10 Best Thanksgiving Movies and TV Specials

Christmas specials get all the love, and the world tries to start the holiday season earlier and earlier each year.

Thanksgiving gets the short end of the stick without as much special content.

However, from Thanksgiving episodes of your favorite shows airing each November to movies set around Thanksgiving to others about the origins of the holiday, there is plenty to entertain you and the family on Thursday.

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang make any holiday enjoyable. Who can forget Lucy yanking the football away from Charlie Brown before he can try for a field goal kick?

Friends ran a Thanksgiving episode every November in each one of its 10 seasons from 1994-2004.

"The One With All The Thanksgivings" (Season 5, Episode 8) was the most memorable because of the unforgettable scenes with Joey and Monica with their heads stuck inside uncooked turkeys.

Why were John Candy and Steve Martin so determined to continue their disastrous trip in the John Hughes classic?

It was Thanksgiving! We've all dealt with holiday traffic, but it probably wasn't as bad as this trip.

"Slapsgiving" featured the typical romance drama between Ted and Robin and the comedy of Marshall and Lily. However, fans of the show will forever remember Barney's fear of the "slap bet" on Thanksgiving.

Philadelphia can't get through anything without some kind of Rocky reference.

Rocky and Adrian have their first date at the skating rink on Thanksgiving day.

"The Gang Squashes Their Beefs" (Season 9, Episode 10) brings all the gang's enemies piled up over nine seasons into one apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. No wonder it ends with a dangerous fire.

Mac has trouble understanding why "squashing a beef" or "burying the hatchet" shouldn't be taken literally in a Thanksgiving classic.

New Girl aired five Thanksgiving episodes in its seven seasons.

The most memorable was "Parents" (Season 2, Episode 8), when Jamie Lee Curtis and Rob Reiner make their first guest appearances as Jess's parents. The "parent trap" ploy goes off the rails when Nick unexpectedly hits it off with Jess's mother.

Holidate touched all the holiday bases with a couple (Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey) who use each other as stand-in dates only on holidays. throughout the year.

They have a dramatic fight during the Thanksgiving scene, setting up for a romantic Christmas finish.

The New World provides "a realistic vision of life for both the English and the (Native) Americans in the 17th century" with a portrayal of the settlement of Jamestown in 1607, 13 years before the Mayflower hit the shores of Massachusetts. 

The history lesson is a little bit more informative than Disney's Pocahontas. Romance still sells through, whether it actually happened or not...

Thanksgiving marks the official transition into the Christmas season. It finally becomes acceptable to throw on one of those holiday classics you've stashed away since New Year's.

Enjoy It's A Wonderful Life, Home Alone, Elf, or any other favorite before the holiday chaos pours in throughout the month of December.