Thanksgiving dinner 23% more expensive than last year — with the price of one holiday fave up 188%

Big Apple residents will tighten their belts this Thanksgiving as popular grocery chains stuff it to customers.

The cost of a Thanksgiving meal with a 20-pound bird and 17 trimmings has soared to $220.05 — 23% more than the $178.81 cost of last year’s feast.

New Yorkers are noticing.

“I put five items on the [counter] and its like $70. . . . What just happened?” said Susan, 79, who lives across the street from a Morton Williams on Bleeker Street. “I’m too embarrassed to haggle and put things back so I just bite the bullet.”

Another Greenwich Village shopper, Paul, 78, said comparison shopping is futile.

“None of these places are affordable as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “All the major stuff costs more. Everywhere you go.”

Yams had the most eye-popping increase — up 188% to $1.99 per pound from $0.69 at the same time last year.

The not-so sweet surge is due in part to inflation and tariffs, which have driven up the cost of production for farmers, the Carolina Journal reported.

Turkey, the star of the table, surprisingly did not see a price increase: a 20-pound frozen gobbler still cost $67.80.

But New Yorkers will still pluck more bucks out of their wallet for turkey — spending on average $2.31 per pound while the average American will spend just $1.79 per pound, according to research from Empower and FinanceBuzz.

Both Whole Foods and Trader Joes are charging $3.49 per pound for store-brand organic frozen turkeys.

Live poultry markets in the Bronx, Jackson Live Poultry and Future Poultry — where “you come in and they kill it,” one bird butcher boasted — offer their birds for $3.99 per pound.

Butter is up 58% from last year, nearly $10 for a pound of Land o’ Lakes at Morton Williams, up from 2024’s $5.99.

Pillsbury crescent rolls are also 50% more expensive — scanning for $5.99 for an 8 oz. package in 2025. And to wash down the biscuits with a swig of apple cider will cost you 33% this year.

You’ll need more dough to bake an apple pie, with Granny Smith Apples 50% more expensive and a 5-pound bag of Hecker’s flour costing 40% more, at $6.99 a sack.

A half-gallon of whole milk, often used in mashed potatoes and baking, now costs $5.99 — 50% more than it did last year.

Name-brand desserts also spiked, with Ghirardelli Brownie Mix costing 34% more in 2025, and a pint of Haagen-Dazs ice cream costing $4.99, up 25% from last year.

Prepared catered meals from popular grocers are also going up in price. D’AG and Gristedes charge $269.99 for their “Complete Thanksgiving Dinner” for 10 people, up from $249.99 a year ago.

In an effort to entice wallet-weary shoppers, ShopRite has lowered the threshold to qualify for a free turkey or ham from $400 in 2024 to $350 in 2025.

This soaring prices tracks with a 3% rise in the Consumer Price Index, which includes a 2.7% rise in the “food at home” category.

Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs experienced a 5.2% rise in price from September 2024 to this September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.