Move over Christmas–there’s another holiday that has my heart: Thanksgiving! Despite its maybe less than ideal roots, this holiday holds so many family traditions essential to my earliest memories of home. With my immediate family annually hosting Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember, the five of us regularly have our hands full the days preceding our favorite holiday. The familiar chaos of my mom prepping the turkey, my brother peeling potatoes for to-die-for mashed potatoes, my sister making her signature boozy Thanksgiving punch, my dad putting the final touches on decor complete, and me making my traditional annual Thanksgiving dessert, the Rampersaud home exudes the buzzing warmth of this cozy holiday.
It is a crucial element to mention that the Rampersaud Thanksgiving is never a casual affair–people always come dressed to impress. The whole extended family dons some of their best fall looks to have this family feast together. Timeless Christmas decorations complete the vibe as they are littered throughout the house, with our Christmas tree adorned with nostalgic momentos of the life my parents have built over the last 30 years sitting in the living room. We typically host around 25 people every Thanksgiving season, with a “kids” table and an “adult” table — although the “kids” table even hosts 28-year-old cousins.
As far as traditions go for this holiday, we are never short of them. The Rampersaud Thanksgiving typically hosts an array of aunts, uncles, cousins, and significant others of the family, including an annual random guest that changes every year. Aside from the guestlist, Thanksgiving has brought all five of us together within the busy heat of the kitchen. Every year, all of us get our hands dirty cooking, cutting veggies and marinating for the two days leading up to Thanksgiving. My mom typically makes the turkey every year, and we reliably make two turkeys, one smaller one and a bigger one for the kids and adult tables, respectively.
Every Thanksgiving we also give speeches; that is, everyone who comes to our Thanksgiving has to give a speech. It doesn’t matter if you’re the random annual guest or the boyfriend to one of the kids, you gotta give a speech. Of course, like one would expect, everyone says what they’re thankful for, but it wouldn’t be the Rampersauds if we didn’t add a twist on these speeches. Aside from everyone giving a speech, my dad and I hand pick a picture, event or experience that has happened between the last Thanksgiving to the present that seems to be particularly transformative for each individual guest. People not only say what they’re thankful for but also describe what’s going on in the picture and its effect on themselves over the year. As it would sound, these speeches take literally forever. We usually end up starting these speeches right before dinner after the pre-dinner drinks and charcuterie boards when people are especially ravenous for my mom’s mouth watering turkey. Our speeches have taken over two hours over the years, but recently we have actually been setting a timer for how long people can talk. These speeches are what really makes the craze of the Thanksgiving madness all worth it–there’s never a time I feel closer to my entire family than when we’re all crowded over the dining room table laughing, crying, and smiling at the resilience all of us hold individually and collectively as a family. My grandma’s teary-eyed speech never fails to get me every year.
Of course traditions are bound to change over the years as people get older and that romanticized childhood lens begins to dull. This year we’re actually not having that coveted huge Thanksgiving, but are opting for a quiet one with the immediate family in upstate New York. As people change, grow, settle down and live separate lives, this classic Thanksgiving quietly begins to divide as well, patiently awaiting the next generation of parents to pick the tradition back up again.
For my entire life, this addictive Thanksgiving buzz has been one of the biggest highlights of the year as a kid. Helping out my family get ready for this holiday full of gratitude brought such a strong feeling of pride to my young adolescent self, and I truly strived to do my part to make every Thanksgiving the best one it could be. The immense love and nostalgia I will forever have for Thanksgiving will exist throughout my lifetime as traditions are continued, changed and new ones are born in place.
Coming back home as an out-of-state student to the gentle hum of love, family and nostalgia, I still hold that child-like, naive anticipation of Thanksgiving to come. No matter what your family traditions have held in the past, hold now or will become in the future, I hope you all have a safe, happy and healthy Thanksgiving with your loved ones.
To my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, I love you.