The 10 Thanksgiving Grocery Items Shoppers Most Often Forget

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Whether you start preparing for Thanksgiving a month in advance, or decide to host or attend a celebration on the spur of the moment, you may end up realizing you need a certain last-minute item from the store. But when you're facing a time crunch, grocery shopping takes up precious minutes, which is why many people turn to DoorDash to fulfill urgent holiday orders of crucial ingredients, baking and cooking tools, and even dining chairs. According to DoorDash, the day before Thanksgiving is the delivery service's busiest of the year with an almost 90% increase in orders.

The company released its report of the most-ordered items on Thanksgiving Eve. We used this data to make a list of the 10 Thanksgiving grocery items that shoppers most often forget. Use it to plan ahead to ensure you have what you need for all of those Thanksgiving recipes you bookmarked so you don't end up having to place a DoorDash order at the eleventh-hour.

Whether you're making grandma's famous pumpkin pie or a gluten-free Thanksgiving stuffing casserole, make sure you have all of the cooking and baking tools on hand that you need. DoorDash sees a spike in orders for graters, peelers, measuring cups, cake pans, can openers, knives, and rolling pins on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Make sure your spice cabinet is full of the savory, seasonal flavors you'll need for your favorite recipes. Read through each ahead of time, making a list of the required seasonings — even salt and pepper — and confirm you have the pumpkin pie spices, sweet potato casserole flavorings, and herbs needed to season your turkey. Orders for items like nutmeg, sage, and vanilla dramatically increase on Thanksgiving Eve and Day.

While you may think you have all of the serving dishes and food storage containers you'll need on the big day, it's worth double-checking. Visualize how you plan on serving, storing, or transporting each dish, as well as how you'll handle surprise dishes your guests bring. DoorDash says there is a holiday rush to deliver serving trays and platters, Tupperware, and aluminum foil.

Many of us like to have a glass of wine or cozy whiskey cocktail while preparing the Thanksgiving meal. But do you have enough left to serve your guests, too? DoorDash claims there are quite a few panic orders on Thanksgiving Day of holiday wine, beer, vodka, whiskey, and pre-made cocktails. When shopping, calculate what you'll need for your guests' favorite boozy drinks and special Thanksgiving cocktails.

Turkey prep items like heat bags, roasting pans, and meat thermometers are often ordered at the last minute. If you're in charge of cooking the Thanksgiving turkey, ensure you have everything, including a meat thermometer to check the temperature and make sure it's cooked properly. We recommend investing in a digital meat thermometer like this inexpensive ThermoMaven instant-read one on Amazon.

Unexpected guests or failed dessert recipes mean there's a Thanksgiving Day run on ready-made holiday desserts. Spikes in orders of pre-made pies, pie crusts, and garnishes like whipped cream have been reported. If you aren't sure of numbers, it won't hurt to have an extra pie in the freezer. And even if you're topping the pumpkin pie with a salted caramel sauce this year, you'll still need to buy heavy cream.

One commonly forgotten item is a Thanksgiving dinner classic — cranberry sauce — and the day just isn't the same without it. Write down the ingredients to make cranberry sauce from scratch, or pick up a few cans of store-bought sauce. Think about how you'll make your turkey gravy, too. DoorDash gets many orders for gravy and gravy mixes, possibly because people either forgot to make it or ruined their batch.

If you're having a lot of houseguests for a big holiday meal and you don't want to spend hours cleaning up, paper and plastic dishes, cutlery, and serving tools are a no-mess lifesaver. There are lots of fun Thanksgiving-specific designs, and they're also items frequently ordered on DoorDash on Thanksgiving Day.

There are so many different ways to use sweet potatoes in Thanksgiving recipes. Almost every guest has their own preferred method and ingredients. If you forgot to make your niece's favorite sweet potato dish, you might find you suddenly need marshmallows (or marshmallow fluff), brown sugar, and pecans — and you won't be alone. These are commonly late-ordered holiday ingredients.

Of course, when you're cooking all day (or night), it's easy to forget that you need to eat as well. Ordering food from DoorDash is more popular than ever on Thanksgiving Eve. The last thing anyone wants to do after cooking all day is make another meal for their Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving dinner. But if you want to avoid ordering fast food, add a simple, heat-and-serve dinner option to your grocery shopping list.