Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and it’s frequently given a bad rep as either time spent with dreaded extended family members or just the filler holiday between Halloween and Christmas. But Thanksgiving has some awesome attributes that are frequently looked over, similar to the Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge in the middle of December. So today lets take some time to be thankful for one of the chillest holidays of the year, Thanksgiving, and look at the three reasons that Turkey Day should be your new favorite day.
1. The Food
In my life, I have cried only a very few times when being presented with food. These times are limited to me as an infant, where the only way I could get food was to cry for it, and the Thanksgiving of 2012 at the Orlando, Florida Cracker Barrel. The reason I cried was because I was presented with a pecan streusel-topped pumpkin pie, and it was (obviously) just as amazing and life changing as you may imagine. The food on Thanksgiving is unlike any other. It’s the only day of the year where you don’t have to feel ashamed of unbuttoning your pants at the dinner table. There’s turkey and ham, so many good vegetables, different kinds of potatoes both sweet and regular, and don’t even get me STARTED on the desserts… oh my- I’m sorry, I’m getting carried away. The point is that the food is amazing. And it also signifies that it’s ok to start eating winter foods too, like hot chocolate. So Thanksgiving brings in a warm beginning of seasonal feelings to your heart, and also your belly!
2. It Doesn’t Really Have Any Sort of Set Plan
Thanksgiving really doesn’t have too many traditions associated with it other than eating and being with the ones you love. I mean, the only thing that is always done on Thanksgiving is when they fly huge balloons of your favorite cartoons in the sky in objectively the hippest city in the United States. So basically the coolest tradition in the entire world. For other holidays in the winter, gifts are required and for some, trips to local places of worship are too, which can bring on quite a bit of stress for a lot of people. But with Thanksgiving, there’s none of that, and you can basically do whatever you want. As you may have surmised from my previous paragraph, I don’t actually cook or get together with extended family for Thanksgiving. Usually my mom and I go to Orlando, eat at a Cracker Barrel, and enjoy theme parks like Sea World and Epcot in the colder weather and toast to the upcoming winter holiday season. Another great example is a group of friends doing a ‘Fakesgiving’ celebration, which is just your friends gathering together, eating of course, and being happy. A family doesn’t always have to be the family you were born into, so feel free to make your own traditions when it comes to Thanksgiving. It’s such a chill holiday that everyone will think it’s really cool anyway!
3. It’s Very Inclusive
Thanksgiving is a very inclusive holiday, made to celebrate all Americans who came into this country and learned to work together. In the winter, there can be a divide, especially within the stores—Team Hanukkah, Team Christmas, Team Kwanza, Team Festivus for the rest of us, Team you name it—that there seems to be more of a competition within the holidays than a celebration of each. Thanksgiving doesn’t have that because no matter who you are, you have people you care about and are thankful for. It’s a holiday for everyone, whether your family was on the boat to Plymouth Rock or your family just got here yesterday. We all can sit down and enjoy a slice of pie together.
So this fourth Thursday of November, maybe try something new with your ‘family,’ whoever that may include. Make some tasty food, have some people over, watch Charlie Brown, make some of those cool hand turkey decorations (and send me one too!) because in reality Thanksgiving can be the holiday that you make it, and maybe the one you’ll be most thankful for in the end.