Deep discounting by U.S. retailers on turkeys pushed the cost of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner lower for a third straight year, while costs for side dishes highlighted the country’s nagging debate over the cost of living. The overall decline put the price of the meal at $55.18, 5% down from 2024, the lowest since 2021, driven lower by a 16.3% decline that shoppers found in what retailers were charging for a 16-pound turkey, the American Farm Bureau Federation reported in its annual survey of holiday meal prices.

But the overall price was still about 13% higher than what the bureau’s “classic meal” — featuring turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, sweet peas, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie and other items — cost in 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term and before the COVID-19 pande

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