10 Best Thanksgiving Movies to Stream Right Now: Netflix, Prime Video, and More

It’s not Christmas yet!

Holiday-wise, Thanksgiving has never really gotten its due. Sure, its “pilgrims and native Americans eating together” origins have been muddled and twisted over the years, playing into whatever version of America’s founding the public has wanted to believe at the time, but you’ve got to admit that, regardless of the holiday’s origin, there is something nice about coming together with family and friends and enjoying a nice meal.

But throw a family together for one food-and-booze-fueled night, and you might be asking for a little drama, too.

That’s why it makes perfect sense that Hollywood has dipped back into the turkey-basted well over and over again for movie storylines, mining everything from dinner-table discussions to the mania surrounding the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Here’s our guide to 10 of the best Thanksgiving movies streaming right now.

10. “Addams Family Values” (1993)

While “Addams Family Values” isn’t quite as good as its predecessor, “The Addams Family,” there’s still a lot to love in Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1993 sequel. Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia are effervescent as ever as Gomez and Morticia Addams, and the black widow storyline involving Christopher Lloyd’s Fester and Joan Cusack’s demented Debbie is twisted and fun.

But the film’s real Thanksgiving bang for your buck comes courtesy of Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman’s Wednesday and Pugsley Addams, who are forced to spend the summer at the bougie Camp Chippewa after Debbie convinces Gomez and Morticia it’s what the kids want.

As you might expect, the whole summer is a series of macabre disasters, but it’s the camp’s Thanksgiving-themed pageant that really marks the sibling duo’s triumph over the wilderness, with a stone-faced Wednesday delivering a monologue about indigenous and outsider rights to a crowd of unsuspecting parents before turning the whole production into a fiery debacle.

9. “The Last Waltz” (1978)

Taking place in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day in 1976, “The Last Waltz” was advertised as the last ever performance of the Canadian-American rock group The Band. The resulting concert film, which was directed by Martin Scorsese, has been hailed as one of the greatest concert movies ever made.

Featuring performances by The Band and a murderer’s row of special guests including Bob Dylan, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, The Staple Singers, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, and Neil Young, the film intermixes live performances with band interviews and soundstage performances, with a card at the film’s opening aptly advising audiences that “this film should be played loud!”

8. “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (1973)

While you could make the argument that “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” isn’t really a Thanksgiving movie, per se — clocking in at just 25 minutes long — we think it earns a spot on this list just based on its subject alone.

A 1973 TV special based on Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comics, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” finds Charlie Brown unexpectedly hosting a Thanksgiving meal for his whole friend group, including Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Franklin, Linus, and Sally.

Struggling to get the meal on the table before leaving for grandma’s house, Charlie Brown enlists Snoopy and Woodstock to help finish everything up — a move that goes about as well as you’d think, given that the black-and-white pup is (despite all his personality) still just a dog.

7. “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (1987)

You just can’t go wrong with a Steve Martin–John Candy buddy comedy, particularly when it’s directed by John Hughes.

In “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” Martin plays a frustrated business exec trying (and failing) to make it home for Thanksgiving. When he teams up with Candy, who plays a shower curtain ring salesman, the pair set off on a road trip full of bickering, hijinks, and bad luck — all of which is hilarious.

Strap in, turn it on, and be glad you’re already at home this holiday season.

6. “Son In Law” (1993)

There was a time in the early to mid-1990s when Pauly Shore reigned supreme at the box office, starring in box office hit after hit, from “Encino Man” to “Bio-Dome.” “Son In Law” is one of his sweeter endeavors, starring Shore as Crawl, an L.A. party animal who tags along with farm girl friend Becca (Carla Gugino) as she heads home to South Dakota for the holidays.

When Crawl pretends to be Becca’s fiancé to help her get out of a proposal from a lackluster at-home love interest, he’s thrown into a maelstrom of family and farm dynamics. It’s farcical and absurd, mixing Shore’s loony slapstick with your usual “coming home as an adult” cinematic tropes.

But it’s also pretty enjoyable, too — especially if you’re stuffed full of turkey and pie and looking for something a little lighthearted to chuckle at while you drift in and out of a tryptophan-induced nap.

5. “Home for the Holidays” (1995)

Directed by Jodie Foster and starring the always exuberant Holly Hunter, “Home for the Holidays” tells the story of a slightly lost mom named Claudia (Hunter) who travels back home to Baltimore for Thanksgiving after her teenage daughter decides to abandon her for the weekend in order to spend time with a new boyfriend.

There’s hometown and family drama a-plenty in “Home for the Holidays,” including lost jobs, political disagreements, romantic entanglements, and a football game that turns into a fight. There’s lots of star power, too, with Hunter joined on-screen by Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, Dylan McDermott, Steve Guttenberg, Claire Danes, Charles Durning, Shawn Hatosy, and David Strathairn.

4. “Holiday Inn” (1942)

You can throw Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire’s “Holiday Inn” on just about any list of holiday movies, and for good reason: It’s about a Connecticut country inn that opens only on holidays, when it throws massive events full of singing, dancing, and good cheer.

Chock-full of big holiday production numbers (including one about Lincoln’s birthday that absolutely hasn’t stood the test of time, given that it’s performed in blackface), “Holiday Inn” is — again, for the most part — a charming throwback romp.

Though the inn is actually closed on Thanksgiving, the film plays around with the holiday’s ever-changing date before a moping Jim (Crosby) launches into a swinging number about how he’s got plenty to be thankful for, even if he doesn’t currently have the girl he loves.

3. “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986)

Spike Lee’s directorial debut, “She’s Gotta Have It” stars Tracy Camilla Johns as Nola Darling, a Brooklyn woman dating three men while trying to figure out who she is as an adult and an artist. Shot entirely in black and white and imbued with a deliciously jazzy soundtrack, the film dips into Thanksgiving only briefly, for a memorable scene in which Nola and all three love interests share a holiday meal at her apartment.

And if you like “She’s Gotta Have It,” you’re in luck: Lee also worked on a companion television series in the late ’10s, two seasons of which are available on Netflix.

2. “The Ice Storm” (1997)

A family drama from Ang Lee, “The Ice Storm” throws two dysfunctional families together during Thanksgiving weekend 1973. There’s infidelity and grief, self-destruction and drug use, and everything does get to feel pretty out of control.

That said, the film’s bang-up cast, including Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, and Elijah Wood, makes even the most traumatic scenes inherently compelling.

1. “You’ve Got Mail” (1998)

God bless a Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan rom-com. In Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail,” Hanks and Ryan play competing New York booksellers who, though they hate each other in real life, unknowingly begin an online romance. It’s full of warm fuzzy feelings and AOL nostalgia, rewarding cozy repeat views over and over again.

While the film does have great “New York in Autumn” vibes, there’s admittedly not a ton of Thanksgiving to be found within, save one scene in which Hanks’ Joe bails out Ryan’s Kathleen Kelly after she produces a credit card in a lengthy Zabar’s “cash only” line. Look for “Grey’s Anatomy” and Broadway alum Sara Ramirez as the angsty cashier!

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