Holidays are pretty important for us nostalgic folk. They’re a time for family, friends, eating, and all those silly traditions accumulated throughout the years. I love that one family’s holiday is like nobody else’s — and Thanksgiving is no exception!
Maybe your family always go to a movie after dinner. Maybe you stay up for Black Friday and maybe you don’t eat turkey. Or maybe you don’t even celebrate… either way, it’s fascinating, isn’t it?!
But if you want to make some new memories this year, take a look at my top 5 must-do Thanksgiving traditions! And then tell me yours!
1. Friendsgiving
I think of my group of friends as my second family, as I know a lot of you guys do too. So it only makes sense to celebrate twice — once with our relatives, and once with each other (and beer!).
I’m proud to say that my friends and I are on our third year of Friendsgiving! It happens right before the real Thanksgiving (and sometimes it’s better!). Basically, we all volunteer to bring different food — homemade, if you know what’s good for you — and then we party. With said food.
2. Watching Friends
At Friendsgiving, the Friends Thanksgiving episodes are usually on loop in the background. It’s kind of the inspiration behind “Friendsgiving”, after all.
And if Friends is kind of the inspiration behind Friendsgiving, then it’s definitely the inspiration behind the “state game.” In Friends, on one Thanksgiving episode, they played a game where everyone had to remember the 50 states before they could eat. So each Friendsgiving, before we eat, we play the state game. Everyone cheats (I guess that’s another tradition), and then we get bored and eat anyways. Ah, tradition.
3. Kid’s Table Forever
I’m lucky to have so many cousins, and even luckier that we’re all around the same age (the eight of us are all somewhere between 20 and 27). A “kid’s table” is no longer necessary, but we insist on it every year. We get to talk about inappropriate things and laugh and be obnoxious without any reprimanding stares from our parents (who, oddly enough, take Thanksgiving pretty seriously). I hope we’re still sitting at the kid’s table in our forties — it creates a bond like nothing else!
4. Secret Santa Name-Drawing
Once dinner is over, my cousins and I put our names in a hat. The name you draw is the person who’s gift you are responsible for at Christmas.
This is my favorite tradition, since it ties in two holidays! But it’s especially nice because it forces my family to get together again for Christmas (which is hard when there are so many of us). The best part of it, though is that we each inevitably draw the same name as the year before… It’s like fate! Family tradition fate! What could be better?
5. Staying up for Black Friday
Even after all of our parents go home to bed, we kids stay up all night waiting for the local mall to open. We watch TV or go to Denny’s to pass the time, and it’s nice to just catch up with each other without the nosey adults around. Ultimately, this Black Friday agenda is silly because we never end up buying anything… we mostly just get Starbucks and watch all the crazies fighting each other over video games.
But I guess having an excuse to spend the whole night with my cousins justifies it!
Now that I’ve got all sentimental about my favorite Thanksgiving traditions, I want to hear yours! I’m always in the market for new traditions…
guest
We just started our own Friendsgiving tradition this year, but I am allowing some folks to bring something that isn’t homemade, if I know what’s good for me. Some of them cannot cook to save their lives! In which case, chips and dip, beverages and other purchased items are fine by me.
guest
My family and I don’t really do much for Thanksgiving. Yeah, we sometimes eat turkey, but usually it’s our homemade sausage and random Slovak dishes. We don’t play football or watch the Macy’s Parade or anything. And now that my younger sister is spending her second Thanksgiving with some of her friends’ family, there’s less of a reason to have a Thanksgiving feast if it’s only for five people (my parents, my mother’s parents, and myself). My mother would prefer to omit the Thanksgiving shindig if she could.
Thankfully we place more emphasis on Christmas.
guest
Playing Alice’s Restaurant is a requirement.
guest
We don’t do the traditional Thanksgiving meal-none of us like that stuff so we just make whatever we like! Usually this includes baked ziti, steak, and Indian chicken (grandma’s passed down recipe). Then we usually play video games and watch movies, and all of our friends come over to join us for dessert. Our friends are basically family, so it makes sense that they join us for part of Thanksgiving =)
guest
Is it thanksgiving today? Also, I have over 20 cousins on each side. Our age gap is huge though with the oldest being in their mid thirties and the youngest not even a year old.
hydrangea / 59 posts
@babybug329@xanga - bahaha yeah that’s probably best to let them buy food then
I’m lucky to have pretty great cooks for friends. Actually I’m the one who’s lacking in that dept… :/
magnolia / 1027 posts
Everything but Black Friday, I do too! I usually just go to Target in the late afternoon when the crowds have died down a little.
I like to watch all the thanksgiving episodes of Friends leading up to Thanksgiving. My favorite episode is the Brad Pitt one and when Rachel makes a trifle! And because of the trifle episode, and after I bought all the Friends seasons on DVD 4 years ago, I started making trifles to bring to Thanksgiving lunch/dinner with my family xD
guest
My friends and I just did friendsgiving at our college. First time in a while many of us have eaten food that doesn’t make us sick. We made a turkey, gravy, ham, stuffing, four pounds of green bean casserole, 2 apple pies, pumpkin pie, cake, mashed potatoes, two loaves of bread, sweet potato casserole, and soup. But the best part was that we finally got to eat together again, as we did so often our freshman year when we lived together. Friendship is beautiful.