Cover Charge For Thanksgiving Dinner At Grandma’s? Bizarre Trend Seen On ‘Fox & Friends’ Has Twitter Buzzing

Eating Thanksgiving dinner may no longer be a freebie at Grandma’s house if you happen to be a family member where a new trend of asking for a cover charge on Thanksgiving is taking hold. How about paying a $30 cover charge to eat dinner with your family around Grandma’s dining room table, are folks taking kindly to this?

Thanksgiving is a day for family traditions, both old and new, but this new tradition of a cover charge to eat dinner at Aunt Millie’s dining room table is up for debate on social media. Charging each family member $30 might be a bit steep, especially if you are a family of five going to your grandmother’s house for that self-pay Thanksgiving dinner. The upside of this trend is that the price per plate is left up to the host to decide. Since there are no set rules to this new trend as far as how much to charge your loved ones, how about asking just $10 each of your dinner guests to help cover the cost?

Whether it is a $30 or a $10 cover charge, the angst seen across social media is not about the amount of money, it is the act of charging family members to eat at your dinner table. This new trend has some folks a bit perturbed and many have conveyed that a cover charge is just not within the spirit of the holiday.

According to Fox News, this concept appears to be in its infancy so far, although there are advocates across the social media sites for splitting the bill for a traditional at-home Thanksgiving dinner. Fox & Friends explored this concept on their Monday morning show, with just four days to go before the Thanksgiving holiday.

According to the Fox News article, the buzz over this Thanksgiving cover charge seems to have originated with a Twitter user who shared a tweet saying that her aunt charges $30 per plate for Thanksgiving dinner at her house. This started an online debate, which is filled with sarcasm.

USA Today reports that the “price of a Thanksgiving dinner falls to the lowest since 2013.” Fox also reports on the price of food and how the cost for Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people is estimated at $49.12, which is a 75 cent decrease over last year’s estimated cost.

Couple the cost of serving that Thanksgiving dinner with that reported $30 cover charge at the Twitter user’s aunt’s house and there’s a profit to be made. The aunt stands to make a profit of $250.88 if 10 people sit down at her table and pay that cover charge, according to the math offered by Fox News.

As Fox & Friends discussed on their Monday morning show, traditionally many families have their family members and guests bring something with them to dinner. Whether it be Aunt Margery’s green bean casserole or Uncle Tony’s favorite beer, many families defer the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner by chipping in and coming to dinner with their hands full.

In today’s busy world, many people are finding it harder and harder to take those few extra minutes to stop at a store, never mind finding a chunk of time to prepare a dish to bring for dinner. Was this cover charge born out of consideration for these folks? Would the family members who find themselves with very little extra time much rather hand over the cash in lieu of spending the time involved needed in buying, preparing, and transporting their offering to the Thanksgiving dinner table?

Fox & Friends read off a few comments that caught their eye on the social media sites over this Thanksgiving dinner cover charge. People had a field day around expecting the same services you would get in a restaurant if you had to pay to eat dinner at Grandma’s house. Some folks on Twitter wanted to know if the cover charge would be reduced if you were just stopping by for a drink or dessert.

Imagine showing up at ya grandma’s house and she’s like “it’s $10 to get in, $30 if you’re eating”

— ? (@MsLaFitteTweets) November 1, 2017

y'all talking about cover charges for family Thanksgiving?!

the generational trauma IS the cover charge.

— holmes (@charlesxholmes) November 1, 2017

From the sound of things on Twitter, the person who tweeted about her aunt having a cover charge for Thanksgiving wasn’t alone. There are other families who are doing the same thing as the Twitter user conveyed in their tweet posted below.

Then there is the Twitter user who gave this cover charge a try. It sounds as if her family didn’t take kindly to her request, although three people did hand over the cash. Speaking of cash, that is not something many people carry with them in today’s world. Debit cards are usually the only tool they need to pay for anything throughout the day. Is grandma prepared for these debit card transactions or is a request for cash only made in advance for these Thanksgiving dinners with a cover charge?

My relatives didn't think the $20 a person cover charge sign for Thanksgiving Dinner on my front door was funny. 3 paid it! roflmao

— Kara Alesandra (@KaraAlesandra) November 22, 2012

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