Jell-O is bringing the wobble back to the Thanksgiving table.
As Food & Wine reports, on November 11, the brand launched its limited-edition “No Thanks” Thanksgiving Molds exclusively on Walmart.com for $5 each, reimagining some of the holiday’s most divisive sides — brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, and pecan pie — as playful, jiggly desserts.
Inside each kit, you’ll find one of three molds and a box of Jell-O mix. The idea pairs old-school nostalgia with a dash of modern, meme-driven humor. To mark its 125th anniversary, Jell-O is leaning into that mix of history and self-awareness — reminding everyone that the brand still knows how to have fun with itself.
Each mold design carries a playful, exaggerated take on its namesake: the Brussels Sprouts mold stacks into a glossy green sphere cluster, the Cranberry version mirrors the ridged cylinder of a canned sauce, and the Pecan Pie mold features fine linework that creates a floppy, crust-free “slice.” Unlike the metal molds of decades past, these are made of flexible silicone for easier unmolding and reuse.
The timing makes sense: Thanksgiving side dishes can be surprisingly polarizing. According to a 2025 Talker Research survey conducted for Jell-O, nearly one-third of Americans rank brussels sprouts as their least favorite side, one-quarter skip cranberry sauce, and one in five pass on pecan pie. Yet more than 60% say they’re more likely to try dishes that look fun and believe holidays should feel playful, not stiff.
The Jell-O “No Thanks” collection taps right into that sweet spot of nostalgia and humor — one reason retro food is having a moment on TikTok and Pinterest right now.
In the past few decades, Jell-O molds have lived mostly in the margins of kitsch cooking culture or resurfaced in experimental circles alongside savory aspics and retro recipe revivals. This is the first time the brand itself has revisited the format, and the timing is perfect. We’re in a moment where people love things that are both ironic and genuinely nostalgic, which is why these old-school cooking tools are suddenly cool again.
By the 1950s and ’60s, Jell-O had become shorthand for mid-century creativity: a bright, sculptural staple of potlucks and holiday spreads. According to the Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives, cookbooks of the era featured everything from “Perfection Salad,” a shredded-vegetable aspic suspended in lemon gelatin, to “Golden Glow Salad,” a lemon Jell-O mold layered with carrots, pineapple, and walnuts. Home refrigeration made these glossy centerpieces easier to pull off, and their jewel-toned wobble became part of the decade’s culinary optimism — edible proof that modern kitchens could turn thrift into spectacle.
“Thanksgiving is all about togetherness, but we know not every side dish unites the table,” said Lauren Gumbiner, associate marketing director at Kraft Heinz, Jell-O’s parent company. “With our ‘No Thanks’ molds, we’re turning the most debated dishes into something everyone can actually say yes to, in an unmistakably Jell-O way.” It’s also part of a much bigger trend of “playful food.” We’re seeing more and more products in 2025 — from desserts to drinks — that are all about comfort, color, and not taking themselves too seriously.
The Jell-O “No Thanks” Thanksgiving Molds are available now, exclusively on Walmart.com for $5 while supplies last.
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