SEATTLE — The cost of feeding family and friends this Thanksgiving may have come as a pleasant surprise to shoppers watching their budgets, as prices for the traditional holiday meal continued a three-year decline.

Chris Anderson, a University of Washington professor and economist, noticed the affordability while purchasing the ingredients for his Thanksgiving dinner.

"I bought a large bag of potatoes, more than I usually buy, and I felt like the price was pretty reasonable," Anderson said.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, a national group that has tracked Thanksgiving food prices for 40 years, a classic holiday meal for 10 people costs $55.18 this year. That figure has nearly doubled since 1986, when the same meal cost $28.74. But when you adjust for inflation, Anderso

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