Every How I Met Your Mother Thanksgiving Episode, Ranked

Every sitcom handles holidays a little differently. For “How I Met Your Mother,” which marked its 20th anniversary in September, Thanksgiving wasn’t an annual tradition, but it’s the holiday most commonly associated with the CBS sitcom.

Across nine seasons, the writers delivered five late-November installments that varied in how closely they tied into Turkey Day. Some leaned directly into the chaos of the season — from the birth of Slapsgiving to the curse of the Blitz — while others leaned more heavily on family drama, or simply used the occasion to push the gang’s stories forward.

What follows is a breakdown of each Thanksgiving installment — ranked from least to most legendary — weighing IMDb scores, overall episode quality, and how well each one embraces the Thanksgiving theme.

The series’ final Thanksgiving episode is the least tied to the actual holiday. Marshall and Lily inherit her grandparents’ Long Island home and debate whether to start a new life there; Barney, still shaken by his breakup with Nora and Robin’s refusal to end things with Kevin, latches onto Ted, and the two impulsively decide they should adopt a baby together. Meanwhile, Robin privately believes she might be pregnant, and the episode ends on a cliffhanger suggesting Barney may be the father.

Thanksgiving serves as the logistical excuse that gets everyone to Long Island, but the holiday itself barely registers. Coupled with a comparatively low 7.8 on IMDb, this outing stands at the bottom of the list.

The series’ inaugural Thanksgiving outing is also its most traditional. Marshall brings Lily home to Minnesota for the holiday, where she gets her first real taste of what it would be like to marry into the Eriksen family and briefly wonders if she might be pregnant (she’s not). The episode mines solid laughs from Lily imagining life in St. Cloud and agonizing over the prospect of birthing supersized Eriksen babies.

Meanwhile, Ted and Robin head to a local soup kitchen, only to discover it’s the one night of the year when volunteers are overbooked. Their search for something useful to do leads them to Barney, who’s been named “volunteer of the year.” That accolade turns out to be far less admirable when they learn he’s completing court-ordered community service for public urination. They eventually wind up at the Lusty Leopard, a memorable detour mainly for the reveal of the mother’s name (Tracy).

It’s a fun, early-days holiday outing, but you can still feel the characters settling into themselves nine episodes in. Paired with a comparatively modest 7.9 IMDb score, it lands in fourth place.

This follow-up lands squarely in the middle of the show’s nine-season run and finds “How I Met Your Mother” in full command of its rhythms. It builds on the longstanding slap bet between Marshall and Barney first established in Season 2 — and though Marshall bequeaths his fourth slap to either Ted or Robin, it’s Judge Fudge who delivers a hot red burnin’ to the side of the Barnacle’s face. Meanwhile, amid the escalating slap drama, Lily’s estranged father Mickey unexpectedly arrives, hoping to reconnect with his daughter, adding emotional weight to an otherwise silly episode.

Like most sequels, “Revenge of the Slap” isn’t as strong as its predecessor — more on that one below — but watched back-to-back, the two make for a slap-happy hour of television. Its 7.8 score puts it toward the lower end of the pack, but we’re bumping it up to third.

There’s no need to get lost in the (cranberry) sauce over-explaining this one. “Blitzgiving” is a high-concept Thanksgiving romp featuring Jorge Garcia (of “Lost” fame) as Steve — better known as The Blitz — an old college friend cursed to leave a room seconds before something awesome, incredible or straight-up legendary happens.

Over the course of the episode, Ted and Barney inherit the spirit of the Blitz, promptly missing key moments and spiraling as the curse wreaks havoc on their holiday. This one’s also remembered for Ted’s effort to cook a “TurTurkeyKey” — a turkey stuffed inside an even larger turkey — which culminates in the the gang’s eventual detour to Zoey’s apartment in search of a working oven.It’s not just a great Thanksgiving episode — it’s an all-around “HIMYM” classic.

Combined with a 9.0 IMDb score — the highest of any episode on this list — it easily earns second place in our ranking. But it’s not number one…

By Season 3, “How I Met Your Mother” had fully locked into its groove, and “Slapsgiving” is the episode that proves it. Arriving one year after “Slap Bet,” the Thanksgiving installment brings back Marshall’s running gag of five sanctioned slaps to be delivered to Barney at any time — a premise that had already produced two unforgettable blows in Season 2. The third landed here.

With Marshall and Lily hosting their first Thanksgiving as a married couple, Marshall decides the holiday deserves a proper build-up. He creates a slap countdown, renames the day “Slapsgiving,” and spends the episode striking terror in Barney. Meanwhile, Ted and Robin navigate their first post-breakup holiday — it’s here that the exes’ mock salutes are first introduced, a fan-favorite runner that pops up throughout the remainder of the series — and Lily slowly unravels in the kitchen.

The episode has an 8.9 rating on IMDb, placing it one notch below “Blitzgiving,” but the debut of a signature Marshall Eriksen ditty, “You Just Got Slapped,” elevates this installment — one of TV’s funniest holiday sitcom episodes ever — to the top slot.