Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday that brings families together to share delicious food and enjoy each other’s company. From roasted turkey to creamy mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, there’s plenty to look forward to. Of course, putting together such a feast takes a serious amount of work.
For one woman, this task has turned into an exhausting annual responsibility. For years, her sister-in-law has told relatives not to bring a thing, leaving her to prepare the entire meal alone. Now, with 16 hungry guests coming over, the woman has finally reached her limit. So she’s considering a plan to put an end to it once and for all.
For years, the woman had been left to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for her entire family all by herself
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Now, she’s finally had enough
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Thanksgiving is one of America’s favorite holidays, although its history isn’t without controversy
Thanksgiving is one of America’s most beloved holidays. Celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, it’s a day when people give thanks for what they have, traditionally marking the harvest and the blessings of the past year. Families gather around the dinner table to share a special meal and spend quality time together.
The holiday’s origins are often traced to 1621, when English settlers known as the Pilgrims celebrated their first successful harvest in Plymouth, Massachusetts (although it wasn’t the first harvest celebration of its kind). They were joined by the Wampanoag, a Native American people who had helped the settlers survive their first year.
This gathering later became known as the first Thanksgiving, but the holiday wasn’t established as an annual national observance until nearly two and a half centuries later. Much of the credit for making that happen goes to Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor who began campaigning for a national Thanksgiving holiday in 1827.
For the next 36 years, she published articles promoting the idea and wrote numerous letters to politicians, including presidents. Her efforts finally paid off in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving during the Civil War, hoping to encourage unity in a divided country.
However, there’s a darker side to Thanksgiving’s origins that often gets overlooked. As the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian explains, the way the holiday is often portrayed leaves out the suffering of Native Americans during European colonization.
Indigenous communities faced violence, the loss of their lands, and devastating diseases brought by settlers. For this reason, some Native Americans observe Thanksgiving as a National Day of Mourning, remembering what their ancestors endured.
Still, millions of Americans continue to celebrate Thanksgiving as an opportunity to spend time with loved ones and enjoy a delicious meal. And there’s certainly no shortage of food involved.
According to a 2025 YouGov survey, 69% of Americans expected to eat turkey on Thanksgiving, while 61% planned to have stuffing and mashed potatoes. Pumpkin pie and other desserts are also popular favorites.
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Behind every delicious Thanksgiving feast is a mountain of preparation that takes plenty of effort to pull off
Of course, preparing such a feast takes considerable effort. First, there’s the grocery shopping, followed by hours spent in the kitchen cooking over a hot stove. You might also want to decorate the house and set a beautiful table for your guests. And once everyone has gone home, there’s the mountain of dishes to wash and the kitchen to clean.
The grocery bill is another consideration. The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2025 survey found that a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people cost an average of $55.18. Although that was 5% less than the previous year, the estimate covered a fairly basic menu. Adding more elaborate dishes or feeding a bigger crowd can quickly increase the total.
Fortunately, many families make preparations easier by sharing the work. One person might take care of the turkey, while relatives bring their favorite side dishes or desserts. Yet the cooking responsibilities aren’t always divided equally.
That same YouGov survey found that 29% of women expected to do all or most of the Thanksgiving cooking, compared with 19% of men. Interestingly, among those who said they would do all the cooking themselves, 71% also expected to take care of all the cleaning.
In the Redditor’s family, things started out quite reasonably. During their first Thanksgiving together, everyone contributed something to the table. Then her sister-in-law began telling relatives that the host would prepare everything herself.
Somehow, the family simply accepted this arrangement, leaving the woman to spend hundreds of dollars and hours in the kitchen.
After several years of this, it’s understandable that she’s frustrated. She has already tried speaking to her sister-in-law privately, with little success. Now she’s considering sending the family a sign-up sheet showing exactly how much food needs to be prepared and what it will cost. Her husband, however, thinks she should address the matter with his sister directly.
What do you think? Should the woman follow her husband’s advice and try another private conversation, or is it time for the whole family to see how much work goes into their Thanksgiving feast? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Readers encouraged the woman to stop letting her sister-in-law walk all over her and stand up for herself
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