Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, bar none. I love the food–turkey is second only to wings in my list of favorite foods. I love being with my family. I love the gratitude. I love reminiscing about holidays past. I love watching the parade. I also love that not as much work is required for this holiday as Christmas.
As a kid in the 1980’s, though, I primarily loved that Thanksgiving was the last holiday before Christmas and the time to watch Christmas cartoons was nearing. We didn’t watch the parade back in those days. I played with my cousins nearly every day as it was. Frequently the turkey was dry, and I remember one year when my aunt still served the chicken and dumplings she’d lightly burned. I didn’t like sweet potato or pumpkin pie back then, and I have never been a fan of the other desserts my family loved serving at potluck dinners: banana pudding, coconut cake, and lemon meringue pie.
I try to make sure my kids don’t have memories similar to mine. I want to create memorable holidays for everyone–not just for me but for my kids and my husband. I’d bet you feel the same. Here are some ideas I’ve collected over the years to do just that.
- I spread out crafts, games, and festivities starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving. My husband had to work two days during the week this year, but even during that time, my kids and I still made pecan caramel cinnamon rolls from pizza crust, crafted turkey juice boxes, and watched Thanksgiving shows and movies.
- I have a playlist on Plex (our media server) of all of our Thanksgiving shows and movies, from “Friends” to “Everybody Loves Raymond” to “The Middle” and even the movie Son-in-Law. I don’t have to pull out discs or search for shows on streaming services. I start playing my playlist the week prior to Thanksgiving, and my Thanksgiving episodes play one right after the other. (The shows and movies my kids aren’t allowed to watch like Son-in-Law are at the end, and my husband and I watch those at night after the kids have gone to bed.)
- I do not stress about how clean my house is. Granted, our holiday is just the four people who always live here, but the holiday isn’t about how clean you keep your house. We do some tidying and dusting, sweep and mop, and clean the kitchen, but that’s about it.
- I print “Thankful for” place setting napkin holders. I got mine like a decade ago when they were free on a blog, but $4.00 isn’t much to ask for these lovely printable name cards from Bloom Design.
- I print a Thanksgiving place mat for everyone–not just kids–to complete and color. I scan them and save them with our photos so we can go back and look at how things change year by year.
- We watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Even better, we play Thanksgiving Bingo during the parade. Here are some nice free printable bingo cards for the parade floats for 2025.
- I don’t make foods people don’t like, and I make sure to make foods everyone loves. We avoid making too much food, and we work aggressively to avoid leftovers after the weekend. We don’t make green bean casserole or sweet potato casserole because ultimately the leftovers get tossed in the compost. Instead, we have Dijon green beans made with canned beans and mashed potatoes from instant potato flakes because no one needs to stress themselves cooking Thanksgiving dinner.
- We eat a good breakfast in the morning: bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, pancakes, toast, etc. That tides us over just in case dinner is later than we’d like.
- We make a lovely cranberry juice/ginger ale punch in our holiday punch bowl and drink from it all day long.
- We do not follow a strict schedule other than to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. My family followed a strict schedule, and once upon a time they wanted us on their strict schedule for FaceTiming, but we do not do that anymore.
- We play games after we eat.
My husband’s colleagues have been complaining about family visits and traffic this week, and we have none of those complaints or worries. My husband and I set those boundaries when we married, ultimately deciding that we wanted to make our own Thanksgiving traditions. People in our circle are envious. We made the mistake of going to our family’s respective homes for Thanksgiving over a decade ago and hated every minute. I won’t lie and tell you that we have no guilt about not being with family on the holidays. I do miss having 30 people at Thanksgiving dinner sometimes. But when I feel guilty or sad, I remember the fights had over the years–dysregulated children, dysregulated parents (!), rude comments about weight, political discourse. I remember getting caught in traffic and a 7-hour trip that took 14 hours. And then I think about opportunity cost and move on.
As with all of my posts, your mileage may vary. Maybe you enjoy being with a huge extended family. Maybe you don’t want to cook as much as I do and prefer potluck dinners in which everyone prepares one or two dishes. The ultimate goal is to make Thanksgiving a holiday you enjoy.
If you’re in the United States, here’s wishing you and your family a happy Thanksgiving. I hope you and your family are safe and well. That said, I want to acknowledge that it has been a hard year in so many regards.
I’m hopeful that justice is something we are thankful for on a future Thanksgiving holiday.
Erin
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