Cooking turkey for Thanksgiving? It’s going to cost you more this year
Posted October 6, 2026 10:58 am
2 min read
A turkey dinner for Thanksgiving is going to cost you a lot more this year, a report by the the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University found on Tuesday.
The cost of cooking your family a Thanksgiving meal has been rising steadily since 2024, with a small increase of 0.6 per cent for a turkey dinner in 2025, compared to 2024.
This year, however, the cost went up 10 per cent from $32.48 in 2025 to $35.72 in 2026 for a Thanksgiving meal for four with turkey as your main meat.
The menu includes potatoes, carrots, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, cranberries, stuffing, and gravy as sides, but the rise in the cost is mainly due to the cost of turkey rising from $10.43 to $12.53.
Side dishes got more expensive too.
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There was a slight $0.74 rise in the cost of a pound of carrots from $0.91 in 2025 to $1.65 in 2026.
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The price of a 10-pound sack of potatoes remained the same at $6.99.
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The combined price of the five other sides – dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, cranberries, stuffing, and gravy – went up by 2.8 per cent, the report said.
Overall, it will cost $23.19 to put together the whole array of sides. In 2025, the same side dishes cost $22.05 and in 2024, they cost $20.61.
While the cost of turkey has seen the sharpest rise, you’ll be paying more this year regardless of what meat you use as your main course.
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The rise in the price of turkeys has meant that the cost of a ham dinner would be in the same ballpark range.
The price of a ham Thanksgiving dinner went up 4.3 per cent from $34.87 in 2025 to $36.37 this year.
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The cost of lamb and lobster meals will depend on the cut of the meat, but the report estimates that both those proteins also went up in price.
A lamb meal for four has gone up 3.5 per cent from $77.77 in 2025 to $80.47 in 2026.
Lobster meals have seen the smallest increase in price but remain the most expensive protein in a Thanksgiving meal for four. It went up 3.4 per cent from $85.23 in 2025 to $80.47.
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