Pass the serving spoon, and leave room for disagreement. Butterball’s September 2026 report lists stuffing at 42%, sweet potatoes at 25%, and potatoes at 22% among respondents’ favorite parts of Thanksgiving dinner. Those findings offer a useful counterpoint to the older dislike surveys below. A dish can have devoted fans while leaving someone else reaching for another bowl.
The Vacationer surveyed 1,042 U.S. adults on October 4, 2024, allowing multiple disliked foods to be selected. Its results supply the first nine entries; dinner rolls come from separate 2021 Instacart/Harris research. This collection brings together different questionnaires and years. It cannot tell you what guests plan to skip in 2026, and its numbering does not represent a combined national ranking.
Stuffing or Dressing
Stuffing has a particularly lively fan club and opposition. 32.05% selected it as disliked in The Vacationer’s 2024 survey. Yet AP-NORC’s 2023 poll found 19% named stuffing or dressing their favorite Thanksgiving dish and 8% their least favorite.
Those questions measure different things. Before you retire the serving dish, ask who considers it the reason to pull up a chair.
Sweet Potatoes or Yams
Hold the marshmallow blame. The Vacationer’s combined category drew 29.17% dislike in 2024, without distinguishing recipes. Instacart/Harris’s 2021 research separated candied yams, at 27% among “worst” sides, from sweet-potato casserole, at 21%.
Those percentages cannot be added together. If you’re discussing the menu, name the actual preparation; an entire category is too broad to explain someone’s preference.
Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce brings a little drama to the sideboard. 28.89% disliked it in The Vacationer’s 2024 survey. AP-NORC’s separate 2023 poll placed it first among least-favorite dishes, at 18%, using a single-choice question among Thanksgiving celebrators.
The disagreement is documented, but these figures don’t say anything about your particular recipe. Let guests choose their own spoonful.
Green Bean Casserole
This casserole earns mixed company at the table. The Vacationer recorded 22.94% dislike in 2024; Instacart/Harris listed it among the “worst” sides for 25% in 2021.
Neither result means everyone who left it unselected loved it. When planning your spread, leave room for the casserole loyalists and the guests who would happily pass the dish along.
Related: 4 “Polite” Thanksgiving Habits Everyone Secretly Finds Rude
Mashed Potatoes
Even mashed potatoes cannot count on unanimous applause. They drew 22.17% dislike in The Vacationer’s 2024 survey, tied with coleslaw.
Instacart/Harris reported 8% under its 2021 “worst” heading. Different samples and wording prevent calling that difference a rising tide of rejection. Keep the comparison in perspective before treating your potato bowl as a tradition in trouble.
Coleslaw
Coleslaw takes its place here because The Vacationer included it, recording 22.17% dislike in 2024. Its presence on that questionnaire does not establish a Thanksgiving tradition shared by every region.
If it belongs on your family’s menu, that history deserves its own hearing. A national survey’s list of options cannot write the guest list for your table.
Carrots
Carrots drew 16.31% dislike in The Vacationer’s 2024 survey, but the question left the cooking details blank. The survey did not separate glazed, roasted, boiled, and raw preparations.
We cannot pin the result on sweetness, softness or any particular technique. Before crossing carrots off your shopping list, ask your guests about the version you actually intend to serve.
Macaroni and Cheese
Macaroni and cheese has a dissenting corner, too: 15.93% selected it as disliked in The Vacationer’s 2024 survey. That establishes some rejection without supporting a claim that most Americans dislike it.
There is no need to turn a preference into a courtroom argument. Give the dish its place if your guests want it, and let everyone build their own plate.
Corn
Corn’s 14.68% dislike figure in The Vacationer’s 2024 survey comes with a broad label. The questionnaire did not distinguish plain kernels, creamed corn, corn pudding, or corn casserole.
Attaching that percentage to one recipe would tell a story the research never measured. Be specific when you ask about preferences; “corn” leaves plenty of room for misunderstanding.
Dinner Rolls
The bread basket closes this collection with a modest objection. Instacart/Harris’s 2021 research listed dinner rolls among the “worst” Thanksgiving sides for 7%. That comes from a different question and year than the preceding entries, so it cannot establish a shared tenth-place ranking.
Such a small selection hardly warrants banishment. Let your own guests decide whether the basket makes another round.
Read the survey details alongside the menu. The Vacationer reports a ±3.158-point margin of error but doesn’t fully explain recruitment and weighting on its page. AP-NORC used a probability-based panel, with 1,101 Thanksgiving celebrators and a ±4.1-point margin for that group. Instacart/Harris’s two online samples numbered 2,006 and 3,058; its release says no theoretical sampling error could be calculated.
Butterball’s current counterpoint also needs context: its commissioned Circana survey covered 1,374 adults in July 2026, according to the company. The release doesn’t include the full questionnaire or detailed tables. Meanwhile, 12.38% in The Vacationer’s older survey liked every listed food. Take the numbers as an invitation to ask your guests. Then set a table with room for their answers.
