Many people often know a lot of Christmas movies for the holidays or often looking forward into seeing new Christmas movies every holiday season. But do you ever wonder, why there isn’t as many thanksgiving movies as there is in Christmas movies? Or if there is any thanksgiving movies? For those who don’t know, the first thanksgiving was celebrated by Pilgrim settlers in 1621, with at least 90 Wampanoag joined 52 English people at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, to mark a successful harvest.
Then Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, “The last Thursday of November next, as a day of thanksgiving to heal the wounds of the nation and restore it to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.” Ever since then thanksgiving has been a national holiday to celebrate being thankful for the things we have since there’s other people that probably aren’t so lucky to have a lot of things. Along with coming together and celebrating peace and love.
Now back to why there isn’t as many thanksgiving movies, so initially filmmakers claimed that the cinematic classics is much more limited in movies rather than in tv shows. Along with Christmas-themed movies releasing to theaters and outnumbered thanksgiving films 4 to 1, according to data from box office Mojo. Which also doesn’t include the hundreds of Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies.
Since the classic Christmas movies like ” White Christmas” and “Miracle on 34th street” Christmas gave filmmakers more opportunity to write stories for both kids and adults with themes like community, faith, family, and love. Filmmakers also claimed that thanksgiving is more of a holiday for tv shows rather in movies because of family dysfunctions and fights at the dinner table. Plus they don’t want to compete with the tv viewership due to the often football game that usually occurs that day or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
So overall, filmmakers aren’t leaving out the holiday. It’s just because there’s lack of creative opportunities to make movies about the holiday. But, that doesn’t mean that there’s no thanksgiving movies out there. “Pieces of April”, “Home for the Holidays”, the horror movie called “Thanksgiving”, and some more other films that all orbited around the holiday. So the next time when you are looking for some thanksgiving movies, here’s a few you can watch.
Pieces of April is about a girl who lives with her boyfriend in a low-rented New York City apartment away from her emotionally distant family. But later on discovers that her mother has a fatal form of breast cancer, so she invites her family to her place for Thanksgiving, as it could be the last Thanksgiving with her mother.
Home for the Holidays is about a single mother getting left alone on thanksgiving by her teenage daughter. So she decides to travel alone to her childhood home for an explosive holiday dinner with her dysfunctional family.
Lastly, Thanksgiving is about a thanksgiving-inspired mysterious masked killer who terrorizes residents in Plymouth, Massachusetts after a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy. But the random one by one revenge killings soon become part of a larger, sinister plan.