In The Brand Vol. 99, No. 7, Ed. 1 published on Tuesday, November 9, 2010, Mindy Rogers wrote a piece over some odd Thanksgiving traditions. She depicts the delicious food and time spent relaxing with family initially, and I think this is a timeless description of Thanksgiving. Especially for us college kids, we are swamped with final exams, the stresses of social clubs beginning to rush and overall fall-semester burnout, but Thanksgiving break has always been there to save us from drowning.
Rogers then explains some of the more well- known family traditions. Some families take a plain white tablecloth and write...what has happened for which they are thankful for while other families watch college football or play their versions of backyard pick-up games. Other families are super ambitious and run a 5K Turkey Trot before they treat themselves to their Thanksgiving dinners. My family’s tradition is we wake up to watch the Macy’s Day Parade and then play board games until Thanksgiving lunch.
The article then moves to some of the more eccentric Thanksgiving traditions. Rogers describes a tradition where the family plays Monopoly, and the winner decides whose house will host Thanksgiving the following year. The poor loser has to prepare the next year’s turkey. Thrift-minded families will sometimes forgo Thanksgiving dinner to camp out in front of stores to get the best deals during Black Friday shopping. The last tradition that Rogers mentioned are those families who are eager to begin the Christmas season by dusting off their decorations and buying a tree right after eating their meal.
Whatever your Thanksgiving traditions are, I hope you all have a fun and safe time with your families. Please take these few days to destress and spend quality time with the ones you love the most.