November 23, 2025
Let me just start by saying this: if Thanksgiving ever needed a mascot, a national symbol, a patron saint, or a motivational speaker, it would be Stove Top Stuffing. I will not be accepting arguments at this time.
Look, I know Thanksgiving has its heavy hitters. Turkey gets all the glory purely because it’s big. Mashed potatoes get universal respect because they’re basically emotional support food. Cranberry sauce has its cult following (mostly people who love chaos). But nothing, and I mean nothing, comes through consistently like Stove Top.
It’s the one side dish that has never in the history of human civilization disappointed anyone. It doesn’t get dry. It doesn’t get lumpy. It doesn’t get weirdly crunchy in all the wrong places. It’s perfect every time, and it cooks in five minutes. Five. Minutes. If everything in life worked like Stove Top, half of us would be on spiritual retreat somewhere.
But more than that, it shows up for the big moments and the small ones. Thanksgiving? Of course. But also: Tuesday nights when you have nothing left in you. Snow days when you want comfort in a bowl. Random evenings when you’re one inconvenience away from losing your mind, and suddenly that little red box whispers, “I got you.”
That is national holiday energy.
Honestly, Stove Top Stuffing is the friend you want in your corner. The dependable one. The one who never judges you for eating dinner way too late or for pairing it with a meal that probably doesn’t make culinary sense. The one who says, “You need warmth? Here. Let me fix your entire emotional landscape in 180 seconds.”
No other dish has this range.
Neither turkey nor potatoes can go from emergency dinner to nostalgia bomb to leftover hero without breaking a sweat.
And let’s not ignore its greatest contribution to society: the day-after-Thanksgiving leftover bowl. You know the one, stuffing, turkey, maybe a little gravy, all microwaved into something that feels like therapy in a ceramic container. If that dish doesn’t deserve a float in the Macy’s Parade, what does?
All this to say: if America can have holidays for groundhogs, tacos, donuts, handwriting, and “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” then we can absolutely find room on the calendar for National Stove Top Stuffing Day.
I’d salute that flag.
I’d take off work for that.
I’d buy greeting cards.
So… yes. My answer is Stove Top Stuffing. And I feel strongly, spiritually, about it.
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đź’¬ Your Turn
So… which Thanksgiving food deserves its own national holiday?
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