Thanksgiving Movies for Kids: 30 Family Films and Specials, Sorted by Age

The best Thanksgiving movies for kids are A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving for preschoolers, Garfield’s Thanksgiving, An Arthur Thanksgiving and Free Birds for early elementary kids, and Miracle on 34th Street for the whole family.

Thanksgiving movies for kids are harder to find than Christmas ones. Most are short TV specials, and a few famous “Thanksgiving movies” are really for adults. The good news: the classics are short enough to fit between dinner and bedtime, and plenty of cozy family films fit the holiday just as well.

Below you will find 30 titles sorted by age, with the year, the rating and an honest note on anything scary or sad. Twelve are true Thanksgiving titles and eighteen are clearly labeled cozy picks. You will also find a gentle way to talk with kids about the real 1621 harvest gathering, plus movie night and screen-free activity ideas.

Thanksgiving Movies for Kids at a Glance

Honest truth first: there are not many true Thanksgiving movies for kids. Christmas and Halloween get dozens of new family films every year; Thanksgiving mostly gets short TV specials. So this list has two parts. Twelve titles are actually set at Thanksgiving or built around it. Eighteen more are clearly labeled cozy fall and family-gathering picks (food, family, gratitude, football) that fit the long weekend just as well.

Years and ratings were checked on studio, network and distributor pages in October 2026. TV specials carry TV ratings rather than MPA film ratings, so we label them “TV special” or “TV episode.” Streaming availability changes, so check your streaming services before the holiday.

How to Pick a Thanksgiving Movie by Age

A good holiday movie matches three things: your child’s attention span, what scares them, and how long the day already is. Thanksgiving is often a big, loud, late day for small children, so shorter usually wins.

• Under 18 months: skip the movie. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends avoiding TV and apps before about 18 months, with video chats with faraway family as the exception. A video call with Grandma is a perfect Thanksgiving screen.
• Ages 2 to 5: the AAP suggests limiting screen entertainment to about 1 hour a day and notes that children learn more when a parent watches with them. A 25 minute special plus a short clip or two fits easily.
• Ages 5 to 8: most G and gentle PG films work. Watch the first time together, because peril and villains hit sensitive kids harder than parents expect.
• Ages 8 to 12: PG films with slapstick, sports and bigger feelings are fair game, and this is a great age to talk about the real history behind the holiday.

Ratings are a starting point, not a guarantee. The Motion Picture Association’s ratings guide describes G films as having little or no violence, strong language or other content of concern, while PG films can include mild, cartoonish action and mild language. PG-13 can include more realistic violence and stronger language, and R can include harsh profanity and graphic content. If a title is new to you, preview the first ten minutes.

One more check before you press play: several holiday-season films touch on whether Santa is real, because Thanksgiving kicks off the Christmas season. We flag those below so believers can wait a year.

Best Thanksgiving Movies for Toddlers and Preschoolers (Ages 2 to 5)

These are short, gentle and easy to follow, which makes them good picks for the slow hour while the turkey rests or the long drive home.

The PBS KIDS clips are only one to four minutes each, so you can stop after two or three. That is the easiest way to give a 2 year old a taste of the holiday without a full movie.

Toddlers often get overtired on big family days. If your little one falls apart by late afternoon, a quiet special on a parent’s lap can be a better reset than another round of cousins. Keep the nap if you can, and look at our toddler bedtime routine for getting back on track after the holiday.

Thanksgiving Movies for Kids Ages 5 to 8

Early elementary kids can follow a full story and love a silly hero. These three are true Thanksgiving stories, from a lasagna-loving cat to a pair of time-traveling turkeys.

A note on Free Birds: it plays the 1621 harvest gathering for laughs and is not a history lesson. If your child asks whether that is what really happened, it is a great opening for the history section below.

Want more for this age? Several of the cozy picks further down, such as Ratatouille, The Peanuts Movie and Babe, are rated G and work well for 5 to 8 year olds.

Thanksgiving Movies for Tweens (Ages 8 to 12)

Tweens are ready for more story and a bit more suspense. True Thanksgiving films for this age are rare, so we added two football movies, since football is part of many families’ Thanksgiving Day. They are clearly labeled: they are not about Thanksgiving.

Kids this age are also ready for the cozy family films below with more emotional weight, such as Coco and Up.

Family Thanksgiving Movies for the Whole Family and Teens

These are the titles that work best after dinner, when everyone from Grandpa to the teenagers is on the couch.

The 1947 Miracle on 34th Street is a fun bridge from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences credits it with helping make Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade an American institution. When you are ready to switch holidays, our Christmas movies for kids list picks up where this one ends.

Cozy Fall and Family-Gathering Movies That Fit the Holiday

These films are not set at Thanksgiving. We picked them because they are about the same things the holiday is about: food, family, home and being thankful for the people around you. Many families find them easier to love than the holiday specials.

If your crew is in the mood for something a little spookier left over from October, our Halloween movies for kids guide is sorted by scare level. For year-round favorites, browse our best family movies for kids.

A Note on History in Older Thanksgiving Specials

Many kids first meet the Thanksgiving story through cartoons, and some older specials and school-play scenes show a tidy version of history: Pilgrims and “Indians” sharing a friendly meal, with Native people drawn as costumes rather than real nations. You do not have to ban these shows, but it helps to know the real story so you can gently fill in the gaps.

Here is what museums that study this history say:

• The 1621 gathering: Plimoth Patuxet Museums describe a three-day harvest celebration in the fall of 1621 (sometime between September 21 and November 9). About 50 English colonists had survived their first winter, and Massasoit, a Wampanoag leader, came with about 90 men.
• What they ate: The only eyewitness account, by colonist Edward Winslow, mentions wildfowl and five deer that Massasoit’s men brought. Plimoth Patuxet notes that pumpkin pie as we know it was not on the table.
• It was not called Thanksgiving: According to Plimoth Patuxet, the event entered American popular imagination as the “First Thanksgiving” in the 19th century.
• Why the Wampanoag were there: The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) explains that the gathering grew out of political alliances and diplomacy, and calls it a rare and temporary period of peace. Before the English arrived, epidemics in 1616 to 1617 had killed as many as three-fourths of the Wampanoag, according to the museum’s estimate.
• The Wampanoag are still here: NMAI notes that Wampanoag communities still live in Massachusetts today, including Mashpee on Cape Cod, Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard and Herring Pond near Plymouth, and that children are learning the Wampanoag language.

How to talk about it by age:

• Ages 3 to 5: keep it simple and true: “A long time ago, Wampanoag people, who lived here first, and English newcomers shared a harvest feast. Wampanoag families still live in that part of the country today.”
• Ages 6 to 8: add that Native peoples have their own traditions of giving thanks. NMAI describes Wampanoag harvest ceremonies with feasting, dancing, games and giving to people in need.
• Ages 9 and up: talk about the harder parts: disease, broken peace and the war that came decades later. Ask, “Who is telling this story, and what might they leave out?”

Skip dress-up that turns Native people into costumes, and choose books and videos made by or with Native creators when you can. Respect, curiosity and real history make the holiday richer, not sadder. Our Thanksgiving trivia page has more kid-friendly questions about the holiday’s history.

Thanksgiving Movie Night Ideas

A movie can be the calm, sit-down moment in a busy holiday weekend. A few easy ways to make it feel special:

• Pick the night: Wednesday night before the holiday or Friday night after both work well. Thanksgiving evening itself often runs late, and tired kids enjoy movies less.
• Let kids vote: Offer two or three choices from the right age table and let them pick. Older kids can make a ballot and run the count.
• Build a blanket fort: Pillows and couch cushions on the living room floor turn any special into an event.
• Leftover tasting plate: Serve small portions of the side dishes you already have, and let kids name a “menu” the way a chef in Ratatouille would. Cut food to a safe size for young children.
• Make tickets: Hand-drawn tickets, a pretend ticket booth and a flashlight usher are half the fun for preschoolers.
• Pause for thanks: At the halfway point, everyone says one thing they are thankful for. It works especially well after A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

For more themes, snack ideas and setup tips, see our full list of family movie night ideas.

Screen-Free Thanksgiving Activities to Pair With a Movie

Every idea here needs no printer and almost no supplies. Use one before the movie to settle kids in, or after it to stretch the story.

• Draw the parade: After Dora’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or Miracle on 34th Street, have kids design their own balloon or float on paper, then line them up for a “parade” down the hallway.
• Snoopy’s menu: After A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, ask kids to plan a silly feast menu for Snoopy and then a real one for your family. Little ones can dictate while you write.
• Thankful chain: Cut paper strips, write one thank-you on each, and loop them into a chain. Add a link after each movie all weekend.
• Turkey time travel: After Free Birds, ask older kids what they would change if they could visit 1621, and what they would want to learn from the Wampanoag.
• Act it out: Let kids retell the plot with stuffed animals. It is a great way to see what they understood and what confused them.
• Joke break: Read a few riddles from our Thanksgiving jokes for kids during the credits.

Need more to fill the long weekend? Our Thanksgiving activities for kids list has ideas for every age, and our Thanksgiving games guide has group games for a house full of cousins.

Related Betteroo Guides

• Thanksgiving Activities for Kids
• Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids
• Family Movie Night Ideas
• Christmas Movies for Kids
• Halloween Movies for Kids
• Christmas Activities for Kids

The Bottom Line

The best Thanksgiving movies for kids are short for little ones and a little bigger for older kids: a 25 minute Charlie Brown special for toddlers, Garfield, Arthur or Free Birds for early elementary kids, and Miracle on 34th Street for the whole family. Fill in with cozy films about food and family, like Ratatouille, Encanto or Paddington.

Watch together when you can, preview anything new, and use older specials as a chance to share the real history of the 1621 harvest gathering. On the big day, protect sleep too: the AAP recommends turning off screens at least an hour before bedtime and keeping TVs and tablets out of kids’ bedrooms.

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