Hosting Thanksgiving is not an easy feat. People look forward to their Thanksgiving feast all year long, and expectations can run high. Cooking the perfect turkey is hard enough, but add appetizers, side dishes, desserts, and drinks, and you officially have a Herculean task on your hands. As a guest, it's important to show your hostess how much you truly appreciate everything they've done, and these 20 hostess gifts under $25 are an excellent way to do that, especially on Thanksgiving. Whatever you do, don't show up empty-handed.

If there is one thing I'm good at, it's showing appreciation to people who are willing and able to cook the Thanksgiving meal. A little background: after my dad passed away when I was in high school, my family's Thanksgivings became... pitiful, to say the least. My mom, brother, and I are all culinarily-challenged, and one year we mismanaged our time so poorly that our turkey wasn't ready until midnight. It was a disaster. When my brother brought home a new girlfriend studying to become a chef and I began dating a man much more talented in the kitchen than I, Thanksgiving took a turn for the better. Years later, my brother and I are both married to our Thanksgiving saviors, and since we clearly can't handle the cooking on our own, we've become experts in the thanking department. This year, these are my top choices for saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"