Can You Buy Liquor On Thanksgiving? It Depends

Listen, we don't judge. There are probably a whole bunch of reasons why you might want to buy liquor on Thanksgiving. Maybe you looked through your liquor cabinet and discovered you're fresh out of whiskey, and your brother-in-law really likes old fashioneds. Maybe you didn't get the right kind of wine to go with dinner. Maybe you're not even celebrating Thanksgiving, and you just want to find a fun way to get a little buzzed while browsing Netflix and not arguing about politics with your entire extended family. Whatever the case, depending on the state you're in, you may run into some trouble. There are eight states that prohibit buying liquor on Thanksgiving, and several more which have some other kind of restriction.

These are remnants from the days of "blue laws," or laws against vice that prohibited buying liquor on certain days, usually Sundays. Many of them have been repealed, but some of them still stick around, especially in New England. In Massachusetts, for instance, you're out of luck if you need some hooch on Thanksgiving; ditto for Connecticut and Rhode Island. The other five states with these laws are Delaware, Kansas, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Utah, the state that drinks the least amount of alcohol due to its sizable Mormon population.

Even some states that don't have a complete ban on Thanksgiving alcohol sales will throw a few impediments in your way. In Alabama and the District of Columbia, for instance, you can buy beer or wine, but not any of the harder stuff. In Idaho and Georgia, the decision is mostly left up to individual counties and cities, with some allowing sales and others disallowing them. And in Oklahoma, you're allowed to buy certain pre-packaged beers and wines at grocery stores, but you're out of luck if you want anything harder than that (or non-pre-packaged, for that matter).

In a few states, it depends on whether the store is privately owned or not. In Washington and Oregon, liquor stores that are owned by the state will be closed, but some privately owned liquor stores will be able to stay open if the owner so chooses. And then there's Nevada, where liquor sales are allowed all across the state ... except in the small town of Panaca, population 1,058, which is the only dry town left in the Silver State. So if you live in Panaca, you better stock up early if you want to enjoy these vintage cocktails with your charcuterie board (just make sure not to make this mistake).