Podcast Episode Details

Thanksgiving Special: The Great Depression & the Spirit of Survival | Episode 552

Episode 552

Thanksgiving Rerun Special: The Great Depression & the Spirit of Survival | Episode 552

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone — it’s James from SurvivalPunk.com, and today’s episode is a little different. This is our Thanksgiving Rerun Special, not a repeat of recipes or turkey tips, but a deep look at how Americans held onto Thanksgiving through one of the hardest eras in our history: The Great Depression.

We’re dealing with rising prices, a shaky economy, and more uncertainty every month — but none of it holds a candle to what families went through in the 1930s.
And yet… they still kept Thanksgiving alive.
There’s a lesson in that.

Let’s dig in.

How the Great Depression Shaped Thanksgiving

We romanticize the holiday today — big meals, big gatherings, full tables. But during the Great Depression, most families were hanging by a financial thread. Money was scarce. Jobs were scarce. Food was scarce.

Some people didn’t even remember having holidays at all during that decade.
Others said they fought hard to hold onto Thanksgiving because it meant hope, normalcy, and tradition in a world that had none.

They didn’t always have turkey.
They didn’t always have dessert.
But they had Thanksgiving — even if the menu had to get creative.

Turkey Was a Luxury Item — So People Adapted

Turkey wasn’t always the default centerpiece. In 1933, an average-size turkey cost around $3.04, which inflation-adjusted would be about $70 today. That’s wild.

And yet people bought them — usually after saving all year.
But when they couldn’t afford turkey? They pivoted.

Popular Depression-era replacements included:

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  Published on 1 week, 4 days ago