Thanksgiving Dinner Drops 5% In Price From 2024
“Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go!”
Thanksgiving dinner is a tradition for many households in America, but it comes with a steep price tag.
Still, according to a new survey, consumers can expect their Thanksgiving dinners to cost less this year than the two previous years.
For the 40th year in a row, the American Farm Bureau Federation has conducted its survey of prices for this beloved annual meal. How the survey is conducted is fairly simple, with volunteer shoppers in all 50 states, as well as the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, being tasked with going to their local grocery store and documenting prices.
Aiming to capture the cost of the typical Thanksgiving dinner, the volunteer shoppers get the “local prices for turkey, cubed stuffing, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, frozen peas, fresh cranberries, celery, carrots, pumpkin pie mix and crusts, whipping cream, and whole milk.”
Survey Results
In 2025, a Thanksgiving meal serving 10 people has dropped, coming to an average cost of $55.18. This amounts to approximately a 5% drop from 2024, which had an average cost of $58.08.
Helping to bring down the average cost of the meal are drops in the price of turkeys, cubed stuffing, fresh cranberries, and dinner rolls, the American Farm Bureau Federation reports.
Not everything dropped in cost though, as increases in prices were observed for sweet potatoes, frozen green peas, a vegetable tray of carrots and celery, whole milk, and whipping cream.
This year, a turkey is at its lowest average cost since 2000, making up approximately 39% of the total cost of a Thanksgiving dinner.
Regionally, the cost of a Thanksgiving meal fluctuates, with the average cost being lowest in the southeast of the United States. There, the meal totals at an average of $50.01.
In the west, costs are at their highest, averaging at $61.75. However, prices in the northeast are close behind, at $60.82.
See the full results of the 2025 American Farm Bureau Federation survey, here.
Trump Policies Affecting Affordability
While on the campaign trail in 2024, the word “inflation” was a major area of contention for then President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris, with then former President Donald Trump attributing high costs to the policies of the incumbent Democrat administration.
According to an article shared by the White House of the Trump administration on November 15, inflation has dropped from an average of 5% under Biden to an average of 2.7% during Trump’s second term.
Further, White House Press Sec. Karoline Leavitt posted on X, formerly Twitter, that inflation was at 1.7% when Trump left office in January of 2021, with inflation rising to 9.1% by the end of 2022.
Never forget:
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) November 13, 2025
Joe Biden and the Democrats unleashed the WORST inflation crisis in four decades and lied repeatedly about it to the American people with help from the liberal media.
President Trump is cleaning up their economic disaster, and he's making great progress. https://t.co/LN05ONgZUm pic.twitter.com/PBu1DCQ2Zo
Further, the White House stated that “Americans have even seen the first overall price decline since 2020,” citing an inflation report from April which looked to the cost of consumer goods, energy prices, and hourly wage growth.
When asked on November 17 about his willingness to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump prefaced that he has “nothing to do with Epstein,” and then replied:
“All I want is, I want for people to recognize the great job that I’ve done on pricing, on affordability … on energy, on ending eight wars, and another one coming … I’d hate to see that deflect from the great job we’ve done.”
See Trump’s full response, here:
Further, on November 14, Trump posted the following on Truth Social with Thanksgiving in mind:
RELATED: Trump Says Every American Will Receive A $2,000 Dividend
“This Thanksgiving, we’re also making incredible strides to make America affordable again,” said President Donald Trump on Tuesday, November 25, at the traditional pardoning ceremony for the Thanksgiving turkeys. “Walmart announced that the cost of their standard Thanksgiving meal is 25% lower than just one year ago.”
Continuing, Trump said the United States Department of Agriculture reports that the cost of turkey is down 33% from Biden-era highs, potatoes are down 13%, and ham is down 15% from 2024.
Similarly, he said egg prices have dropped 86% since March, and that gasoline prices are expected to “soon be hovering around $2 a gallon.”
Watch Trump speak on affordability in America, and pardon the Thanksgiving turkeys, here:
