Just for fun · 3 min read · October 13, 2026

Our tips for an authentic Thanksgiving

Craving turkey and some pumpkin pie? Here are our tips for how to host your own authentic Thanksgiving.

Short on time? Let us summarise this guide for you.

Thanksgiving falls on Thursday 26 November in 2026, and it's really all about the sides, the pies and the people you share them with. This guide covers the history of the holiday, how Black Friday fits in, and how to spend the day, from NFL games and the 100th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to a hike, a Tom Hanks movie marathon and sharing what you're thankful for. It finishes with our favourite dishes to cook, including sweet potato casserole, mac and cheese, pecan pie and bread stuffing.

Now when you think Thanksgiving, we're sure turkey comes to mind, and you're right that it's the centrepiece of the meal. But if you're thinking it must be like our own Christmas dinners, that's where you'd be wrong. The Thanksgiving meal is really all about the sides and the pies, and of course those you get to eat it with.

A little bit of history. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the USA on the fourth Thursday of November, which is 26 November this year, to celebrate a good harvest and other blessings throughout the year. What we think of as Thanksgiving today is largely believed to have originated from a feast in 1621 between the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people, but it wasn't given a fixed date until 1941, when Congress set it as the fourth Thursday of November.

Did you know that Black Friday, which has of course now caught on over here, is actually the Friday after Thanksgiving, which falls on 27 November this year? It's traditionally when people would begin to shop for Christmas now that Thanksgiving has passed, so stores capitalise on this by offering big discounts to encourage shoppers to come out in their thousands!

How to spend Thanksgiving day

Watch NFL and College Football

One of the big things to do on Thanksgiving is to watch the NFL games of the day. This year the Chicago Bears play the Detroit Lions, the Philadelphia Eagles play the Dallas Cowboys and the Kansas City Chiefs play the Buffalo Bills. Kick-offs are at 1pm, 4:30pm and 8:20pm Eastern, which works out as 6pm, 9:30pm and 1:20am UK time.

Lots of Americans follow college football just as closely as the NFL, with rivalry games filling the rest of the weekend. And if a day of watching football doesn't appeal to you, then how about an alternative: a Tom Hanks movie marathon, or as it's commonly known T.Hanks-Giving.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Families will also gather round the TV to watch the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and this year it's the 100th. If you've ever watched Miracle on 34th Street this is the opening scene in the movie. For many Americans this is the official beginning of the Christmas season. I guess like seeing the Coca-Cola ad in the UK!

Go on a hike

This one might be best before you stuff yourself with food! It's a great way to get out into the 'fall' colours and spend time with your family.

Express gratitude for things in your life

Let's not forget it is called Thanksgiving. And though these days we might not be overly thankful for a good harvest, there are of course plenty of other things we are thankful for. So it's nice to take a moment to think of those. Something we like to do is write each person's name on a piece of paper, pass it around the table and each write (anonymously) a reason why you are thankful for that person.

Food, food and food!

Chances are you'll spend a large part of your day either cooking or eating lots of lovely food, and if you want to know what to cook then we've got you covered below!

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What to cook

As we said at the start of this article, for us Thanksgiving is really about the side dishes! Here are our personal favourites:

• Sweet potato (yam!) casserole with marshmallow and pecan streusel. You have to trust us on this one, it sounds odd but it's oh so delicious.
• Mac and cheese. You may not find it on every family's table but you sure will on ours!
• Pecan pie. Now when it comes out of the oven you may think it looks a little overdone, but once you taste it you'll be convinced.
• Bread stuffing. Unlike our traditional stuffing at Christmas, which is meat based, this stuffing is a mix of herbs, garlic, chicken stock and bread.

Right, we're off to do a big shop to get everything we need for the big day! However you spend Thanksgiving we hope it's a good one, and we are of course thankful for anyone reading this too!