Most-Hated Thanksgiving Dishes and Topics To Avoid With Family

Mac and cheese is trending, because obviously the traditional Thanksgiving dinner needs more carbs. You need to up your potato game to stay with the in crowd, but skip the green bean casserole (yes, please). Oh, and keep your political opinions to yourself. Remember, there’s a lot of cutlery on the table.

Those are just some of the conclusions from a wide-ranging survey of from savings.com called “Reinventing Thanksgiving 2025.” Forget about gratefulness, togetherness and football, for us Thanksgiving is all about stuffing ourselves till we have to unbutton our pants for a nap. So, what are the dishes the survey found that can be left off the menu to save more room for pie?

Dishes That Should Be Banned

• Green bean casserole. Savings.com found that 40% of respondents wanted this permanently off the Thanksgiving menu. We’re down with that, partly because any recipe that has canned cream of mushroom soup as a base should have died in the ’50s. Violently. Not part of your recipe, you say? Are you one of those fancy people who add almonds? Sorry, but also blech.
• Cranberry sauce came in second on the banned list, with 35% of respondents rejecting it. If all you’ve ever had is cranberry sauce that’s comes served shaped like the can it was shaken out of, that makes sense. So go ahead, break Grandma’s heart. But be warned, kids. Speaking from experience here, a few things happen as you get older. Your memory becomes iffy, your ears grow longer and you develop a taste for cranberry sauce with turkey, but only if it’s made with fresh cranberries and a ton of sugar. Simple and delicious.
• Sweet potatoes or yams were the third dish (yeah, we know they’re different, but this is America, where they’re not) deemed unworthy by 16% of respondents. We’re willing to bet that a good portion of that 16% gets sweet potatoes buried under a layer of marshmallows. A bit of carrying coals to Newcastle there, people. They are called sweet potatoes after all. Try a lot of butter and a touch of cinnamon, well-baked. Mmmm.

Favorites and New Trends

• Turkey was deemed an essential dish by 61% of people, according to savings.com, raising the obvious questions: Who are the 39% and why are they eating lasagna?
• Mashed potatoes were favorites among 51%, though one of the trends the survey found was that people were looking for “elevated” potato recipes, which basically means adding cheese, making scalloped potatoes or fiddling with them in some way. Ever trendsetters, we elevated our mash-potato game a few years ago. Thank you, Bob Evans brand mashed potatoes, available at your local grocery store.
• Stuffing, or dressing for those of you worried about salmonella, was the third essential dish, declared so by 16%. Seriously, who are these non-dressing people, and what explains the mismatch between the love for turkey versus dressing?

Among viral dishes trending on social media, macaroni and cheese is stirring up a lot of buzz, so if you’re not cooking, be sure to wear your fat pants.

We’ll just quote from the survey for another trendy dish: “Stuffing innovations — Interesting spins on traditional stuffing, such as stuffing waffles and White Castle slider stuffing, are generating buzz.” Uh-huh. At one point, so was eating Tide detergent pods. Just sayin’.

Conversations to Avoid

• Politics, 58% (The other 42% are probably families firmly on one side in politics. They’ll probably still will end up with indigestion if anyone says the T or the E words.)
• Religion, 29% (Our Pilgrim forebears are appalled. Who are we supposed to be thanking? Butterball?)
• Money/finances, 28% (Don’t even think about how much this spread is costing you, and definitely avoid passive-aggressive comments about your deadbeat cousins’ hearty appetites.)
• Health/body image, 18% (No making suggestions that maybe a family member should skip a second piece of pie, and this includes eye-rolling and subtle head shakes.)

The Price

As a website that helps people find coupons and grocery discounts, savings.com naturally looked at how people were feeling about their pocketbooks this Thanksgiving: “19 percent of Americans plan to spend less on Thanksgiving this year compared to 2024,” the survey found. “This minority of budget-cutters is making strategic choices about where to trim — revealing what’s truly essential versus what’s merely traditional.” Fewer side dishes, less travel and potluck dinners were among the cost-cutting strategies.

“Meanwhile, 20 percent expect to spend more this year than last — likely absorbing elevated grocery prices that have surged 25 percent in five years,” savings.com reports. “The majority (61 percent) plan to spend about the same as last year, suggesting families have adjusted to the new pricing reality and are finding ways to maintain their celebration without dramatic budget shifts in either direction.”

Those of us in the middle will do what we usually do, one supposes. Muddle along, reach for credit cards and, if we’re smart, be thankful there’s food on the table at all. Except for green bean casserole.