Why The Bold and the Beautiful Broke Thanksgiving Tradition This Year

Soap fans love dropping in on their shows during the holidays so they can share the traditions that the characters revisit each year. This year, The Bold and the Beautiful, however, departed a bit from its traditional Thanksgiving celebration and, while some fans dislike change, it’s understandable why B&B took this particular route in 2021.

The Bold and the Beautiful – Giving Thanks

In past years, the Forrester clan has gotten out the soap world’s longest dining room table as family members, friends, and even select foes gather to celebrate Thanksgiving. Animosities are put aside so that everyone can give thanks and say what they appreciate about the person sitting next to them.

As Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton) reminded us this year, this was a tradition that Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) started. Viewers knew this year would be different when the holiday was held not at Eric Forrester (John McCook) and Quinn Fuller Forrester’s (Rena Sofer) mansion but rather at Brooke Logan Forrester (Katherine Kelly Lang) and Ridge Forrester’s (Thorsten Kaye) home.

It would have been difficult for anyone (outside of maybe Eric or Shauna Fulton) to sit next to Quinn and then talk about what they like about her. It hasn’t been a good year for the Forrester matriarch as her affair with Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor) was exposed. We do recall one year Bill Spencer (Don Diamont) being on the outs so he sat out the festivities. Still, it was an otherwise full house.

Deacon Sharpe And Sheila Carter: Fantasy Party Crashers

We couldn’t see Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) and Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) making the invitation list. So, B&B wrote in some fantasy sequences in which each of them envisioned being welcomed by the Forrester clan. Sheila was chastised not for shooting, kidnapping, and poisoning people but for merely leaving the sweet potatoes out in her car! Sheila beamed when told she’d be seeing her grandkids.

‘Grandpa’ Deacon, likewise, imagined what it was like to arrive at Brooke’s and be welcomed not only by Hope Logan Spencer (Annika Noelle) but by Liam and Ridge, too! “You’re family, Deacon,” Brooke said in Deacon’s fantasy. “You belong here.”

All My Children

Interestingly, the members of the next generation – Kelly, Beth, and Hayes – were off-camera, upstairs with nanny Amelia making Thanksgiving-themed headpieces for Finn (Tanner Novlan) and Liam to wear. Either Amelia was doing the lion’s share of the arts and crafts or it’s possible that the youngest generation is being aged up a bit?

Perhaps we’ll find out at Christmas? That’s another holiday that B&B does up with an annual tradition. Usually, nearly the entire cast gathers at the Forrester mansion and puts tensions aside while Eric tickles the ivories and carols are sung.

Time will tell if the show makes a bit of a departure in late December. While this year’s Thanksgiving had all the heart and emotion of other years, we have to admit the holiday was different as we didn’t get to see some of the show’s cast, and the tradition of characters turning to someone else wasn’t held. A question for Christmas – if it is held at the Forrester mansion – whose portrait will hang over the fireplace? Will it be Quinn’s or the late Stephanie Forrester’s (Susan Flannery)?

The Bold and the Beautiful (BB) airs weekdays on CBS. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Los Angeles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on B&B spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.