There are so many Christmas movies to watch each year, but what about Thanksgiving? Of course, everyone always thinks about “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” The 1973 animated film has been many people’s go-to film for the past 50 years, seeing as it’s always on TV around the holiday season. However, there are a lot of other films that center on Turkey Day. There are also movies that don’t necessarily focus on Thanksgiving but include an iconic Thanksgiving scene, like “Addams Family Values.” Some films don’t even mention the holiday at all but are still perfect to watch with the whole family because they’re about bringing people together.
So, if you’re looking for something to watch after dinner, here are 12 Thanksgiving movies that are sure to get you in the holiday spirit.
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"A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving"
“A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” is a movie for the whole family. The 1973 film centers on Charlie Brown attempting to throw two Thanksgiving dinners: one for his family and one for his friends. However, it proves to be more than he can handle.
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"Addams Family Values"
“Addams Family Values” is a classic Thanksgiving film. The 1993 movie centers around the Addamses welcoming a new member of their family, named Pubert. While Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) are ecstatic over their newborn, the couple’s oldest children – Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) – feel the total opposite. After trying to kill their new sibling, the pair are sent away to summer camp, where they’re forced to participate in a big Thanksgiving play.
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"Rocky"
“Rocky” is a classic underdog story about a local boxer who gets the chance to fight in the ring with world champion Apollo Creed. Although the movie doesn’t center around Thanksgiving, one of the film’s most memorable scenes involves a Thanksgiving date between Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and his love interest, Adrian (Talia Shire).
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"Friendsgiving"
After getting dumped by her girlfriend, Abby (Kat Dennings) plans to spend Thanksgiving eating her feelings away with her best friend, Molly (Malin Åkerman), who is going through a divorce. However, Abby’s plans fall through when Molly turns their dinner into a big Friendsgiving celebration.
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"Instant Family"
During Thanksgiving dinner, foster parents Pete (Mark Wahlberg) and Ellie Wagner (Rose Byrne) announce they plan to adopt three siblings: Lizzie (Isabela Merced), Juan (Gustavo Escobar), and Lita (Julianna Gamiz). As the couple bond with the kids, the children’s birth mother comes back into the picture, which makes Pete and Ellie question what’s best for the siblings. The film is based on director Sean Anders’s own experience fostering and then adopting his three children.
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"Free Birds"
Two turkeys named Reggie (Owen Wilson) and Jake (Woody Harrelson) travel back in time to the first Thanksgiving in 1621 in order to prevent their kind from ever being on the Thanksgiving menu. However, when they begin getting hunted by settlers in the past, the pair team up with other turkeys to make sure their mission succeeds.
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"Black Friday"
A group of employees prepare for their Black Friday shift just as an alien parasite crashes on Earth. After the parasite begins attacking people and transforming them into monsters, the employees are forced to fight for their survival against transformed shoppers.
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"Paul Blart: Mall Cop"
On the night of Black Friday, thieves begin a heist at a mall and take its employees hostage. Security guard Paul Blart (Kevin James) is the only one who doesn’t get captured, so he takes it upon himself to defeat the gang and rescue the hostages.
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"A Family Thanksgiving"
“A Family Thanksgiving” centers on a lawyer named Claudia (Daphne Zuniga) who always has her job on her mind. After she forces her employees to work on Thanksgiving, a mysterious woman named Gina (Faye Dunaway) takes Claudia to an alternate world where she has a family of her own and is close with her sister. After adjusting to her new life, Claudia realizes she’s been missing out on a lot.
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"You've Got Mail"
“You’ve Got Mail” is a romantic comedy set during the fall. It follows two booksellers, Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), who develop feelings for each other while communicating online. After falling in love, they discover they’ve been each other’s business rival all along.
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"Almost Christmas"
“Almost Christmas” follows a retired engineer named Walter (Danny Glover) who recently lost his wife. During his family’s first Christmas without their beloved matriarch, Walter tries to make everyone get along during the holiday season, but it proves to be easier said than done.
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"Miracle on 34th Street"
When the man who was supposed to play Santa in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade becomes intoxicated, Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) agrees to fill in last-minute. He ends up receiving such a positive reaction that he’s hired to play Santa at the Macy’s store on 34th Street in New York City. When Kris begins claiming that he’s the real Santa, he gets thrust into a legal battle where he must prove he’s telling the truth.
