Who hasn’t gotten frustrated with the process of cooking a giant Thanksgiving meal for 4-6 hours, only to have it gobbled up within 15 minutes? The struggle in the last days of November is real. The holiday meal – enormous in its scope and extraordinary in its preparation – can present myriad challenges to the average weekday cook, especially considering the extra pressures of entertaining extended family and friends. Additionally and discouragingly, by the time everyone sits down to eat, meal participants tend to consume the food in well under half an hour.
So, what’s a planner-host to do? Intentionally stir up the event, of course! Here are a few ideas to spice up your Thanksgiving holiday celebration and make it more memorable and less frustrating.
- Switch up the meal. Who says Thanksgiving Day requires a stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and that mysteriously delicious green bean casserole with the crispy onion strings on top? Nobody forces us to eat that meal, and though you may have one or two loud-mouthed outliers who balk at the idea of eating anything else on Thanksgiving, preparing and serving a giant turkey dinner is not a federal mandate. Why not serve something much easier to prepare? Fresh, local fish, a rack of ribs, or grilled steaks, for example. Or, better yet, ask each of your guests to bring a dish to share, with no requirements or instructions for a true pot luck. Heavy appetizers, dessert first, ethnic feasts, low country boil – the options for meal themes are endless!
- Switch up the location. We live in paradise! Why not forego a heavy meal altogether and do a picnic at the beach? Skip the stress, and say yes to a fun day with family recreating in one of the most beautiful places on earth – Southwest Florida beaches. There are also many area parks offering recreational spaces for large families with so many options for fun activities together that don’t revolve around a massive meal (one that inevitably took hours and hours to prepare). Alternatively, for those with family in the area, make Thanksgiving into a progressive dinner: appetizers at one house, dinner at the next, and dessert at the beach!
- Switch up the seating. Do you find that year after year your family gravitates to the same seats, often relegating children to an entirely different area of the house? Avoid a bit of relational tension (and encourage varied conversation) by integrating ages and seating event attendees at random. Have each person take a number when they arrive. Place corresponding numbers randomly around various seats, and have attendees find their seat based upon this random assignment. To keep people on their toes, make everyone switch seats at each course.
- Switch up the conversation. Rather than going around the table having each person say something for which they are thankful (though you could still do that, too), have each person come prepared with a question they’d like everyone at the table to answer. Some examples include: What’s a great memory you have from this year? What are you looking forward to about 2022? What goals do you have for the last four weeks of the year? Tell us something we might not know about your childhood. What will be your second career? What is something you’d like to learn how to do?
- Switch up the activities. Instead of sitting around in a tryptophan-induced stupor, prepare some simple games and intentional activities for the afternoon. Custom-written Mad Libs are always a good idea! Create a family trivia contest, spearhead some relay races, create a Lego building competition, set up a Thanksgiving-themed scavenger hunt, or sponsor a coloring contest or rock painting competition for all ages with interesting prizes. Create a raffle, and encourage your family and friends in attendance to enter by writing something for which they’re thankful or some sort of memory. Then, select a winner and have everyone guess who wrote the winning response. The internet is – of course – replete with ideas for ways to connect on Thanksgiving in fun and memorable ways.
The holidays often represent a source of both immeasurable joy and overwhelming stress. Our collective expectations often are unreasonably high. So, why not change the game a bit and keep your friends and family on their toes? It’s a no-brainer! And so, from all of us at Neapolitan Family, we wish you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!