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‘Little House on the Prairie’: Why There Wasn’t a Thanksgiving Episode, According to Melissa Gilbert

Little House on the Prairie was on TV for nine years. Fans have many special memories and favorite episodes. If you're looking for a Thanksgiving episode, you're out of luck. Here's why you won't find a Little House on the Prairie Thanksgiving episode.
by Sheiresa Ngo
Published on
2 min read

If you’re a fan of Little House on the Prairie, you’ve likely wondered why the show doesn’t have a Thanksgiving episode. Many TV fans look forward to Thanksgiving episodes of their favorite shows, so you might have done a quick Internet search only to come up empty-handed. Here’s what Melissa Gilbert revealed about the real reason this holiday wasn’t celebrated on the show. 

Thanksgiving on ‘Little House on the Prairie’

The cast of Little House on the Prairie poses for a picture
The Little House on the Prairie cast | NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

According to Melissa Gilbert (who played Laura Ingalls), there wasn’t a Thanksgiving episode on Little House on the Prairie. However, Thanksgiving was mentioned during Little House on the Prairie Season 3 Episode 6, “Journey into the Spring.”

Also, a turkey (Carrie named him Tom) did have a small part during that episode. Carrie got attached to the turkey and asked Caroline (played by Karen Grassle) if he could sleep in her bed. She treated the turkey like a pet instead of dinner.

During this episode, Mary (played by Melissa Sue Anderson) and Laura looked for a way to talk to Carrie about what would happen to the turkey they purchased. They didn’t know how to tell her that Tom would eventually be cooked and eaten for dinner.

During episode 7, Laura sought advice from her father, Charles (played by Michael Landon).

“She thinks that turkey is a pet; she doesn’t know we’re going to eat it,” Laura told her father about Carrie.

Laura eventually convinced her grandfather to return the turkey to the farm where they bought him and set him free.

Why ‘Little House on the Prairie’ didn’t have a Thanksgiving episode

Michael Landon with Melissa Gilbert and the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ cast | NBCU Photo Bank
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In her book, Prairie Tale: A Memoir, Gilbert wrote that Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday only a few years before the Ingalls family story took place. This is why there wasn’t a Thanksgiving episode. The Little House on the Prairie book (on which the TV show was based) told the story of the Ingalls family and took place from 1874 to 1875.

George Washington issued a proclamation that declared Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, as a day for giving thanks. According to the National Archives, Thanksgiving wasn’t regularly celebrated on the last Thursday of each year until President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation made the day a national holiday.

By 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed a resolution declaring the fourth Thursday of November (instead of saying the last Thursday) to be the Federal Thanksgiving holiday. He wanted to be specific since some November months have five Thursdays. November 2018 is one example.

‘The Little House Years’

Little House on the Prairie fans eventually got to see the Ingalls family have Thanksgiving dinner during a three-hour special titled The Little House Years. This 1979 special focused on the Ingalls family’s Thanksgiving dinner in 1879. After the dinner, Laura Ingalls looked back on significant moments from the family’s life.

Food on The Little House on the Prairie set came from many different places. In her book, Gilbert wrote that they often ate chicken from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Dinty Moore beef stew and Pillsbury biscuits were also on the menu.

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