What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

I love a good tradition–especially around holidays.

I come from a big and very connected family.  Thanksgivings when I was a kid were filled with aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and I loved every minute of it.  Now unfortunately my family is smaller and lives on different coasts–like a triangle, so it is very rare that we get a chance to all be together for holidays.

And now that I have my own little family, I’m trying to add some new traditions to the mix. And Thanksgiving is one of those where there is a lot of room for new traditions.

There is of course the Thanksgiving Day Parade–the Peach loves a parade and the floats. I watched the HECK out of that every year when I was a kid, waiting breathlessly for the Rock-Ettes.  I remember reading about this parade party that was featured in a Martha Stewart magazine. That sounds like an awesome idea, eh?

For me, another great tradition was the kids table. It was always so much fun!  By the time I grew up, there were nieces and nephews to take my place.  I hope the Peach gets to enjoy this.

Image: Project Nursery

One tradition I remember was setting up the place cards for our long dinner table.  My cousin, Cheryl and I always had a blast trying to figure out which family member would sit where for this very special dinner. You could use these amazing ones from Rifle Paper Co. Love!

I would love love love to have special plates like these for the big day of Turkey. Our friend, Lynn has the best selection of these turkey plates. And she’s an amazing cook whose roots are Southern by way of Louisiana so she knows her way around the kitchen to say the least.

Here is one tradition I’m not really in to–pumpkin pie.  I’m just not a fan.  Forgive me.  They are beautiful, but still, do you think I could get away with a chocolate hazelnut tart instead?

Image: Martha Stewart

So many ways to cook that bird, which is known not for its wonderful taste, but for its ability to feed a large quantity of people cheaply, but still, we do love our turkey on Thanksgiving and there are sooo many divine ways to cook to make it taste great.  I like a bacon wrapped turkey myself…

So, I guess I had more traditions than I thought! What are your holiday traditions?  Any special recipes that you MUST make every Thanksgiving?

7 thoughts on “What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

  1. It’s funny–growing up we didn’t have much in the way of traditions, except for the food, of course. And football. We didn’t have a kids’ table (not enough people to warrant one). And when we were living in SF we usually had Thanksgiving at someone else’s house. But I do have two adult traditions, both of which were started during my first Thanksgiving in New York City: watch the Macy’s parade, and watch The Ref, the first Christmas movie to kick off the Christmas movie season. It’s also the first day when we’re allowed to play Christmas music, which is pretty well on 24/7 until January 6.

    And this year, I’m hosting my parents, grandmother, sister’s family, and possibly my brother and his wife. (9 adults! 4 kids!) We’re definitely doing a kid’s table. And a giganto fresh bird–it’s being killed today, according to Strip District Meats! And if I can convince my husband, I’ll continue my personal tradition of putting up Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend. Holidays, begin!

    1. Jody, that sounds just perfect! you are going to cook an amazing meal! And you’ll have a blast!

      I haven’t watched Ref, so I’m going to have to check it out. My fav. holiday movie is Holiday Inn.

  2. I love watching the Macy’s parade too! I watched it as a kid and somewhere along the line I started getting ostracized for wanting to watch it by whomever I was with during the holidays. But in the last few years, it’s become my favorite part of Thanksgiving morning again. I wake up, make coffee and watch all the sparkles, scarves and crepe paper with SUCH delight.

    Our Thanksgiving tradition is to go over to Hayward to my cousins’ house, something we’ve done since we were kids. My grandmother and her sisters were very close and they all moved out to the east bay from Minnesota and bought houses near each other. So when we were kids, we were always out there somewhere. Most of them are gone now, by two of my cousins still live across the street from each other, so each Thanksgiving is a little bit like going back in time.

  3. Moe, I’m gonna cry! I love that your grandmother and her sisters rolled out together to the East Bay–built in community!

    And I’m right there watching the Thanksgiving parade too!!!

  4. My granny and I started our own tradition about 10 years ago when I spent a year living with her. We call it “Pie Supper” and the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving we make all kinds of pies. Dessert, meat pies, quiches, you name it. And that’s all we eat, pies 🙂 I am excited to go see her in San Antonio this Wednesday and do it up right. Thanks for askin, I am now pretty darn excited! Love your blog, by the way <3

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