How much is Thanksgiving dinner?

According to Statista, the average Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people will cost $64 this year, the highest price in 22 years. The traditional American table today includes turkey, sweet potatoes, buttered buns, peas, cranberry sauce, vegetables, and, of course, pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Inflation has increased the cost of all products. So turkey went up 24% on average, mashed potatoes cost 20% more than last year, and cranberry sauce went up 18% in price.

Retailers Aldi and Walmart decided to support American families in a time of inflation and cut prices on major items specifically for Thanksgiving this year. Throughout November, products popular during the holidays were sold at 2019 prices, meaning discounts of up to 30%.

Allison, an Arlington resident, shared that “I’m not cooking anything this year, we’re having dinner for two. We’re not going anywhere, we’re still cautious about traveling because of the covid, we’ll probably go to a restaurant.” Sam, her roommate, said, “is going to celebrate with friends. One of them is buying all the groceries, I don’t know how much it will cost. He’ll probably go to the supermarket and we’ll chip in, I think it’ll be about $200 for everybody.”

But retiree Pam says she’s not going to spend much because the prices are so high: “I used to make everything traditional: ideas, stuffing, vegetables, potato salad is a must. You know what I’m going to cook this year? Chicken!”

Students Jack and Abby, who attend the University of Virginia, came to visit their parents: “The thing I like most for Thanksgiving is turkey stuffing,” Jack says. “And I love sweet potatoes,” adds his sister Abby. “We have no idea how much our parents spend on holiday dinner, we know turkey is expensive, but we always make everything ourselves,” the boys said.

The relationship between the holidays and the economy was used by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the late 1930s. It was to restore it that a series of his “New Deal” reforms were aimed at. In 1939, he moved Thanksgiving Day to the second Thursday of November to prolong the selling season; 2 years after that different states in America celebrated the holiday on different days, as not everybody supported the initiative of the head of the White House.

The first Thanksgiving in the United States was celebrated in 1621, during the three-day harvest festival, and then no turkey was on the menu of the Pilgrims. Nowadays, no Thanksgiving feast is complete without it. The price for a whole bird ranges from $15 to $70.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving opens the Christmas season, which means that for the next month Americans will be preparing for the main holiday of the year, buying gifts on “Black Friday” and stocking up on groceries for Christmas dinner.