After you and your family gobble down a delicious Thanksgiving dinner complete with pumpkin pie and finish watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, it’s time to snuggle up and watch some Thanksgiving movies! Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday season, so Christmas movies are also perfect for a family film following your Thanksgiving feast. More: 11 Awesome Family Activities for Thanksgiving Day Check our list of the 25 best Thanksgiving movies for the whole family to enjoy this Thanksgiving holiday:
The Best Thanksgiving Movies for Kids
In this movie, turkeys travel back in time to the very first Thanksgiving to try and reverse the tradition of eating a turkey every year on this holiday. It’s a fun movie for children, who will love the talking animals, and it’s an engaging story for the adults as well. In this old time favorite, a kindly old gentleman is institutionalized after claiming that he is the real Santa Claus, not just a department store employee. A young lawyer takes up the case, arguing that Santa is not delusional but the real deal. Parents and children alike will love this touching film. Rating: PG-13 This movie is for young teens and up, and adults will enjoy it too. After a new baby is born to the Addams family, parents Gomez and Morticia send Wednesday and Pugsley to summer camp and hire a nanny. Uncle Fester falls in love with this nanny, but he can’t see that she’s a gold digger, so it’s up to the rest of the family to rescue him. Rating: TV-G In this special based on the popular Garfield cartoon, Garfield the cat’s owner, Jon, is head over heels with his veterinarian. So he invites her to Thanksgiving dinner. The problem is, Garfield loves to eat, and his doctor wants him on a diet. Kids love Garfield because he’s a cartoon but the script is witty enough for adults to truly enjoy as well. Rated: G This special, based on the popular Peanuts comic strip, is a classic. In it, Peppermint Patty invites herself to Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving dinner and he must figure out how to host her and attend his Grandmother’s Thanksgiving celebration. Adults will love the beloved Peanuts cast just as much as the kids. Rating: PG-13 Claudia Larson has just lost her job and it’s time to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family…minus her daughter who has chosen to spend the holiday with her boyfriend’s family. Perfect for tweens and up. Rating: G All your favorite Winnie the Pooh characters come together in a full length adventure film to be enjoyed by parents and kids alike. Pooh and his friends learn the true meaning of Thanksgiving in this special. In this family-friendly comedy, two business rivals, played by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, unwittingly fall in love over the internet. This movie is great for all ages. A brother and sister are visiting their Aunt in the town of Turkey Hollow, where they attempt to track its legendary monster, the howling hoodoo. Rating: PG-13 In this story that tweens up through parents will enjoy, the lead character, played by Katie Holmes, invites her estranged family including her dying mother, to her New York apartment for Thanksgiving dinner.
The Christmas Chronicles (2018)
Product Price $0.00 Available on Netflix Rating: PG A Christmas story about a sister and brother who try to catch Santa on Christmas Eve. Sweet for adults to watch and awe-inspiring for the kids.
Holiday Rush (2019)
Product Price $0.00 Available on Netflix Rating: TV-PG This funny family movie is about a DJ who gets fired and must move himself and his four children in with his aunt while he tries to get his job back. Rating: PG This Disney movie is perfect for November because in it, Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town and he tries to teach his town (with some challenges along the way!) about Christmas. This movie is definitely not too baby-ish for the adults, while still being an interesting story for the kids. It is set in the late 1800’s in New York and it follows the story of a family who hits hard times. Rating: ALL This is actually a Halloween special, but if you haven’t watched it with your little ones already, definitely put it on for Thanksgiving. If You Give a Mouse a cookie is a toddler favorite that offers enough nostalgia for parents too. Rating: G This cute TV short follows a mouse on his adventures outwitting a variety of predators. It’s perfect for a family with members of all ages to enjoy together. This sweet story, good for tweens and up, is about a young homeless boy who beats the odds and becomes an NFL football player. Parents and teens alike will be in tears over this touching film. If you want to include a little bit of history for both kids and adults this year, try watching this special which outlines what happened that day so long ago when two societies came together to share and give thanks. Rating: ALL If you have toddlers and little kids at home, this educational video is a great way to get everyone settled so that you can relax too after cooking and cleaning up (you know, or not) your Thanksgiving feast! If you have childhood memories of watching Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, enjoy the Looney Tunes Thanksgiving special this year with your own kids! Rating: G Gobbles the turkey plans a super fun Thanksgiving jam and dance for his friends. This film is best for little kids but it can also be enjoyable for the grownups. Rating: TV-Y A 12-year-old boy sets a plan in motion to buy the entire stock of this year’s most popular Christmas gift, but things don’t go quite as planned. A boy who doesn’t believe in Christmas magic takes an unexpected train ride that changes his mind. Children and adults will be captivated by this Holiday movie’s wonder. This film is great if you have older teens at home, and it’s not meant for young kids. In it, Neil Page (Steve Martin) just wants to get home for Thanksgiving, but a host of obstacles fall in his way. First, his plane to Chicago is canceled and he must find another way home. Dell Griffith (John Candy) meets Neil along the way through his travel mishaps.
