In the US, Thanksgiving is a food and TV holiday. Growing up, it was turkey followed by watching the Lions play. These days, both my food choices and my Thanksgiving watch list have improved. It’s only right that I should share what to watch this Thanksgiving with you!
Thanksgiving Morning
We start the morning with America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – the parade through downtown Detroit that is just as old as the Macy’s Parade. Interestingly, they are both tied for second oldest Thanksgiving Parade in the US behind the Dunkin Doughnuts Parade in Pilly. No one really watches it, and the kids run around making as much of a mess as they can while I prep the cleaning.
For the Kids
While the Tofurkey is roasting and I’m taking the butcher knife to some Brussels sprouts, the kids start to settle down in front of Free Birds.
Family Thanksgiving Movies
After dinner, we all collapse in our feast coma in front of my favorite Family Thanksgiving movie of all time: Addams Family Values.
The Thanksgiving play sequence of this movie highlights the hypocrisy of the holiday in a fantastically funny satire: We celebrate turkeys while brutally killing millions of them, and perpetuate the deeply problematic myth of the “First Thanksgiving” between the “pilgrims and Indians.”
This year, my favorite article covering the truth behind the holiday is this one: The Thanksgiving Tale We Tell Is a Harmful Lie. As a Native American, I’ve Found a Better Way to Celebrate the Holiday
Though, to be honest, I originally clicked on the article because I wanted to know if milkweed pods were edible. Spoiler alert – the article doesn’t explicitly say, outside of the photo caption.
Winding Down
As we tuck into additional plates of biscuits with mushroom gravy (me) and pie (basically everyone else), we transition to a classic with deep ties to past family holidays: All 9 Thanksgiving episodes of Friends.
Nightcap
And for the grand finale when the kids are in bed, nothing beats finishing off Thanksgiving laughing until it hurts to the best Thanksgiving movie of all time: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Seriously, I don’t care what generation you’re from, this movie is SO. GOOD. This year, it is streaming on Hulu.
