As a longtime Friends fan, I find the show to be “comfort food.” Appropriately, Friends is known for its Thanksgiving episodes. (See what I did there? I’m already hungry.) Each year – with the exception of Season 2, which barely mentioned Thanksgiving in “The One With the List” – the Thanksgiving episode was a focal point of the season, and later seasons featured some pretty major special guests, including Brad Pitt and Christina Applegate. To get everyone in the grateful spirit, I’m ranking the top five Thanksgiving episodes of Friends.

5. “The One Where Underdog Gets Away” – Season 1 (1994)

“I’d prefer to keep a safe distance from all this merriment.”

“The One Where Underdog Gets Away” is just the ninth episode of the series, and it makes the list because of the warm, fuzzy friendship feelings. Ross and Monica’s parents are away, so they decide to have dinner together at Monica’s house. For various reasons, the other friends’ plans get ruined, and they end up having dinner there too. When the huge Underdog balloon gets loose from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the friends lock themselves out of the apartment when they go to the roof to watch. Dinner is ruined by the time they get back in the apartment, and they all eat Chandler’s traditional anti-Thanksgiving meal of grilled cheese, tomato soup and Funyuns and toast to the fact that everyone’s Thanksgiving sucked, which resulted in them all getting to spend it with each other. Awwwww.

MVP of the Episode: Monica. Before dinner was ruined, Monica was killing it as hostess and making three types of potatoes: lumpy ones like Mrs. Geller makes, potatoes with peas and onions like Phoebe’s mom made, and tater tots for Joey.

Best Line: “I'd like to propose a toast. Little toast here. I know this isn't the kind of Thanksgiving that all of you all planned, but for me, this has been really great, you know, I think because it didn't involve divorce or projectile vomiting. Anyway, I was just thinking, I mean, if you'd gone to Vail, and if you guys'd been with your family, if you didn't have syphilis and stuff, we wouldn't be all together, you know? So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm very thankful that all of your Thanksgivings sucked.” – Chandler

4. “The One With Chandler in a Box” – Season 4 (1997)

Joey won’t forgive Chandler for kissing his girlfriend, Kathy. In a callback to Joey and Chandler’s apartment getting robbed, Joey makes Chandler spend six hours in a box. While everyone is prepping for dinner, Chandler is to sit silently in the box in the middle of Monica’s living room, thinking about what he’s done. Monica gets ice in her eye and has to go see an eye doctor, who happens to be Dr. Timothy Burke, her ex-boyfriend Richard’s son. She then invites him to Thanksgiving, which everyone agrees is creepy. They kiss, which is even weirder. When Kathy comes by to talk to Chandler, the group has to witnesses her break up with him (while he’s still in the box) because she doesn’t want to come between Chandler and Joey. Joey tells Chandler to get out of the box and go after Kathy and that their friendship will be fine. It’s a great Joey and Chandler episode, and we get to see what Chandler’s like when he really cares about a woman. It’s all very sweet.

MVP of the Episode: Rachel. She takes Monica to the eye doctor, consistently reminds Monica how gross the Timothy situation is, and is unapologetic about her habit of returning gifts she doesn’t like for store credit or better things. When Ross gets upset, we get some Ross-and-Rachel tension that hints at their lingering feelings for each other. She shows him a box of things she kept from their relationship, including movie tickets from their first date and an artifact from the museum from the first time they had sex.

Best Line(s): Ross: Hey you know, Mon, if things work out between you and Richard's son, you'll be able to tell your kids that you slept with their grandfather.
Monica: Fine, judge all you want to, but [to Ross] married a lesbian, [to Rachel] left a man at the altar, [to Phoebe] fell in love with a gay ice dancer, [to Joey] threw a girl's wooden leg in the fire, [to Chandler] live in a box!

3. “The One Where Ross Got High” – Season 6 (1999)

Monica’s parents don’t know she’s dating Chandler, and that’s because, for some reason, they don’t like him. When we find out it’s actually because Ross threw Chandler under the bus when his parents caught him smoking marijuana, the rest of the episode is dedicated to setting the record straight, which results in Ross and Monica outing each other for various secrets. The B-story features Rachel, who is known for being a terrible cook, making the only dessert that will be served. Of course, she royally screws it up by making an English trifle with a layer of beef sautéed with peas and onions.

MVP of the Episode: Judy Geller. After everyone yells secrets and random information at her, she addresses each person one by one and very calmly tells Rachel that her trifle did not taste good. She also comes around to loving Chandler and is really supportive of Monica’s relationship with him.

Best Line: “What is with everyone today? It’s Thanksgiving, not…Truth Day.” – Ross

2. “The One With the Football” – Season 3 (1996)

“42 to 21, like the Turkey, Ross is done!”

I have a soft spot for this episode because before the days of full seasons on DVD, there were “The Best of Friends” VHS collections featuring some popular episodes from each season. I watched them over and over, and “The One With the Football” was on one of the tapes. I’ve seen this episode probably 50 times.

The episode really gets into Ross and Monica’s history of competition and rivalry with the Geller cup (aka “a Troll doll nailed to a 2x4”). It’s an all-around fun episode where the whole cast is together for the whole episode, so we get a lot of fun Ross v. Monica dynamics, plus Chandler v. Joey (over a girl), and women v. men. It’s a relatively simple episode, but it’s classic early-seasons Friends for me. Ross and Rachel are together, Monica is timing the games according to when she needs to baste the turkey, Chandler’s sarcastic commentary is directed at any and everyone, and Phoebe is as wonderfully weird as possible.

MVP of the Episode: Rachel. After doing nothing the entire game, she catches the pass from Monica that (maybe) wins the game for the girls. She also goes to get a snack while the game is happening and no one notices. This is my kind of football.

Best Line: “Guys, guys, come on, it's Thanksgiving! It's not important who wins or loses. The important thing is: the Dutch girl picked me!” – Chandler

1. “The One With All the Thanksgivings” – Season 5 (1998)

“Remember when Ross tried to say ‘butternut squash’ and it came out ‘squatter nutbosh’?”

After Thanksgiving dinner, the friends are sitting around Monica’s apartment talking about their worst Thanksgivings, and we get a variety of flashbacks that are all really funny. Phoebe’s are mostly from a past life (of course!), and we see Joey get his head stuck in a turkey. Most importantly, we find out about Monica’s worst Thanksgiving – and how Chandler lost his little toe – in a flashback to the Geller family Thanksgiving when Ross and Chandler were in college. After losing weight because Chandler had called her fat the year before, Monica tries unsuccessfully to seduce Chandler and ends up dropping a knife on his toe (“They’re made of wicker!” – Jack Geller) and severing it. Chandler doesn’t learn until this episode why the toe incident occurred, and he’s pretty upset. When Monica cheers him up by putting a turkey on her head, he accidentally says “I love you” for the first time in their relationship, which no one except Joey knows about at this point.

It’s a great Monica and Chandler episode and a use of flashbacks that aren’t gimmicky and actually serve the story. Season 5 is one of the best of the series, and this episode is the most classic Thanksgiving episode.

MVP of the Episode: Monica and Chandler. They both get past some old issues and come together in the end. And the fact that Monica would put a raw turkey on her head for her man says a lot.

Best Line: “I don't know what to pick. Am I more thankful for my divorce or my eviction? Hmm.” - Ross