Thanksgiving is traditionally a time to come together with your loved ones, enjoy a feast, and appreciate all that you’ve been given in this world. But if you’re anything like me, it’s also a great time to bid a fond adieu your loved ones, make yourself a plate of leftovers to eat alone in your room (it’s not sad! It’s self-care!), and stare fixedly at your phone, laptop, and various other devices in the name of “unwinding.” Hey, nobody said the holidays had to be 100% family time, right?
Luckily for those of us who crave just a soupçon of screen time at Thanksgiving, there’s plenty of fare to amuse yourself with at home or in theaters this holiday weekend. Find a full roundup below.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
I mean, duh, it’s a classic for a reason! The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade can be viewed on NBC and Peacock starting at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 27, and I highly recommend having it on in the background while basting a turkey or baking a pie. There’s something about the dulcet tones of Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker introducing floats full of random celebrities—look out for the likes of Busta Rhymes, Ciara, Colbie Caillat, Cynthia Erivo, Jewel, Mickey Guyton, Taylor Momsen, Teyana Taylor, and Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami this year—that makes for a perfect cooking soundtrack.
Ina Garten on Good Hang with Amy Poehler
Poehler’s podcast Good Hang has become appointment viewing-slash-listening for basically everyone who misses her on Saturday Night Live (so: everyone), and hearing her bond with holiday virtuoso Garten about everything from marriage to having—or choosing not to have—kids and roasting the perfect chicken will make even the longest Thanksgiving Day-drive fly by.
Stranger Things 5: Volume 1
We’ve been waiting for what feels like a million years for the final installment of Stranger Things to hit Netflix, and that blessed moment is finally here. Watch the first four episodes of the fifth season beginning this Wednesday, then stay tuned for the next three on Christmas Day, and the grand finale on New Year’s Eve.
Hamnet
There are plenty of Thanksgiving movies that deserve your attention this holiday, but if you’re in the mood to cry your eyes out in a dark theater, consider a trip to see Chloé Zhao’s tremendous adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel Hamnet, starring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Joe Alwyn, and Emily Watson. Thank us—or, well, not—later!
Kacey Musgraves’s holiday album A Very Kacey Christmas
The best thing about Thanksgiving? Its end officially signals the beginning of Chrismukkah season, and for me, that means one thing: a never-ending playlist of Christmas music guaranteed to annoy literally everyone in my vicinity (thank God for AirPods). A Very Kacey Christmas was released almost a decade ago, but it still goes hard—the ridiculously tear-jerking song “Christmas Makes Me Cry” in particular. (See more of our favorite holiday albums here.)
