Turkey, Trimmings And Sticker Shock: Thanksgiving Meets Grocery Store Reality [Survey]

Thanksgiving is one of America’s best-loved holidays. Other holidays like Christmas and Easter feature gift-giving, religious services or other traditions. The shared Thanksgiving feast is practically an institution in and of itself.

Food is the holiday. Thanksgiving is a bomb of comfort food with warm, heavy textures like potatoes and breading and casseroles, but also a cultural salute to the first Thanksgiving with harvest ingredients like pumpkins, squash and corn.

The cost of that food coma has been going up with inflation, which has increased the cost of groceries by about 30 percent since 2020.

The cost to put food on their tables is weighing heavily on Americans. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults, 73 percent, said they were very concerned about the cost of food and consumer goods in an October Pew Research Center survey.

Another Pew survey found that 70 percent had cut back on extras such as dining out and entertainment over the past year, while more than a quarter struggled to pay all their monthly bills. Against that backdrop, gathering family and friends around a Thanksgiving table can feel especially important, even as the price of keeping those traditions alive becomes harder to swallow.

Americans don’t see inclined to give up those traditions. According to Butterball’s 2026 Togetherness Report, 69 percent of consumers want to preserve their Thanksgiving traditions despite higher costs.

Walmart says you can put Thanksgiving dinner on the table for 10 people for just $35, or $3.50 a head. The turkey is real, the mashed potatoes are real, and there’s even pumpkin pie.

But the bargain comes with a lot of canned vegetables, boxed mixes and ingredients that leave little room for culinary imagination.

https://www.takeachef.com/blog/en/thanksgiving-dinner-cost?

At the other end of the Thanksgiving table, families can hire a private chef can serve dinner for nine to 12 people for about $180 per person.

Between those extremes are the millions of Americans who want a Thanksgiving dinner worth remembering without spending the rest of November regretting what it cost.

How are rising grocery prices affecting your Thanksgiving plans this year? What are you doing differently, if anything?

What Thanksgiving foods are absolutely nonnegotiable at your house? What would you sacrifice to keep them on the table?

What does a perfect Thanksgiving dinner look like at your house, and how much does it really cost to pull off? Do you have any money-saving tricks to share?

Just fill out the survey below (and, no, we don’t collect email addresses). We may use your response for a Patch story.