ByAlvin Ward|Dec 12, 2018, 7:00 AM EST
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On Wednesday, December 12, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced that 25 new titles have been selected to become part of the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. The films—which run the gamut from an iconic rockumentary to an experimental animated short on race and one very popular dinosaur-filled blockbuster—are a diverse lot, to be sure. Which has sort of become the standard in the 30 years since the National Film Registry was first introduced as a way to recognize, and preserve, our cinematic past for future generations.
“The National Film Registry turns 30 this year and for those three decades, we have been recognizing, celebrating, and preserving this distinctive medium,” Hayden said in a statement. “These cinematic treasures must be protected because they document our history, culture, hopes and dreams.”
Here’s a rundown of the 25 titles (listed in alphabetical order) that will be added in 2018, along with the Library of Congress’s official summary of each of its chosen selections.
1. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Though only 81 minutes in length, Bad Day packs a punch. Spencer Tracy stars as Macreedy, a one-armed man who arrives unexpectedly one day at the sleepy desert town of Black Rock. He is just as tight-lipped at first about the reason for his visit as the residents of Black Rock are about the details of their town. However, when Macreedy announces that he is looking for a former Japanese-American Black Rock resident named Komoko, town skeletons suddenly burst into the open. In addition to Tracy, the standout cast includes Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Dean Jagger. Director John Sturges displays the western landscape to great advantage in this CinemaScope production.
2. Broadcast News (1987)
James L. Brooks wrote, produced, and directed this comedy set in the fast-paced, tumultuous world of television news. Shot mostly in dozens of locations around the Washington, D.C. area, the film stars Holly Hunter, William Hurt, and Albert Brooks. Brooks makes the most of his everyman persona serving as Holly Hunter’s romantic back-up plan while she pursues the handsome but vacuous Hurt. Against the backdrop of broadcast journalism (and various debates about journalist ethics), a grown-up romantic comedy plays out in a smart, savvy and fluff-free story whose humor is matched only by its honesty.
3. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Brokeback Mountain, a contemporary Western drama that won the Academy Award for best screenplay (by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana) and Golden Globe awards for best drama, director (Ang Lee) and screenplay, depicts a secret and tragic love affair between two closeted gay ranch hands. They furtively pursue a 20-year relationship despite marriages and parenthood until one of them dies violently, reportedly by accident, but possibly, as the surviving lover fears, in a brutal attack. Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the short story upon which the film was based, described it as “a story of destructive rural homophobia.” Haunting in its unsentimental depiction of longing, lonesomeness, pretense, sexual repression and ultimately love, Brokeback Mountain features Heath Ledger’s remarkable performance that conveys a lifetime of self-torment through a pained demeanor, near inarticulate speech and constricted, lugubrious movements. In his review, Newsweek’s David Ansen wrotes that the film was “a watershed in mainstream movies, the first gay love story with A-list Hollywood stars.” Brokeback Mountain has become an enduring classic.
4. Cinderella (1950)
It would take the enchanted magic of Walt Disney and his extraordinary team to revitalize a story as old as Cinderella. Yet, in 1950, Disney and his animators did just that with this version of the classic tale. Sparkling songs, high-production value and bright voice performances have made this film a classic from its premiere. Though often told and repeated across all types of media, Disney’s lovely take has become the definitive version of this classic story about a girl, a prince and a single glass slipper. Breathtaking animation fills every scene, including what was reportedly Walt Disney’s favorite of all Disney animation sequences: the fairy godmother transforming Cinderella’s “rags” into an exquisite gown and glass slippers.
5. Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
Days of Wine and Roses marked another in a series of Hollywood classics on the touchy subject of alcoholism. Previous examples on the theme include The Lost Weekend and Come Back, Little Sheba. Though his career prior to Days of Wine and Roses had been noted for a deft touch in light comedy, in this Academy Award-nominated performance, Jack Lemmon plays a hard-drinking San Francisco public-relations man who drags his wife Lee Remick into the horrific descent into alcoholism. Director Blake Edwards pulls no punches in this uncompromisingly bleak film. Henry Mancini composed the moving score, best remembered for the title song he and Johnny Mercer wrote, which won an Academy Award for best original song.
6. Dixon-Wanamaker Expedition to Crow Agency (1908)
The original nitrate footage that comprises the 1908 “Dixon-Wanamaker Expedition to Crow Agency” was discovered in a Montana antique store in 1982 and subsequently donated to the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution. It is the only known surviving film footage from the 1908 Rodman Wanamaker-sponsored expedition to record American Indian life in the west, filmed and produced both for an educational screening at Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia and to document what Wanamaker and photographer Joseph K. Dixon considered a “vanishing race.” Dixon and his son Roland shot motion picture film as well as thousands of photographs (most of the photographs are archived at Indiana University). This film captures life on Crow Agency, Crow Fair and a recreation of the Battle of Little Big Horn featuring four of Custer’s Crow scouts. Films from later Wanamaker expeditions are archived at the National Archives and the American Museum of Natural History. The original film was photochemically preserved at Cinema Arts in 1983.
7. Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Written and directed by Kasi Lemmons and co-produced by co-star Samuel L. Jackson, Eve’s Bayou proved one of the indie surprises of the 1990s. The film tells a Southern gothic tale about a 10-year-old African-American girl who, during one long, hot Louisiana summer in 1962, discovers some harsh truths beneath her genteel family’s fragile façade. The film’s standout cast includes Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Diahann Carroll, Lisa Nicole Carson, Branford Marsalis, and the remarkable Jurnee Smollett, who plays the lead. The tag line of this film was very apropos: “The secrets that hold us together can also tear us apart.”
8. The Girl Without a Soul (1917)
George Eastman Museum founding film curator James Card was a passionate devotee of silent film director John H. Collins’s work. It is through his influence that the museum is the principal repository of the director’s few extant films. As the expert on Collins’s legacy, the museum said he is “one of the great ‘What if…?’ figures of American cinema—a brilliantly creative filmmaker who went from being a costume department assistant to a major director within four short years, before dying at the age of 31 in the 1918 influenza pandemic. Collins’ films show both a subtle understanding of human nature and often breathtakingly daring cinematography and editing. The Girl Without a Soul stars Viola Dana (to whom Collins was married) in a dual role as twin sisters, one of whom is a gifted violinist, and the other, a deeply troubled girl jealous of her sister’s abilities and the love bestowed upon her by their violinmaker father. This jealousy and the violinist sister’s unworldliness lead both into turbulent moral conflict, which takes considerable fortitude from both to overcome.” The Girl Without a Soul has been preserved by George Eastman Museum.
9. Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy-Headed People (1984)
Hair Piece is an insightful and funny short animated film examining the problems that African-American women have with their hair. Generally considered the first black woman animator, director Ayoka Chenzira was a key figure in the development of African-American filmmakers in the 1980s through her own films and work to expand opportunities for others. Writing in The New York Times, critic Janet Maslin lauded this eccentric yet jubilant film. She notes the narrator “tells of everything from the difficulty of keeping a wig on straight to the way in which Vaseline could make a woman’s hair ”sound like the man in The Fly saying ‘Help me!’”
10. Hearts and Minds (1974)
Director Peter Davis describes his Academy Award-winning documentary Hearts and Minds (1974) as “an attempt to examine why we went to Vietnam, what we did there and what the experience did to us.” Compared by critics at the time to Marcel Ophuls’s acclaimed documentary The Sorrow and the Pity (1971), Hearts and Minds, similarly addressed the wartime effects of national myths and prejudices by juxtaposing interviews of government officials, soldiers, peasants and parents, cinéma vérité scenes shot on the home front and in South Vietnam, clips from ideological Cold War movies, and horrific archival footage. Author Frances FitzGerald praised the documentary as “the most moving film I’ve ever seen on Vietnam, because, for the first time, the camera lingers on the faces of Vietnamese and one hears their voices.” Author David Halberstam said it “brilliantly catches … the hidden, unconscious racism of the war.” Others from both ends of the political spectrum chided it as manipulative propaganda that oversimplified complexities.
11. Hud (1963)
Paul Newman received his third Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the title character, the handsome, surly and unscrupulous bad-boy son of a Texas rancher who locks horns with his father over business and family matters. Loosely based on Larry McMurtry’s debut novel, Horseman, Pass By, the film received seven Academy Award nominations, winning three: Patricia Neal (best actress), Melvyn Douglas (best supporting actor), and James Wong Howe (black-and-white cinematography). Motion Picture Academy President John Bailey in 2017 chronicled the production of the film and summed up some of his impressions of the film’s relevance 55 years after its release: “Naked and narcissistic self-interest have always been a dark undercurrent to the limpid surface stream of American optimism and justice, but it is not a reach to see the character of Hud as an avatar of the troubling cynicism of that other side of American Populism—the side that espouses a fake concern for one’s fellow man while lining one’s own pockets. Hud, a lothario at the wheel of his crashed convertible, raising a shroud of dust clouds in its trail, is nothing more than a flimflam 19th century snake-oil salesman and carnival barker. His type erupts over and over onto America’s psyche like a painful pustule.”
12. The Informer (1935)
This marks the 11th film directed by John Ford to be named to the National Film Registry, the most of any director. The Informer depicts with brutal realism the life of an informant during the Irish Rebellion of 1922, who turns in his best friend and then sees the walls closing in on him in return. Critic Andre Sennwald, writing in the New York Times, praised Ford’s direction: “In his hands The Informer becomes at the same time a striking psychological study of a gutter Judas and a raw impressive picture of the Dublin underworld during the Black and Tan terror.” Ford and cinematographer Joseph August borrowed from German expressionism to convey the Dublin atmosphere. To this point, Ford had compiled a solid workmanlike career as he learned his craft. The Informer placed him in the top echelon of American film directors and over the next 20 years he crafted numerous other classics, from the 1939 Stagecoach through the 1962 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
13. Jurassic Park (1993)
The concept of people somehow existing in the age of dinosaurs (or dinosaurs somehow existing in the age of people) has been explored in film and on television numerous times. No treatment, however, has ever been done with more skill, flair or popcorn-chomping excitement than this 1993 blockbuster. Set on a remote island where a man’s toying with evolution has run amok, this Steven Spielberg classic ranks as the epitome of the summer blockbuster. Jurassic Park was the top public vote-getter this year.
14. The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
The camera is the star in this stylish film noir. Lady From Shanghai is renowned for its stunning set pieces, the “Aquarium” scene, “Hall of Mirrors” climax, baroque cinematography and convoluted plot. Director Orson Welles had burst on the scene with Citizen Kane in 1941 and The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942, but had increasingly become seen as difficult to work with by the studios. As a result, Welles spent most of his career outside the studio sphere. “The Lady From Shanghai” marked one of his last films under a major studio (Columbia) with Welles and the executives frequently clashing over the budget, final editing of the film and the release date.
15. Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Darkness and claustrophobia mark the visual style of many film noirs: the use of black-and-white or gloomy grays, low-key lighting, striking contrasts between light and dark, shadows, nighttime or interior settings and rain-soaked streets. Leave Her to Heaven proves the magnificent exception. Filmed in vibrant, three-strip Technicolor, many pivotal scenes occur in spectacular outdoor locations, shot by famed cinematographer Leon Shamroy in Arizona and California. A classic femme fatale, Gene Tierney stars as Ellen, whose charisma and stunning visage mask a possessive, sociopathic soul triggered by “loving too much.” Anyone who stands between her and those she obsessively loves tend to meet “accidental” deaths, most famously a teen boy who drowns in a chilling scene. Martin Scorsese has labeled “Heaven” as among his all-time favorite films and Tierney one of film’s most underrated actresses. Leave Her to Heaven makes a supremely compelling case for these sentiments.
16. Monterey Pop (1968)
This seminal music-festival film captures the culture of the time and performances from iconic musical talent. Monterey Pop also established the template for multi-camera documentary productions of this kind, predating both Woodstock and Gimme Shelter. In addition to director D. A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles and others provided the superb camerawork. Performers include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Hugh Masekela, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Simon and Garfunkel, and Ravi Shankar. As he recalled in a 2006 Washington Post article, Pennebaker decided to shoot and record the film using five portable 16mm cameras equipped with synchronized sound recording devices, while producers Lou Adler and John Phillips (Mamas and Papas) sagely had the whole concert filmed and recorded, and further enhanced the sound by hiring Wally Heider and his state-of-the-art mobile recording studio.
17. My Fair Lady (1964)
In the 1950s and 1960s, besieged by shifts in demographics and having much of its audience syphoned off by television, film studios knew they had to go big in their entertainment in order to lure people back to the theater. This film version of the musical My Fair Lady epitomized this approach with use of wide-screen technologies. Based on the sparkling stage musical (inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”), My Fair Lady came to the big screen via the expert handling of director George Cukor. Cecil Beaton’s costume designs provided further panache, along with his, Gene Allen’s and George James Hopkins’ art and set direction. The film starred Rex Harrison, repeating his career-defining stage role as Professor Henry Higgins, and Audrey Hepburn (whose singing voice was dubbed by frequent “ghoster” Marni Nixon), as the Cockney girl, Eliza Doolittle. Though opulent in the extreme, all these elements blend perfectly to make My Fair Lady the enchanting entertainment that it remains today.
18. The Navigator (1924)
Buster Keaton burst onto the scene in 1920 with the dazzling two-reeler “One Week.” His feature The Navigator proved a huge commercial success and put Keaton in the company of Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin in terms of audience popularity and films eagerly awaited by critics. Decades after release, Pauline Kael reviewed the film: “Arguably, Buster Keaton’s finest—but amongst the Keaton riches can one be sure?” Keaton plays an inept, foppish millionaire whose idea of a marriage proposal involves crossing the street in a chauffeured car, handing flowers to his girlfriend and popping the question. Later the two accidentally become stranded at sea on an abandoned boat and Keaton proves his worth by conceiving ingenious work-arounds to ensure they survive. The silent era rarely saw films rife with more creativity and imaginative gags.
19. On the Town (1949)
Three sailors with 24 hours of shore leave in New York doesn’t sound like much to build a film around, but when Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin portray them under the sparkling direction of Stanley Donen (and Kelly), movie magic occurs. On the Town was based upon the Comden and Green Broadway musical of the same name. Shot on location all over New York City, the film carries over such splendid songs as “New York, New York,” the close-to-opening iconic scene with the sailor trio performing while still in their navy togs. Female song-and-dance pros Vera-Ellen, Betty Garrett and Ann Miller match the guys step for step in the numerous musical numbers. On the Town represents the upbeat, post war musicals of the era, which summed up the national optimism of the period.
20. One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Based on the 1956 Charles Neider novel, The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones (a loose retelling of the story of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), this Western marks Marlon Brando’s sole directorial effort. One-Eyed Jacks displays his trademark introspection and offbeat quirkiness. Brando’s novel approach to updating the Western film genre marks it as a key work in the transition period from Classic Hollywood (1930s through 1950s) to the new era that began in the 1960s and continues to the present day. As director Martin Scorsese and others have said, this evolution from “Old Hollywood” to “New Hollywood” involved a change from filmmaking primarily being about profit-making to a period when many directors create motion pictures as personal artistic expression.
21. Pickup on South Street (1953)
Samuel Fuller’s films are sometimes compared to the pulp novels of Mickey Spillane, though Fuller’s dynamic style dwarfs Spillane. With films often crass but always provocative, Fuller described his mantra of filmmaking: “Film is like a battleground, with love, hate, action, violence, death … in one word, emotion.” Considered by some as the archetypal Sam Fuller film and a nice summary of the main themes in his work, Pickup on South Street is a taut, Cold War thriller. The fast-paced plot follows a professional pickpocket who accidently lifts some secret microfilm from his mark. Patriotism or profit? Soon, the thief is being pursued not only by the woman he stole from, but also by Communist spies and U.S. government agents. The film culminates in a landmark brutal subway-based fight scene. It is arguably the classic anti-Communist film of the 1950s and a dazzling display of the seedy New York underlife. In particular, Thelma Ritter’s excellent tough-yet-nuanced performance as Moe Williams stands out and earned her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress, which was highly unusual for what was considered at the time a lurid and violent B-movie.
22. Rebecca (1940)
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier’s most famous book (“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…”), found its perfect cinematic interpreter in Alfred Hitchcock, here directing his first American motion picture. Powerhouse producer David O. Selznick had just imported the “master of suspense” from his native England. Laurence Olivier stars as Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine in her breakthrough role co-stars as Maxim’s new (and never given a first name) wife. However, it is two other women who dominate the film—the intimidating housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (played by Judith Anderson) and the film’s title woman, the deceased first Mrs. de Winter whose powerful shadow still hangs heavily over this great estate and all its inhabitants. Winner of the Oscar for best picture that year, Rebecca is stylish, suspenseful and a classic.
23. The Shining (1980)
Director Stanley Kubrick’s take on Stephen King’s terrifying novel has only grown in esteem through the years. The film is inventive in visual style, symbolism and narrative as only a Kubrick film can be. Long but multi-layered, The Shining contains stunning visuals—rivers of blood cascading down deserted hotel hallways, disturbing snowy mazes and a mysterious set of appearing and disappearing twins—with iconic performances by Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall.
24. Smoke Signals (1998)
Native American directors are a rarity in Hollywood. After the early silent film pioneers James Young Deer and Edwin Carewe, the portrayal of Native Americans in cinema turned dark and stereotypical. These social trends started changing with motion pictures like the groundbreaking Smoke Signals, generally considered to be the first feature film written, directed and produced by Native Americans. Director Chris Eyre uses the relaxed road-movie concept to create a funny and unpretentious look at Native Americans in the nation’s cinema and culture. The mostly Native American cast features Adam Beach and Evan Adams as the two road warriors who find themselves on a hilarious adventure. Beneath the highly entertaining façade, the film acquainted non-Native American audiences with real insights into the indigenous Americans’ culture. Sherman Alexie penned the witty, droll script based his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. This Miramax release was a big hit on the independent film circuit and won numerous awards, including a Sundance award.
24. Something Good – Negro Kiss (1898)
According to scholars and archivists, this recently discovered 29-second film may represent the earliest example of African-American intimacy on-screen. American cinema was a few years old by 1898 and distributors struggled to entice audiences to this new medium. Among their gambits to find acceptable “risqué” fare, the era had a brief run of “kissing” films. Most famous is the 1896 Edison film “The Kiss,” which spawned a rash of mostly inferior imitators. However, in “Something Good,” the chemistry between vaudeville actors Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown was palpable. Also noteworthy is this film’s status as the earliest known surviving Selig Polyscope Company film. The Selig Company had a good run as a major American film producer from its founding in 1896 until its ending around 1918. “Something Good” exists in a 19th-century nitrate print from the University of Southern California Hugh Hefner Moving Image Archive. USC Archivist Dino Everett and Dr. Allyson Nadia Field of the University of Chicago discovered and brought this important film to the attention of scholars and the public. Field notes, “What makes this film so remarkable is the non-caricatured representation and naturalistic performance of the couple. As they playfully and repeatedly kiss, in a seemingly improvised performance, Suttle and Brown constitute a significant counter to the racist portrayal of African Americans otherwise seen in the cinema of its time. This film stands as a moving and powerful image of genuine affection, and is a landmark of early film history.”
The Original Name for ‘Sesame Street’ Wasn’t Nearly as Catchy
The beloved show’s first title was the name of an actual street in the East Village.
BySabrina Reed|Nov 10, 2026, 12:00 PM EST
Can you imagine a world where Sesame Street is called 123 Avenue B?
Before the beloved children’s educational program was launched on November 10, 1969, that was the name co-creators Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett were weighing with their team.
While the original show title doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, it is fun to say. Most importantly, it connected the series to New York City, the diverse populace Sesame Street would draw inspiration from in its design, character representation, and understanding of the world around it. But 123 Avenue B was deemed too on the nose because it’s an actual street in Alphabet City located in the East Village near the Lower East Side.
Naming the Street: From Alphabet City to Sesame
For a series sponsored by letters and numbers, Alphabet City would have been the perfect place to set the program. However, in choosing to name the show after a fictional street, a new idea took shape.
Sesame Street gets its name from “open sesame,” the phrase popularized by Antoine Galland’s translation of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” from One Thousand and One Nights. In the story, the thieves use the phrase to open the secret entrance to their treasure trove. According to Sesame Workshop, the word ‘sesame’ is meant to invoke “a street where neat stuff happens,” and that’s exactly what the show has come to embody.
A Street Where Learning Happens
60 years ago, in 1966, the series was simply a thought based on the question of whether a television program could educate children. Cooney worked for the local PBS station, WNET THIRTEEN, as a documentarian. With the support of Morrisett, who was vice president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, she conducted a study that spanned three months—The Potential Uses of Television in Preschool Education. Cooney interviewed early learning experts as well as children’s television producers and filmmakers to answer this question, and it became the basis for Sesame Street and the Children’s Television Workshop (now known as the Sesame Workshop).
The series is the first preschool program to blend education and entertainment to teach children basic skills through play, pretend, and storytelling. Young viewers learn and practice their alphabet and counting. They also expand their reasoning ability and strengthen their literacy through the show. Sesame Street incorporates topics on health, science, art, music, and dance. It helps parents develop their child’s social skills and healthily navigate their emotions as well.
Since 1969, the show has broadcast daily and remained committed to taking a multicultural approach to discussing and teaching about the diverse world its characters and audience live in. More than 300 PBS stations carry the program, and it’s available on Netflix and YouTube. The series has been watched by hundreds of millions of children across the world in more than 140 countries. Per Sesame Workshop, “Indigenous co-productions reflecting local languages, customs, and educational needs have since been produced for audiences in the Arab world, Israel, India, Indonesia, Bosnia, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, France, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Russia, China, South Africa, Egypt, the Philippines, Canada, Spain, and Latin America.”
Finding Sesame Street in the Real World
Though Sesame Street is fictional, and Alphabet City didn’t become its home, it is actually possible to visit. The show itself is filmed in Astoria, Queens, at Kaufman Astoria Studios. But if you want to take a picture beneath its sign in New York City, you’ll need to go to the block of West 63rd Street between Central Park West and Broadway in Manhattan on the Upper West Side. That’s where the official “Sesame Street” is located, right next to Sesame Workshop’s headquarters.
In 2019, Mayor Bill de Blasio bestowed the address on the series for its 50th anniversary. It’s possible to reach Sesame Street by subway, just like you can in the program. So, if anyone asks, “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?” you can say yes and show them the way.
Read More:
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Why ‘Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch Was Originally a Different Color
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50 Fun Facts About ‘Sesame Street’
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10 Bizarre Sesame Street Fan Theories
75 Holiday Jokes That Are So Funny, You’ll Want to Share Them With Everyone
These jokes are sure to add a little laughter to your Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations!
ByLogan DeLoye|Nov 10, 2026, 2:00 PM EST
The holiday season is knocking at our doors and nipping at our noses, with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Boxing Day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s finally in sight.
Thanksgiving, the first to mark our calendars and fill our stomachs, occurs on the fourth Thursday of November in America every year, a tradition set by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, in 1621; a feast celebrating fruitful harvests and peace (unfortunately only temporarily) between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe.
Next is Hanukkah, celebrated by Jewish people around the world. It begins on the 25th day of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar and continues for eight days. While the dates change each year, in 2026, Hanukkah will take place from December 4 to December 12.
Christmas arrives on its heels, celebrated on December 25 each year. For Christians, this date signifies the birth of Jesus Christ. For others, it’s a time for giving, family gatherings, and holiday nostalgia.
The day after Christmas is Boxing Day, observed in Great Britain and Commonwealth countries. It centers around sports, family time, relaxation, and discount retail shopping sprees similar to America’s Black Friday.
After Christmas comes Kwanzaa, a celebration of African American heritage and culture held from December 26 to January 1.
Finally, New Year’s rings in the end of one calendar year and the start of the next (cue “Auld Lang Syne”). Many consider it a fresh start, a new chapter, and a chance to set goals and intentions for the months ahead.
It’s almost time to carve the turkey, hang the stockings on the chimney with care, deck the halls, shop ‘til we drop, wrap the presents, rock around the Christmas tree, and celebrate culture and tradition. Here are 75 jokes covering three of these holidays, guaranteed to bring an extra hilarious helping of laughter to all your parties and gatherings!
Thanksgiving Jokes
1. Why did the turkey join a band?
Because it had the drumsticks!
2. What do you call a turkey on the day after Thanksgiving?
Lucky.
3. Why did the cranberries turn red?
Because they saw the turkey dressing!
4. What did the turkey say to the computer?
“Google, how do I get out of Thanksgiving dinner?”
5. Why did the turkey get a standing ovation?
It was an outstanding bird!
6. What’s the best dance to do on Thanksgiving?
The turkey trot!
7. Why was the Thanksgiving soup so expensive?
It had 24 carrots!
8. What did the sweet potato say when it won the pie contest?
“That was a sweet victory!”
9. Why shouldn’t you tell secrets in a cornfield?
Because the corn has ears!
10. What do you call a running turkey?
Fast food!
11. Why did the turkey go to the doctor?
It had a case of the gobble-gobbles!
12. What’s a turkey’s favorite dessert?
Peach gobbler!
13. Why did the chef put a bell on the turkey?
He wanted to make sure dinner was a-pealing!
14. What did one plate say to the other plate on Thanksgiving?
“Dinner is on me!”
15. Why did the pumpkin pie go to the dentist?
It needed a filling!
16. What’s the turkey’s favorite type of weather?
Fowl weather!
17. Why did the mashed potatoes get promoted?
They were always on top of things!
18. What do you call a turkey that tells jokes?
A comedi-hen!
19. Why did the turkey sit on the pumpkin?
It wanted to squash its competition!
20. What’s a pilgrim’s favorite kind of music?
Plymouth Rock!
21. Why did the gravy get invited to every Thanksgiving dinner?
It knew how to go with the flow!
22. What did the turkey say when it was complimented?
“Aw, shucks! You’re making me blush!”
23. Why was the Thanksgiving dinner so good at math?
It knew how to count its blessings!
24. What’s the difference between a turkey and a turkey hunter?
One wakes up early on Thanksgiving!
25. Why did the pie get in trouble at school?
It was caught cutting corners!
Christmas Jokes
26. What do you call an elf who sings?
A wrapper!
27. Why does Santa go down the chimney?
Because it soots him!
28. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
Frostbite!
29. Why was the Christmas tree so bad at sewing?
It kept dropping its needles!
30. What do you call a reindeer with bad manners?
Rude-olph!
31. Why did Santa’s helper see the doctor?
Because he had low elf-esteem!
32. What do snowmen eat for breakfast?
Frosted Flakes!
33. What do you call a snowman in the summer?
A puddle!
34. Why did the ornament get kicked off the Christmas tree?
It was acting a little shady!
35. What do you call Santa when he takes a break?
Santa Pause!
36. Why are Christmas trees so bad at knitting?
They always drop their needles!
37. What do you call an elf who runs away from the workshop?
A rebel without a Claus!
38. Why did the gingerbread man go to the doctor?
He was feeling crumby!
39. What’s Santa’s favorite kind of music?
Wrap music!
40. Why did the snowman call his dog Frost?
Because Frost bites!
41. What do you call a broke Santa?
Saint Nickel-less!
42. Why did the Christmas lights go to school?
They wanted to get a little brighter!
43. What does Santa use to take notes?
A candy cane!
44. Why did the reindeer wear sunglasses?
Because he was a bright star!
45. What’s a snowman’s favorite drink?
Ice tea!
46. What do you get if you cross a Christmas tree with an apple?
A pineapple!
47. Why did Santa’s sleigh get pulled over?
It was going too fast down the chimney!
48. What do you call a cat on Christmas?
Santa Claws!
49. Why did the elf put his bed in the fireplace?
He wanted to sleep like a log!
50. What is Santa’s favorite snack?
Crisp Pringles!
New Year’s Jokes
51. What does a ghost say on New Year’s Eve?
“Happy Boo Year!”
52. Why did the man put his money in the blender on January 1?
He wanted to make liquid assets!
53. What is a New Year’s resolution’s favorite type of music?
New year-oldies!
54. Why did the calendar get arrested on New Year’s Eve?
It was caught celebrating too many dates!
55. What did the champagne bottle say when it finally got opened?
“Well, that was bottled-up excitement!”
56. Why did the New Year’s Eve party hire a gardener?
It wanted someone to help turn over a new leaf!
57. What do you call a snowman who celebrates New Year’s Eve?
A party frost!
58. Why did the number six refuse to go to the New Year’s party?
It didn’t want to be caught in a countdown!
59. What did the clock say to the calendar at midnight?
“Time flies when you’re having fun!”
60. Why did the New Year’s fireworks get sent to the principal’s office?
They kept setting off alarms!
61. What do you call a New Year’s resolution made by a baker?
A fresh start!
62. Why did the man bring a pencil to the New Year’s Eve party?
He wanted to draw the night to a close!
63. What did the January calendar say to the February calendar?
“Your days are numbered!”
64. Why did the New Year’s party invite a mathematician?
It needed someone who could handle the countdown!
65. What do you call a New Year’s celebration at a shoe store?
A big step forward!
66. Why did the clock go to therapy?
It had too many second thoughts!
67. What did one firework say to the other at midnight?
“You’re a blast to be around!”
68. Why did the New Year’s Eve party have a great DJ?
He really knew how to ring in the changes!
69. What do you call a calendar that tells jokes?
A laugh-a-day!
70. Why did the man bring a suitcase to January 1?
He was ready to leave the old year behind!
71. What did the New Year’s resolution say to the gym membership?
“Let’s see how long this lasts!”
72. Why did the clock get a promotion in the New Year?
It was always ahead of its time!
73. What do you call a New Year’s party for cats?
A mew year celebration!
74. Why did the champagne refuse to argue with the soda?
It didn’t want to make a fizz-ical confrontation!
75. What did the old year say when it finally left?
“I’ve had a good run!”
Read More:
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100 Funny Jokes to Make Your Friends Laugh Out Loud
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100 Funny Jokes for Kids That Will Make the Whole Family Laugh
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