Best Thanksgiving movies and where to stream them

The top-rated Thanksgiving movie streaming right now is a Christmas movie. Miracle on 34th Street opens at the Macy's parade and that is enough to put it a tenth of a point ahead of Hannah and Her Sisters, the one that actually runs from one Thanksgiving to the next. Paramount+ has the deepest turkey-day shelf of any service.

The 10 best Thanksgiving movies streaming right now

Ranked by IMDb rating. The service after the scores is where to watch it.

1. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

96 min · IMDb 7.9 · RT 96 · Metascore 88 · Prime Video, Disney+

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade needs a Santa, the man they hire says he is the real one, and the case ends up in a New York courtroom. Black and white, and the highest Rotten Tomatoes score and Metascore on this page. It is the film to put on while the dishes soak, because it carries you from the parade straight into the next holiday. Also on Disney+.

2. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

107 min · IMDb 7.8 · RT 92 · Metascore 90 · Prime Video, Tubi, The Roku Channel

Three sisters in Manhattan, two Thanksgiving dinners a year apart, and everything that shifts between them: one husband falls for the wrong sister, one ex-husband becomes convinced he is dying. Tagged dysfunctional family, which undersells how warm it is. Free with ads on Tubi and The Roku Channel if you do not have Prime.

3. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)

25 min · IMDb 7.7 · RT 67 · Apple TV+

Peppermint Patty invites herself and half the gang to Charlie Brown's house for dinner, and the menu is toast, popcorn, pretzels and jellybeans. Twenty-five minutes, the shortest thing on this page by a wide margin, and the only place it streams is Apple TV+.

4. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

92 min · IMDb 7.6 · RT 93 · Metascore 72 · Paramount+

A marketing executive trying to get from New York to Chicago for Thanksgiving, a shower curtain ring salesman who will not leave his side, and every form of transport in the title failing in order. Buddy comedy, road trip, unlikely friendship, all in the tags and all earned. Streaming on Paramount+ without a direct link in our catalog, so search the title inside the app.

5. Garfield's Thanksgiving (1989)

23 min · IMDb 7.6 · Paramount+

The vet puts Garfield on a diet the day before the biggest meal of the year. Ties Planes, Trains and Automobiles on IMDb, but from 42 TMDB votes against 2,354, so treat the ranking as a nostalgia vote. Pairs with the Charlie Brown special for a 48-minute double bill before the kids lose interest.

6. Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

84 min · IMDb 7.4 · RT 100 · Metascore 82 · The Roku Channel, Tubi

A small-time talent manager gets mistaken for his client's girlfriend's lover and spends a day running from the mob, as told by comedians over lunch at the Carnegie Deli. It ends on a Thanksgiving dinner of frozen TV dinners, which is the whole movie in one scene. A 100 on Rotten Tomatoes, free with ads on both services, no direct link in our catalog.

7. Holiday Inn (1942)

101 min · IMDb 7.3 · RT 100 · Metascore 70 · Prime Video

A crooner opens a Connecticut inn that only does business on holidays, and a dancer keeps turning up to steal his partner. One musical number per holiday, Thanksgiving included, and this is the film that introduced White Christmas. The other 100 on Rotten Tomatoes here, from fewer votes than Broadway Danny Rose.

8. Avalon (1990)

126 min · IMDb 7.2 · RT 86 · Metascore 68 · The Roku Channel

A Polish Jewish family arrives in Baltimore and the film follows them across forty years, with the Thanksgiving table as the place every change in the family shows up first. The longest film in the top ten at 126 minutes. Semi-autobiographical, free with ads, and the thinnest sample of the features here at 94 TMDB votes.

9. Stuck in Love (2013)

97 min · IMDb 7.2 · RT 57 · Metascore 49 · Prime Video, Peacock, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Plex

A novelist, his ex-wife and their two teenage kids, from one Thanksgiving dinner to the next, with everyone writing and everyone dating badly. The widest split on the page: audiences at 7.2, critics at 57. Also the easiest to find, on six services, including Peacock and four free ad-supported ones.

10. Pieces of April (2003)

81 min · IMDb 7.0 · RT 83 · Metascore 70 · Tubi, The Roku Channel

April invites the family that gave up on her to Thanksgiving in her Lower East Side walk-up, then her oven dies, and the film cuts between her door-knocking for a working one and the family's reluctant drive in. Her mother is dying, which the film tells you early and never leans on. Take this over Thanksgiving, the 2023 slasher further down, if you want the one actually about the dinner: a higher IMDb score and 25 minutes shorter. Free with ads on both services, no direct link in our catalog.

More Thanksgiving movies worth a look

• The Daytrippers (1997). 87 min · IMDb 7.0 · Max.
  A woman finds a love note to her husband the morning after Thanksgiving and her whole family piles into the station wagon to confront him. One day, one car, a lot of bickering.
• Grumpy Old Men (1993). 103 min · IMDb 7.0 · Paramount+.
  Two feuding Minnesota neighbors, a widow who moves in across the street, and a holiday season of ice fishing and sabotage that starts at Thanksgiving.
• Addams Family Values (1993). 94 min · IMDb 6.9 · Paramount+.
  Wednesday and Pugsley get sent to summer camp and hijack the Thanksgiving pageant. The most-voted title on this page at 3,456 TMDB votes.
• She's Gotta Have It (1986). 84 min · IMDb 6.7 · Netflix.
  Nola Darling in Brooklyn, three men who each want her to themselves, and the Thanksgiving dinner where she seats all three at one table. Spike Lee's first feature, a 91 on Rotten Tomatoes.
• The House of Yes (1997). 85 min · IMDb 6.6 · Pluto TV.
  A brother brings his fiancee home for Thanksgiving to a sister who dresses as Jackie Kennedy, during a hurricane. Dark comedy from a stage play, free with ads, no direct link in our catalog.
• Thanksgiving (2023). 106 min · IMDb 6.2 · Max, Hulu.
  A Black Friday riot in Plymouth, Massachusetts, then a year later a killer in a pilgrim mask starts working through the people responsible. Slasher and whodunit tags, and an 83 on Rotten Tomatoes that the IMDb score does not predict. Also on Hulu.
• Holidate (2020). 104 min · IMDb 6.2 · Netflix.
  Two strangers agree to be each other's plus-one for every holiday of the year, Thanksgiving included, strictly as friends. You know how that goes. The lowest Rotten Tomatoes score on this page at 45.
• Free Birds (2013). 91 min · IMDb 5.8 · Paramount+.
  Two turkeys travel back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get their species off the menu. Animated, for the kids' table only, and the one title here rated under 6 on IMDb. No direct link in our catalog.

Pick one without the family vote

Thanksgiving movie night has more voters than any other night of the year and no two of them have the same services. Start a swipe room with whatever you actually pay for selected, pass the phone around the table, and watch whichever one wins. The concessions machine covers the part of the evening where there is somehow no pie left.