The day before their family is set to gather for Thanksgiving, Claudia's sister requests that she make a homemade apple pie for the event.

Instead, my character is a woman who is hugely successful, about to make partner in her law firm, has all the money she needs, a great wardrobe...and then she gets thrown into a life that shows her what it would be like if she'd made a different choice."

The Daily News expressed its disappointment in the film's "formulaic and uninspired" script, and furthermore criticized Zuniga and Dunaway for "hardly trying" to deliver a performance.

[2] The critic's discontent with the script was further explained: "Hallmark films are allowed some liberties with coincidence and unlikely events that service the plot, but this one exceeds its quota early.

[..] A Family Thanksgiving leaves an uncharacteristically unpleasant aftertaste, because it ends up suggesting not just that Claudia is missing part of life, but that successful working women almost by definition must be misguided and miserable.