Here’s a list of everything you need to stream on television for Thanksgiving! These 6 tv shows, with hilarious and heartwarming Thanksgiving episodes, prove that this season really is all about family. Be sure to pin this post so you can remember this list of Thanksgiving episodes, for your family, every year.
From our marriage & parenting contributor, Mary Carver.
Apparently this is the year the internet decided we should get all up in arms about “skipping Thanksgiving.”
Because if I had a nickel for every meme, GIF, and comment I’ve seen about how we are just starting Christmas too soon and Hallmark and Hobby Lobby need to slow their roll and take time for Thanksgiving, I’d have a whole lot more money for Christmas shopping.
Okay, look.
Nobody is skipping Thanksgiving.
For one thing, Friends is such a big deal this year that in the last week of November, you can go to the theater and watch all 8 Friends Thanksgiving episodes.
Calm down, Karen! Fathom Events and Friends is going to make sure we don’t skip Thanksgiving! (All those details are here.)
But also, news flash!, we can be extra grateful even while preparing for Christmas.
We can eat turkey while watching Lifetime Christmas movies.
We can hang leaves on our gratitude trees and play touch football that turns into fighting football and go around the table and talk about what we’re most thankful for even if the lights are already on the house.
It’s going to be okay.
And, if we take a little time to enjoy Thanksgiving with our favorite TV episodes devoted to the supposedly overlooked but not really holiday, it will be way better than okay.
Because something about forcing people together for a meal on which we place sky-high expectations brings out the most outrageous, laughable situations — at least on TV!
While those ingredients might make for tension and drama in real life, something about watching fictional holiday dysfunction played for laughs alleviates our actual stress.
After all, Uncle Larry might be making the rounds again with awkward hugs and offensive jokes, but at least nobody is going to end up with a turkey on her head.
Perspective, people.
Several of our favorite shows will air brand-new Thanksgiving episodes this year.
But in case you want to start celebrating early (gasp! can you imagine?!), here’s a list of shows with rich and ridiculous Thanksgiving traditions.
6 Sitcoms That Make Us Give Thanks
Modern Family
One of the things I love most about this family is their insane competitive nature.
And for some reason, that comes out most brilliantly at Thanksgiving.
Tired of hearing humble brags about kids who play more sports and getter better grades than yours?
Join the Pritchetts as they try to prove who’s best. Stream on Hulu.
- Punkin Chunkin – season 3, episode 9
- Three Turkeys – season 6, episode 8
- Thanksgiving Jamboree – season 8, episode 7
- Winner Winner Turkey Dinner – season 9, episode 7
How I Met Your Mother
What do I love more than a bit that lasts multiple seasons?
NOTHING.
Not a thing.
So Slapsgiving is right up my alley, and my husband and I quote it to this day! Stream on Hulu.
- Belly Full of Turkey – season 1, episode 9
- Slapsgiving – season 3, episode 9
- Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap – season 5, episode 2
- Blitzgiving – season 6, episode 10
- The Rebound Girl – season 7, episode 11
Will & Grace
The Thanksgiving episodes for Will & Grace are so epic, they require more than one episode per season!
Secrets (and so much more) come out, and it makes me laugh every time! Stream on Hulu.
- Homo for the Holidays – season 2, episode 7
- Lows in the Mid-Eighties – season 3, episodes 8-9
- Moveable Feast – season 4, episodes 9-10
- Queens for a Day – season 7, episodes 10-11
New Girl
Anyone who attempts to defrost a turkey in the dryer is clearly a Thanksgiving pro.
If by “Thanksgiving pro,” I mean someone who will make me laugh so hard I cry and also make me feel better about my own domestic abilities.
Thank you, New Girl. Stream on Netflix.
- Thanksgiving – season 1, episode 6
- Parents – season 2, episode 8
- Thanksgiving III – season 3, episode 10
- Thanksgiving IV – season 4, episode 9
- Last Thanksgiving – season 6, episode 7
The Goldbergs
I have been slowly watching this show over the past year.
Slowly because I love it SO MUCH and I don’t ever want it to end.
And what do I consistently love most of all?
The Thanksgiving episodes.
Because who loses her mind more at the holidays than a smother mother?
Nobody, that’s who. Stream on Hulu.
- Stop Arguing & Start Thanking – season 1, episode 9
- A Goldberg Thanksgiving – season 2, episode 7
- In Conclusion, Thanksgiving – season 3, episode 8
- Ho-ly K.I.T.T. – season 4, episode 7
- A Wall Street Thanksgiving – season 5, episode 7
Friends
Back in the early days of blogging, I wrote about Friends Thanksgiving episodes multiple times.
I’m not even the biggest Friends fan in the world, but could its holiday episodes BE any more iconic? Stream on Netflix.
- The One Where the Underdog Gets Away – season 1, episode 9
- The One with the List – season 2, episode 8
- The One with the Football – season 3, episode 9
- The One with All the Thanksgivings – season 5, episode 8
- The One Where Ross Got High – season 6, episode 9
- The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs – season 7, episode 8
- The One with Rachel’s Other Sister – season 9, episode 8
- The One with the Late Thanksgiving – season 10, episode 8
Lots of other TV shows have fantastic Thanksgiving episodes (Fresh Off the Boat, Master of None, West Wing, This is Us, Parenthood, and Gilmore Girls to name just a few.) I’d love to hear about which ones are your favorites!
For a helpful guide for surviving Thanksgiving like the Gilmore Girls, click here.
Mary Carver is a writer, speaker, and recovering perfectionist. She lives for good books, spicy queso, and television marathons, but she lives because of God’s grace. Mary writes with humor and honesty about giving up on perfect and finding truth in unexpected places on her blog,MaryCarver.com. She is the author of Fast Talk & Faith: A 22-Day Devotional Inspired by Gilmore Girls and co-author of Choose Joy: Finding Hope & Purpose When Life Hurts. She is also a regular contributor to incourage.me and MothersofDaughters.com. Mary and her husband live in Kansas City with their two daughters.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving TV episodes?
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