Thanksgiving, Holidays | featured news

Put down that turkey leg. It's time to shop. No, really. Stores typically open in the wee hours of the morning on the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday, named for the period when stores traditionally turn a profit for the year.

Those hoping to save a couple bucks on a last-minute Thanksgiving meal may want to shop at Target, which beat Walmart for the cheaper turkey dinner. Bloomberg Industries conducted a study of 15 retailers and determined that a Thanksgiving turkey dinner from Target is cheaper than one from retail competitor Walmart. An 18-item meal, including turkey, cranberries, onions, corn, pumpkin and heavy cream, from Target costs $45.48. The same dinner goes for $52.31 at Walmart, $70.18 at Whole Foods Market and $70.82 at Acme, owned by Supervalu Inc.

I come from a divorced family, and so does my husband. Every year on Thanksgiving, we wonder: Of the four sets of parents, which one should we take our kids to visit this year? (All live nearby, which makes the decision even more challenging.) We try to be careful with our choice, but it's tricky, and we have inadvertently caused offense in the past. How can we avoid upsetting any of our loved ones this time around?

No matter how much you plan ahead, feeding your extended family--bottomless teenage nephews, out-of-town uncles, and wild munchkins included--is going to be a massive undertaking.

The number of Americans hitting the road this Thanksgiving is expected to increase slightly from a year ago.

Thanksgiving is an infamously challenging weekend to fly, and the closing Sunday has a longstanding reputation as the most heavily traveled day of the entire year in this country. USA Today just reported that this year will be exceptionally bad (good if you are an airline) with 23.7 million passengers over the 12-day busy period surrounding Thanksgiving, up 150,000 from last year. The lightest travel day, not surprisingly, is Thanksgiving itself, while the busiest are the following Sunday and Monday with 2.4 and 2.3 million flyers respectively.

It used to be just called Thanksgiving. Now the day is increasingly called Black Friday Eve or Black Thursday, as retailers double down on ever-earlier opening hours for the kickoff of the holiday shopping season.

Undeterred by costlier gas and airfare, millions of Americans set out Wednesday to see friends and family in what is expected to be the nation's busiest Thanksgiving weekend since the financial meltdown more than three years ago....

Passengers may have to compete with slightly fewer people getting to the airport this Thanksgiving, but flights will be as full as ever, airline industry officials said Thursday... But U.S. carriers have reduced capacity to match demand and offset higher costs, the association said. That means few empty seats.

Feasting on turkey aside, brace yourself for that other Thanksgiving ritual: joining a nationwide mad dash to make it to a family gathering and back in a journey that can exasperate even the most seasoned traveler.