the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
- Rated: NR
- Run Time: 74 Minutes
2. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
The interwoven stories of an extended family unfolds over 2 years — starting and ending with Thanksgiving dinners.
- Rated: PG-13
- Run Time: 106 Minutes
3. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
An advertising executive trying to get home to his family for Thanksgiving ends up on a three-day odyssey from New York to Chicago with a shower curtain ring salesmen.
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 92 Minutes
4. Dutch (1991)
A snobbish rich kid and his mother’s new working-class boyfriend embark on a road trip from the boy’s prep school in Atlanta to his mother’s home in Chicago just before Thanksgiving.
- Rated: PG-13
- Run Time: 107 Minutes
5. Scent of a Woman (1993)
To pay for his flight home for Christmas, a college student accepts a temporary job over Thanksgiving weekend to assist a blind and overbearing retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel.
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 156 Minutes
6. Home for the Holidays (1995)
Upon losing her job and learning that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, a single mother returns home to spend Thanksgiving with her zany family.
- Rated: PG-13
- Run Time: 103 Minutes
7. The Myth of Fingerprints (1997)
A dysfunctional family reunites for Thanksgiving in Maine and the complexities of life, love and family ensue.
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 93 Minutes
8. The House of Yes (1997)
A college student brings his fiancée home for Thanksgiving, but nothing goes as planned with his abnormal family.
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 85 Minutes
9. The Ice Storm (1997)
Set during Thanksgiving weekend in 1973 suburban Connecticut, two dysfunctional upper-class families experiment with casual sex, alcohol and drugs to escape the social changes of the early 1970s.
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 113 Minutes
10. What’s Cooking? (2000)
Four ethnically diverse families (African American, Jewish, Latino and Vietnamese) gather for Thanksgiving dinner.
- Rated: PG-13
- Run Time: 109 Minutes
11. Pieces of April (2003)
The family outcast invites her conservative family and dying mother for Thanksgiving dinner at her derelict apartment in New York’s Lower East Side.
- Rated: PG-13
- Run Time: 81 Minutes
12. American Son (2008)
A 19-year old Marine is forced to confront his upbringing and adulthood during a 4-day Thanksgiving leave before his deployment to Iraq.
- Rated: PG-13
- Run Time: 90 Minutes
13. Prisoners (2013)
A rural Pennsylvania family celebrates Thanksgiving with close friends, but the holiday festivities abruptly end when two of their children disappear.
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 153 Minutes
14. Free Birds (2013)
Two turkeys travel back in time to change the course of history — to remove turkey from the Thanksgiving menu.
- Rated: PG
- Run Time: 91 Minutes
Final Thoughts
You just learned about 14 Thanksgiving movies that are about family. As a bonus, I’ve also included some honorable mentions. The following movies aren’t centered around Thanksgiving, but they have memorable Thanksgiving scenes:
