Well guys Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the mad rush is on to host a fabulous Thanksgiving event for family and friends... or to get home in time for the holidays!
I know not everyone on this site will have celebrated Thanksgiving but for those of us who do, we know what a special time it is. We had all those usual traditions. Watching the football, the parade, Charlie Brown, and that huge traditional Thanksgiving dinner where we felt that we might never need to eat again! LOL!
But our family had a few traditions of our own where it didn't feel like Thanksgiving if we didn't have them. We always play Uno, always watch Kindergarten Cop 😂 and always serve cherry glazed ham because that was my grandpa's favorite.
For those of you who grew up celebrating Thanksgiving, what do the holidays mean to you and did your family have any special traditions?
Obviously with me being British I won't have celebrated Thanksgiving as long as some of you here. But I did start celebrating while I was still living in England because of my American fiancé who was living out there (and yes that was how we met!) We don't know a huge deal about Thanksgiving in Britain and it isn't one of the American traditions that have caught on over there (yet!) What we knew about Thanksgiving is whatever we saw on TV and too be honest, it just looked like another Christmas to us. But out first Thanksgiving together was over five years ago. We had some mates over and some of my family - basically whoever wasn't working that day - and while we didn't do the big turkey, we did have a joint of beef with Yorkshire pudding (very American I know!) with all the other trimmings. Even know when we celebrate Thanksgiving, it's quite normal for us to do a roast beef as well, in remembrance of our first Thanksgiving.
No offence to our American cousins but the thought of having a Christmas dinner a month before your Christmas dinner makes the mind boggle! I'd need a crane to move me afterwards!
British lady over here! I love America. It is me and my family's favourite place to go on holiday. We usually used to take the kids there for summer hols - that's if we weren't going to Spain! I've seen Thanksgiving in TV shows and films and to me it looks just like another Christmas (though the Americans can correct me if I'm wrong!) But definitely something I would like to do. Perhaps we should visit America in November instead! 😁
I'm not an American so I didn't grow up celebrating Thanksgiving the way some of you on here have. But I celebrated my first Thanksgiving 13 years ago and it has fast become one my favourite holidays. I know some of my expat friends don't care much for it, and even some of the Americans I worked with back in London weren't overly crazy about it either. But I love it. It has special significance for me because it's the only holiday the man and I have celebrated consistently since we got together. We were long distance for quite a long time so we weren't always in the same country for Christmas, New Year, Valentine's day etc. Thanksgiving is the only holiday that we've always celebrated together. In all this time, we've come up with some of our own traditions, and I look forward to this holiday every year.
Thanksgiving, one of my all-time favorite holidays! Even though I am American, I did grow up in Europe for a while, and even then my parents went to the effort of keeping the Thanksgiving tradition going. We were lucky because there was an American community where we were so it didn't feel strange celebrating in a country that didn't have the holiday. In fact it's things like that that made me feel less homesick and actually enjoy where we were living, especially as we moved around every so often.
When we made the permanent move back to the States, celebrating Thanksgiving was even better because we got to see our extended family. I'm married now so Thanksgiving is kind of split between the two families but for me that's what Thanksgiving is all about - family!
I did live in America for a time and I have fond memories of celebrating Thanksgiving. It's a lovely time of year. Everyone's happy, excited, and looking forward to being with their nearest and dearest. We all say that everything American ends up on this side of the pond and if Thanksgiving found it's way over here, I for one, wouldn't be disappointed. It'd be like having your Christmas dinner twice!
British lady here so obviously Thanksgiving is not our thing. But I do have quite a number of American and Canadian friends who do celebrate Thanksgiving, and it's always seemed like a really sweet holiday. I do hope that one day one of my North American friends will invite me over to celebrate with them. Even the cost of three tickets won't stop me! LOL.
While many people will agree that Christmas is such a magical time of year, for me Thanksgiving has always been cozy, warming and heartfelt. It doesn't have the commercialism that Christmas now has. It's not about giving expensive presents and seeing who can get the most lights and decorations outside your house! But it's a time for family, friends, relaxing, being thankful and counting your blessings. I was raised by a single mom and there wasn't much money growing up. But my mom always made sure us kids had a great Thanksgiving. Either we would go to my grandparents or we would have Thanksgiving at home with all the family around. My mom was always really creative in decorating our house using a lot of natural materials that she would find in the nearby woodlands. And all of my family attending would bring a dish while my mum would make two turkeys and a ham. So for me Thanksgiving is all about family, pulling together and helping each other out.