Hosting Thanksgiving outside America can make for an interesting shopping list. The turkey and potatoes are easy enough, although you may need to settle for frozen turkey or preorder it from a local butcher. Finding the particular pumpkin puree, spice blend, marshmallows or seasoning you remember from home, on the other hand, can be considerably harder.

One of the biggest challenges of Thanksgiving is that the date doesn't move, but it's also not a public holiday, meaning that you're likely to have to celebrate on a weekday. In 2026, Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, so if you're ordering ingredients from US retailers, it's a good idea to start planning now.

Start with Thanksgiving and work backwards

If you're cooking Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, November 26, you don't want the stress of hoping that your American ingredients will arrive on Wednesday, November 25. Ideally, everything shelf-stable should be in your kitchen well before Thanksgiving week, giving you time to check the order and deal with anything that hasn't arrived as expected.

A sensible 2026 Thanksgiving ordering plan looks something like this:

When it comes to ordering from the US for Thanksgiving, there are too many variables involved for guaranteed deadlines, from retailer dispatch to customs clearance in your own country. However, it may be useful to use this timeline as your guide to help you start ordering sooner rather than later. And when it comes to ordering for Thanksgiving, there's no harm in beating the rush and ordering early; your pumpkin pie spice isn't going to object to sitting in the cupboard for an extra two weeks, and planning Thanksgiving dinner is considerably more relaxing when you know you've got the key ingredients ready.

Work out what you actually need from America

Before filling an online cart, check what you can buy locally. American products that were almost impossible to find abroad ten years ago are increasingly stocked internationally, and availability varies enormously between countries, particularly in supermarkets and specialty stores that have seasonal sections.

The items worth sourcing from the US are the ones you can't find where you live, particularly if they're central to the Thanksgiving food you want to recreate.

Pumpkin pie spice

This is an ideal Thanksgiving product to order from the US because it's small, light and unmistakably associated with American fall baking. McCormick's current Pumpkin Pie Spice, for example, combines cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice and is specifically marketed for pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving dishes. You could, of course, buy the individual spices locally and make your own blend, but if the American product is what you want, then this compact pantry item is a must-have in your cart.

Canned pumpkin puree

For many Americans abroad, pumpkin puree is the Thanksgiving ingredient they discover they can't simply pick up with the potatoes. Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin is still widely sold by US retailers in 15 oz cans and remains a standard choice for American pumpkin pie. However, shipping a can of pumpkin across the world may not be financially viable. If canned pumpkin puree is unavailable where you live and having the familiar product matters to your Thanksgiving, you can consider adding it to your order, but it might be a good idea to check the international shipping cost before buying six cans just because they're inexpensive in America.

Marshmallow Fluff and American-style marshmallows

If sweet potato casserole is part of your family's Thanksgiving, the right marshmallow product might be key to the success of your day. American-style marshmallows and Marshmallow Fluff can be difficult to replace, depending on where you live. They're also much lighter than canned ingredients so can be relatively cheap to send. Marshmallows might be light but they can be bulky, so don't judge the likely shipping cost on weight alone. If you're ordering them alongside other Thanksgiving ingredients, check the final package size before choosing your shipping option.

Ranch and seasoning packets

They're not exclusively Thanksgiving products, but dry seasoning packets are an easy addition to an American pantry order because they're small, light and useful well beyond November. Hidden Valley, for example, sells its Original Ranch Seasoning, Salad Dressing & Recipe Mix in 1 oz packets, alongside several other seasoning and recipe mixes. If there are particular US seasoning packets you use in your Thanksgiving sides, dips or appetizers and can't buy locally, adding a few to the same order makes considerably more sense than shipping a heavy product you could easily source at home; you could even think ahead and add a few extra lightweight groceries to your order if you know that you've got weight and size capacity.

A few other Thanksgiving staples worth checking

Some products are closely associated with American Thanksgiving but their availability outside the US varies too much for us to call them universally difficult to find. Check locally first for products such as Karo corn syrup, Stove Top stuffing, Jiffy corn muffin mix, poultry seasoning and jellied cranberry sauce before deciding whether they need to come from America. French's Original Crispy Fried Onions are another good example: they're the classic topping for American green bean casserole and are still sold specifically for that purpose in the US, but they are also available through some international retailers, so don't automatically assume you need to import them.

The same principle applies to Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. Even if the exact product isn't readily available where you live, remember that you're paying international freight to move cans of soup. Check your local options before deciding that importing it is worth the cost.

Buy the rest locally

You don't need every ingredient on your Thanksgiving table to have an American passport; your local supermarket is a much better place to buy flour, sugar, butter, potatoes, vegetables and many of the other basics you'll need for the meal. Grocery shelves around the world are also becoming increasingly diverse. Evaporated milk and buttermilk, for example, are widely sold in many countries, while other products that were once specialist imports have become much easier to find internationally.

So, do your local shopping first, or at least your local research, and then put together your US wish list containing the items you can't get in-country. You may find that your intimidating list of fifteen "American" ingredients quickly becomes four products that are genuinely difficult to source, which makes the international order much easier to manage.

Substitute Thanksgiving food that simply can't be shipped

This is where your Thanksgiving planning needs to stay local. Stackry can't ship perishable items, fresh food and products requiring refrigeration, which means that fresh and frozen Thanksgiving ingredients aren't candidates for parcel forwarding.

That means Cool Whip, fresh or frozen pies, ham and other perishable meat need another plan, so if a spiral-cut ham is the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving table, you'll need to source that locally rather than trying to bring one in from the US.

Always check out the current prohibited and restricted items guidance before ordering food, as the destination country and carrier may have additional restrictions.

Get the difficult ingredients sorted first

The easiest way to host Thanksgiving outside the US is to split the shopping list into three groups:

1. Things you can buy locally
2. American products that matter enough to source from the US
3. Fresh or perishable items that need a local solution

Order the American products early; don't wait until the week before Thanksgiving to discover that your pumpkin puree is out of stock, your favorite retailer takes five days to dispatch, or the parcel you expected on Monday is sitting in customs.

Create your free Stackry account

If the US stores you want to use don't ship internationally, sign up for your free Stackry account and you'll receive your own unique postal address in New Hampshire where eligible purchases can be received before being forwarded internationally. If you're buying from several retailers, Stackry will also hold eligible packages for up to 45 days, giving your separate orders time to arrive before you ship them onwards.

Thanksgiving abroad may require a little more planning, but the hardest part shouldn't be happening on November 26. Get the difficult ingredients ordered in October and early November, buy everything else locally, and by Thanksgiving week you can concentrate on cooking rather than tracking parcels.