Elvis Presley: Why He Didn’t Always Celebrate Thanksgiving at Graceland
Elvis Presley loved spending the holidays at Graceland. It was a time of year when he could rest and recharge after months of performing concerts or filming movies. However, he didn’t always celebrate Thanksgiving with his family and friends at Graceland as much as he’d like.
Why didn’t Elvis Presley regularly celebrate Thanksgiving at Graceland?
Elvis Presley’s schedule was jam-packed after becoming a music sensation in the early 1950s. His manager, Colonel Tom Parker, kept Elvis on the road performing for the better part of each year.
As Elvis’ career escalated, he added television appearances and movies to his packed schedule. Thus, he began to spend more time away from his beloved Memphis, TN home.
Therefore, there were many times Elvis wasn’t at Graceland for Thanksgiving. The Elvis History Blog reports that in the years 1954 and 1956 he performed in concert on the day of thanks. He also spent Thanksgiving in Germany in 1958 as a soldier for the United States Army.
In the 1960s, Elvis was deep into a film career. Through 1968 he often spent Thanksgiving in California as he filmed the movies Wild in the Country, Kid Galahad, Tickle Me, Stay Away, Joe, and Live a Little, Love a Little. However, he also tried to return to Memphis as much as he could to celebrate the holiday with his family, even if only for a few days.
By the early 1970s when Elvis was deep into his Vegas residencies, he rarely worked on Thanksgiving. There were two exceptions: Nov. 1975, and one year later, in Nov. 1976 when he was away from home.
Elvis Presley’s longtime Graceland cook revealed his favorite Thanksgiving menu
When he did enjoy Thanksgiving at Graceland, Elvis Presley loved a traditional turkey and sides. His longtime cook, Nancy Rooks, spoke to The Commercial Appeal about his favorite menu, sharing her recollections of cooking for the king during this particular holiday.
“He liked the turkey and the dressing and the cranberry sauce,” she shared. “But sometimes with crowded peas and sliced onion and tomatoes. And he liked sweet potatoes, especially candied yams.”
After his death, Lisa Marie Presley, continued to celebrate the holiday at Graceland
Elvis Presley’s Graceland home was opened for tours in 1982. The home has subsequently become a living museum to the King of Rock and Roll and Presley family members no longer live on the property.
After Lisa Marie became a mother, she regularly returned to Graceland to celebrate Thanksgiving with her children. The family would enter the home after the tours stopped the night before the holiday, as Graceland is closed on Thanksgiving.
Graceland archivist Angie Marchese shared with Express how Lisa Marie and her children would celebrate Thanksgiving at her father’s Memphis mansion. It was a typical family dinner.
“The last tour was normally at 5 p.m. and then we would take the ropes down and turn all the kitchen appliances on. Elvis’ original cooks would come and make what they used to make for them, which was quite amazing. And then when the last cook passed away we found a caterer that Lisa liked to come in and make all of her favorite foods.”
“It really brought the house to life. It was a fun time to experience Graceland in that way and they’d all leave at like two or three in the morning and then we’d put the ropes back up, turn the equipment off, put the Plexiglass back on and tourists would come through the next day.”
Thanksgiving is one of two days that Graceland is closed to the public. The other is Christmas Day.
Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023. She is buried in Graceland’s Meditation Garden alongside her father, Elvis Presley, who died in 1977, grandparents Vernon and Gladys Presley, Great-Grandmother Minnie Mae, and Lisa’s son, Benjamin Keough.
