If you want an actual Thanksgiving-set movie this November, the short list is *A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving* on Apple TV, *Planes, Trains and Automobiles* on Paramount+ and Pluto TV, *Addams Family Values* on Paramount+, Eli Roth's slasher *Thanksgiving* on Hulu, and the dramas *Krisha* and *The Humans* on HBO Max and Hulu. The animated *Free Birds* is also circulating, though guides disagree on which service currently has it. Thanksgiving 2026 falls on Thursday, November 26, so the viewing window most people are planning around runs roughly November 13–29, according to Sweety High's Thanksgiving week streaming guide. That matters because at least one of the titles below is only free for two days, and because the biggest streamer on the list is leaning Christmas rather than Thanksgiving this year.
Table of Contents
- The Charlie Brown special is free for two days only
- Where the classic Thanksgiving comedies live
- What to watch once the kids are in bed
- Netflix is skipping Thanksgiving this year
- Check *Free Birds* before you promise it to anyone
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Charlie Brown special is free for two days only
Outside that two-day window it sits behind the $14.99-a-month Apple TV subscription, and it does not air on broadcast television in 2026. That is a real change in habit for anyone who grew up catching it on a network the week of the holiday.
The practical consequence: if you want it free, you watch it this weekend, nearly two weeks before Thanksgiving itself. If you want it on the day, you are paying for a month of Apple TV or renting nothing at all, because the special is exclusive to the service.
- A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving*, the 1973 Peanuts special built around Charlie Brown's toast-and-popcorn holiday dinner, is the most time-sensitive item on the list. AppleInsider reports that Apple TV is streaming it free to non-subscribers on Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15, 2026, either in the Apple TV app or at tv.apple.com.
Where the classic Thanksgiving comedies live
Paramount+ is the closest thing to a Thanksgiving hub this year. *Planes, Trains and Automobiles* (1987) — still the canonical film about how hard it is to simply get home for the holiday — streams on Paramount+ Essential and Premium, and free with ads on Pluto TV, per Reelgood's listing.
Rentals run about $3.99 on Apple TV, Prime Video and Fandango at Home. Paramount+ is also programming for the long weekend directly: it added *PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie* on November 12 and is promoting a family lineup including the Sonic trilogy as Thanksgiving viewing. Those are not Thanksgiving films, but they are what the service is pushing at families with a four-day weekend to fill.
- Addams Family Values* (1993) is on the same service, including the Paramount+ channels sold through Amazon and Roku, according to JustWatch. Its Thanksgiving-pageant sequence, in which Wednesday burns down a summer camp's sanitized retelling of the first Thanksgiving, is the most quoted holiday set piece of the decade and the reason the film keeps turning up on these lists.
What to watch once the kids are in bed
Thanksgiving is a thin holiday for films and a surprisingly rich one for dread, because the premise — relatives trapped in a house with unfinished business — does most of the work. Two adult dramas are named as currently streaming in Rotten Tomatoes' holiday TV and streaming guide: *Krisha*, Trey Edward Shults's debut about a woman returning to a family dinner she has no standing at, and *The Humans*, Stephen Karam's adaptation of his own play, set entirely in a downstairs apartment during the meal. They are on HBO Max and Hulu. For horror, Eli Roth's *Thanksgiving* (2023) is on Hulu, where ComicBook.com and the service's own title page put its arrival at August 17, 2025, with no stated end date on the license.
It began life as a fake trailer in *Grindhouse* and is the rare holiday slasher that uses the holiday's iconography rather than just its calendar slot. None of these three is a group watch for a mixed room. *Krisha* and *The Humans* are quiet and bruising; *Thanksgiving* is explicit. Queue them for after the table clears.
Netflix is skipping Thanksgiving this year
If you default to Netflix, adjust expectations. Its Thanksgiving-week additions are holiday-adjacent at best: Peter Berg's WWII drama *The Mosquito Bowl* lands November 25, and three Christmas titles — *The Family Holiday*, *Marry Christmas* and *Mistletoe Mixup* — arrive November 21, per Sweety High's week-of guide.
That is a deliberate pattern rather than an oversight. The Christmas slate is a larger, longer-tail business, and Netflix now starts it before the turkey is cooked. A household that wants a Thanksgiving-set film on Thanksgiving will need a second service.
Check *Free Birds* before you promise it to anyone
All three can be partly true at once — titles move between ad-supported services and subscription catalogs on short licenses — but it means you should verify before announcing it to a room of children. A quick check, in order:.
- Free Birds* (2013, 1 hour 31 minutes, rated PG) is the one widely available animated Thanksgiving comedy, about two turkeys traveling back in time to get their species off the holiday menu. Its location is genuinely unsettled: AARP's holiday roundup lists it on Paramount+, a second guide places it on Prime Video, and Fox News puts it on Tubi.
- Search the title inside your own app rather than trusting a roundup, since catalogs vary by account and region.
- Check Tubi and Pluto TV first; both are free with ads, so a hit there costs nothing.
- If it is missing everywhere, price the rental before adding a subscription for one 91-minute film.
- Confirm the Apple TV free window applies to your account on November 14–15, not just in the promotion copy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is *A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving* on TV this year?
No. AppleInsider reports it does not air on broadcast television in 2026; it streams on Apple TV, free to non-subscribers only on November 14 and 15.
What is the cheapest way to watch a Thanksgiving movie this month?
*Planes, Trains and Automobiles* streams free with ads on Pluto TV, which requires no subscription at all.
Which single service covers the most Thanksgiving titles?
Paramount+ carries both *Planes, Trains and Automobiles* and *Addams Family Values*, plus the family lineup it is promoting for the long weekend.