10 Thanksgiving Stories More Stuffed With Drama Than Your Holiday Turkey

Thanksgiving is a special occasion for families to reunite, celebrate their connections, and give thanks for their blessings. However, the holiday can also stir up surprising clashes. Below, we’re sharing real-life Thanksgiving moments that went from heartwarming to downright chaotic in the blink of an eye.

• My uncle brought pizza to Thanksgiving because he didn’t like my grandma’s cooking. She had spent all day preparing our Thanksgiving meal, and he brought pizza! He, my aunt, and my cousins ate the pizza like it was nothing. My grandma went into the other room and cried. © marabou22 / Reddit

• My new in-laws invited me for my first Thanksgiving with the family. We were laughing, and it felt like they loved me. I went to the bathroom for 5 minutes. When I returned, everyone looked pale, and my MIL had left the table.
  My husband rushed us to leave. In the car, he looked furious, he said, “You could have at least warned me that you added pine nuts to the casserole you made! You know that my mom is very allergic to it.”
  My world crumbled. I had added pine nuts to make the dish I brought even better, and had forgotten about my MIL’s allergy. In my defense, my husband had mentioned it only once. Thankfully, my MIL felt better later, but her Thanksgiving—and mine—was ruined.

• My aunt and uncle showed up an hour late to dinner. My aunt then proceeded to yell at all of us because we had started eating without her. The rest of the family still makes jokes about it, and some are still not on speaking terms with her. © Jackhiy99 / Reddit

• My 17-year-old cousin stood up in the middle of dinner and announced that he had gotten a girl pregnant and that she was keeping the baby. Most people laughed until about 30 awkward seconds passed, and one by one, we started realizing that he was, in fact, serious when he began going into details. © joeyboii23 / Reddit

• It was after dinner, and everyone was taking a pre-dessert break to clean up and get ready (dessert is serious). My father was sitting at the head of the table, watching the game on TV at the far end, while I was dozing on the couch.
  My mother walked in from the kitchen, paused, and blankly said, “The table is on fire.” I perked up, and sure enough, someone had knocked a candle over, and the tablecloth was on fire. My father, still watching the game through the flames, hadn’t even noticed. Thankfully, we put it out quickly, but we still tease him about his obliviousness. © antisocialpsych / Reddit

• My partner’s aunt made a huge stink that the cranberry sauce had to be this specific kind from a can. And no, it couldn’t be that same brand of cranberry sauce that had been purchased because said can had actual fruit in it. Partner’s dad had to hurry to the grocery store to buy the “right” one. Only after the meal was over did anyone notice that neither cranberry sauce had actually been put out for dinner. © falsesleep / Reddit

• So, 25 years ago, my son was born in early November. My mom’s family is all prim and proper. So my adopted brother takes my 2-week-old son to check his diaper during dinner.
  Came back with a diaper in hand saying it didn’t look right and proceeded to smell it. So, he tasted it. Everyone is flipping out. He filled a clean diaper with pumpkin pie filling, it was hilarious. © fordfan289 / Reddit

• My dad had an allergic reaction to a shrimp cocktail before dinner, and his face swelled up. He refused to come out of the kitchen or sit at the table with us. He was just eating his food in the kitchen and trying to act like everything was normal, yelling out things like, “Hey, good mashed potatoes this year, huh?” Meanwhile, my mom was anger-crying at the table, telling us to just eat the food she worked on all day.
  All of us kids were very scared and confused. My sister started crying because everything was so weird, and no one wanted to eat because of the tension. Eventually, my mom convinced my dad that she needed to take him to the ER. © Skr000 / Reddit

• My grandpa and grandma got divorced, and my grandpa remarried. One Thanksgiving, my not-so-well grandpa stood and declared he regretted letting my grandma divorce him, and that it was the biggest mistake of his life. Right in front of his current wife. © bmbmjmdm / Reddit

• My uncle started seeing a woman who immediately tried to fit in, acting like she was part of the family from day one. She repeatedly asked to host a holiday, and my mom, trying to be kind, agreed to let her host Thanksgiving.
  We arrived at her house, and it was a disaster—dust bunnies everywhere, a smell like decay, and a filthy bathroom covered in mold and piles of garbage. She had ordered takeout and served it on Styrofoam plates. She begged to host and didn’t lift a finger to actually make it feel like a real celebration.

To prevent an even bigger drama, a woman canceled Thanksgiving after her mother-in-law tried to enforce an infamous “Family Code of Conduct” on the guests. Read on to discover the absurdity of the six non-negotiable rules she insisted on.