Thanksgiving Day is all about eating, and what goes perfectly with any meal? Plenty of TV – and all the major networks and cable channels will provide you with a feast this year, even despite the writer’s strike that has changed Primetime TV. 

NBC promises traditional holiday fare with the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade (a long-standing Turkey Day event). This will be later followed by Miracle on 34th Street - the Natalie Wood version - which is a movie always worth watching. (I make it a point to watch this flick at least once every holiday season – it’s one of those must-holiday-haves, like It’s a Wonderful Life.)

Or, you can take a small deviation from long-standing tradition with CBS, which will be showing an alternate Thanksgiving Day parade.  A handful of Price is Right episodes follow, but don’t worry – football starts at 2:00 pm.  Meanwhile, FOX starts broadcasting their own NFL action at noon with Green Bay and Detroit.

But Thanksgiving is about more than filling up – it’s about repeating holiday traditions and patterns. And so, let the TV marathons begin. The Discovery Channel will make stomachs turn with a full day of Dirty Jobs, TBS will take us back to the past with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (did anyone forget how Will Smith got started as a star – here’s your chance), and TLC will showcase their popular series Little People, Big World.

Re-runs will rule the day, from TV Land’s I Love Lucy fest to TNT’s devotion to Charmed. The Game Snow Network will celebrate the holiday with a Family Feud marathon (get it?), USA will show procedural justice with Law & Order, and A&E will be just as grim with Cold Case Files. MTV, VH1 and CMT – music channels, all – will show reality TV instead, by way of Run’s House, Rock of Love and Trick My Truck (in that order). (Trick My Truck is actually a lot of fun, even if you don’t like semi trucks.) The SciFi Network will go for fear instead of feasts, with all-day Ghost Hunters investigations.

But a brave few networks have the programming to combine the food with the TV. The Food Network kicks off the festivities with An All-Star Thanksgiving, to be followed by plenty of feast-rich TV fare. Bravo will showcase Top Chef competition all day, and the DIY network will let the queen Martha Stewart reign…all day long.

For the truly unconventional holiday on TV, try AMC this Thanksgiving. All day long, the channel will pay homage to Hitchcock and James Stewart (one of the finest actors ever to grace the silver screen) with thrilling movie fare that includes The Man Who Knew Too Much and Rear Window.

But, whatever you watch, do it on a full belly this Thursday.