This year’s Thanksgiving Day dinner won’t be as hard on the checkbook as it was in 2022. However, the meal will still reflect historically high costs.
The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 38th annual survey provides a snapshot of the average costs of this year’s holiday feast for 10, which is $61.17 or less than $6.20 per person. This is a 4.5 percent decrease from last year’s record-high of $64.05, but a Thanksgiving meal is still 25 percent higher than in 2019. The centerpiece of a traditional meal is turkey, which helped bring down the overall cost.
A 16-pound turkey averages $27.35 or $1.71 per pound, down 5.6 percent from 2022. Cranberries took the sharpest drop as a 12-ounce bag averages $2.10, down 18 percent from last year. The cost for a classic meal was cheapest in the Midwest at $58.66. The Northeast was the most expensive at a cost of $88.43.
