Is Cracker Barrel's 2024 Thanksgiving Dinner Really Cost Effective?

Thanksgiving is usually a stressful holiday for the person in charge of cooking, no matter how much you may enjoy the experience overall — so looking to a spot like Cracker Barrel for a hassle-free feast makes plenty of sense. And with grocery prices still stubbornly high, buying everything at once from a relatively affordable chain restaurant sounds pretty good ... but just how cost effective is ordering your Thanksgiving dinner from Cracker Barrel compared to making it yourself?

The reality is that, while it depends on how many people you're feeding, you're still paying a premium to have someone prep a meal for you, even at Cracker Barrel. After doing the math we found that it would cost at least 30% more than making everything from scratch. The chain offers two turkey dinner packages, one that serves four to six people and another for eight to 10. Prices vary by location, with options we checked in several parts of the country ranging from $115 to $140 for the smaller meal, and between $175 to $210 for the large. Both include turkey breast and gravy, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, greens beans, and rolls, while the larger meal also comes with mashed potatoes and two pies: pecan and pumpkin. That's a lot of food, but most of those sides are pretty humble, and, while a perfect comparison is tough because Cracker Barrel's menu doesn't say how big the servings are, most are cheap to make, even with fresh ingredients.

Assuming you have basic staples like salt and flour, and using a middle-of-the-road grocery store for reference, most of these sides cost less than $10 to make for four to six people. Cranberry sauce is just fresh cranberries, $5 for two pounds on average, with a sweetener and spices. The green beans are just roasted, and even fresh they should cost $3 max per pound. Your go-to Butterball turkey can range from 99 cents to $2 per pound depending on the store, so a 10-pound turkey would be no more than $20. And in that case you'll get a whole turkey instead of just the breast meat, notably the blandest and driest part. Adding everything up we came to between $60 and $70 to recreate the smaller meal depending on your area, meaning Cracker Barrel would be almost twice as much.

You can see the difference clearly in some of Cracker Barrel's à la carte Thanksgiving sides. The small size green beans cost around $16, as do the mashed potatoes. Making those dishes yourself at a generous ½-pound per person would still only cost you half as much.

However, Cracker Barrel does get more competitive for the eight to 10 person meal. Beyond feeding twice as many people for only 50% more, it also includes two pies — and a classic homemade pecan pie in particular can be pricey to make. You still won't save money, but to save you some holiday stress, a restaurant-quality pecan pie might just make it worth it.