It's officially November, which means a lot of people in the United States are getting ready for Thanksgiving (or Christmas, it seems to come earlier and earlier each year). Thanksgiving is a time when we gather with friends and family, and eat way too much food for our own good (just in case you had any doubt that Americans came up with this holiday).
However I noticed that, while many celebrate Thanksgiving through feasts, football, and parades, the holiday doesn't have the same unique presence in people's hearts like Christmas and Halloween do. I also noticed that, unlike Halloween or Christmas, Thanksgiving has a massive lack of television specials and films based on the holiday. There are probably many reasons for this but here are a few that come to my mind.
When you really think about it, Thanksgiving doesn't have that much of an individual identity. Sure, Thanksgiving has those recognizable images of turkeys, Pilgrims, Native Americans, and parades; but it lacks any special practice or tradition that isn't already done in other holidays. It doesn't have the candy giving and spookiness of Halloween.
It doesn't have the gift giving of Christmas. When you think about it, Thanksgiving is pretty much Christmas without the gift giving. If a comedy film about the Thanksgiving holiday was made, it would just be the dinner scene from "Christmas Vacation" expanded into a full 90 minute film. This brings me to another idea as to why Thanksgiving has a lack of unique films and T.V. specials about the holiday.
Even though Thanksgiving has a unique look to it most of us just see it as simply another part of the larger Christmas season. When Thanksgiving comes we typically view it as the start of the Christmas season (mostly thanks to Black Friday). It's that smaller holiday that's sandwiched between the two unique and massive holidays, Christmas and Halloween. This often causes people to glance over the entire holiday.
The whole point of the holiday also seems a bit redundant. The holiday is about getting together with friends and relatives and having a feast together. What's the point of doing that when you'll do the exact same thing only one month later. The holiday also lacks the childhood connection found in Christmas and Halloween as well.
Children love dressing up and getting candy. Children love waking up to find toys and games under the tree. There's nothing for them to really latch onto for Thanksgiving accept, maybe, the Macy's Parade (which is why it stands as one of the holiday's most defining feature in pop culture).
The only kids film about Thanksgiving (and only film in general) that I can think of is "Free Birds", which is a film that has little to do about the holiday itself and instead involves turkeys trying to time travel to stop the first Thanksgiving from happening (it's not as interesting as I'm making it sound). One of the only Thanksgiving movies I could think of had to make itself a bizarre scifi film with talking turkeys in order to get children interested in a Thanksgiving themed movie.
Thanksgiving is one of those tricky holidays that many filmmakers and television producers have no idea what to do with. How do you make a holiday like Thanksgiving interesting to film goers. Most films that involve family feasts are already Christmas films. The history behind the holiday is one of those touchy subjects because it is tied to our colonialist history and our less than great relationship with indigenous peoples that followed after. Any attempt to do a cute kid friendly version of that would feel like an attempt to whitewash our history. We like Thanksgiving for the food and the company, but does it really hold that same place in your heart for holidays like Christmas? Our lack of Thanksgiving media reflects the lack of importance we hold for it and the lack of uniqueness among it's practices.
