Thanksgiving day is coming up soon, and that means lots of food and lots of family members. As your distant relations whom you haven’t seen in a couple years show up and hand you their coats as they walk in, you know that you’ll need to show them a good time. If you don’t, they’ll make Thanksgiving day miserable with their constant complaints. What should you do, though? How can you bring everyone together and make the most out of the holiday season? Below, we’ll show you what you can do to make sure that your Thanksgiving celebration will go off without a hitch!
This is the most important part of the whole Thanksgiving day, right? The meal that you prepare and serve has to be absolutely (or very near) perfect. With a meal so large, and with so many guests, most of your day will probably be taken up with preparing the food. However, you could always ask someone else to help you. As you walk into the living room that is completely packed with your relatives, you see a couple of them doing nothing while looking at their phones. You’ve just found your helpers. Once you trick them into coming into the kitchen, quickly assign them ‘short’ tasks that will see them busy until dinnertime!
What are you thankful for? This is the question that you’ll be asking everyone when you have them contribute to a Thankful Tree on Thanksgiving day. Begin by handing out pieces of paper that are shaped like leaves for them to write what they’re thankful for on. Once everyone is done writing down their answers, have them get up (or have someone else collect the leaves) and put them on a small tree you bought for just this purpose. A small cut-out paper tree, which is what you’re going to want to use, doesn’t cost much at the store, and will probably have enough room for all the leaves. If not, just put some of the leaves with nicer things written on them over top of the ones that say things like “I’m thankful for the Thankful Tree.”
Thanksgiving day can get a little boring if you don’t decorate your house for the occasion. A few days before everyone arrives, head to the store and buy as many nice-looking holiday themed decor as you can. Red and yellow pillows, streamers, and turkey stuffed animals should all find a place in your home. After placing everything you bought with care, you can rest assured that, when all your guests arrive, they’ll be impressed with the effort you went to with your decorations. Don’t plan of having them all stay nice, though, since the little kids may unintentionally destroy some of what you bought. Just remember that you can get them all again if you want on Black Friday!
Here’s an idea: take a couple of your favorite guests to a fair for a couple hours on Thanksgiving day. You might not want to take any children along with you, since this fair will probably not include any rides. It’s mostly just walking around and admiring the Fall themed items for sale. Do you need more tiny pumpkins for your front porch? Now’s the time to buy them. As you walk around, you may even come across a stall that sells Thanksgiving themed decor that can only be bought here. It may be a little pricey but, as you purchase it, you tell yourself that you’ve worked hard and earned a small reward.
If you can get all the kids to sit in one place for a period of time, read a book to them that reflects the values of Thanksgiving day. Read them a book about the importance of family, as you conveniently forget that you didn’t invite your brother’s family to your home this year. If you seem to be losing your audience’s attention, ad-lib the story a bit to include something like the turkey coming alive at the table and running out the front door. To make absolutely sure that no children leave when you’re reading, ask some adults to position themselves around the kids so they can’t escape. This’ll teach the young children that sacrificing a little for your family is necessary. At least if they want to eat!
Better wake up early and turn up the volume real loud to make sure everyone watches the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade! Watch the floats roll slowly by as the kids point to the ones that are based off of their favorite TV shows while thinking to yourself that children’s shows have really gone down hill in the past few years. During the numerous skits from Broadway musicals you’ve never heard of, you can leave the room and prepare breakfast for everyone. You won’t be missing anything worthwhile. Of course, at the end of the parade, Santa and Mrs. Claus will appear on their float, although by the time they show up you may have become bored and turned to something else.
It’s the middle of the afternoon on Thanksgiving day and, surprisingly, you have a bit of free time to go and do something fun. Your first choice is to go and lay down for awhile, but that’s not keeping with the holiday spirit, so you google on your phone to see if there are any Thanksgiving themed places you and a couple others can go to hang out. Luckily, there’s an apple farm not too far away, so a few of you decide to get ready and go. The apple farm is a quiet place, filled with rows of trees with low-hanging apples. You have the option of picking some to take home with you, so you do this for a half-hour while chatting with your cousins.
Is the house beginning to feel a little cramped? This is normal on Thanksgiving day. In an effort to get some people out of the house to make some room to relax and breathe, you ask some of the other adults if they can think of any Thanksgiving games to play. Thankfully, someone suggests a holiday spin on Tag. One person can be the turkey, and everyone else can pretend to be pieces of corn that the turkey wants to eat. You think this is kinda a ridiculous and nonsensical twist on a simplistic game, but you’re so desperate to get some people out of the house that you agree immediately. Soon, the person that suggested the game is leading a file of children out the door, and the house is so much quieter.
After the Thanksgiving day dinner, when everyone is full and content to stay in one place, put on a movie that’ll fit the holiday. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is always a good pick, since most of the older people grew up with it, and it’s short enough that the younger kids won’t get bored and run off to do who knows what. Re-watch the scene where Snoopy makes popcorn and toast for Thanksgiving dinner and think to yourself how much easier it would’ve been if you just did what he did instead of working so hard to make a huge and impressive dinner. Ah well, you think. Maybe next year.
Who’s ready for Football? Well, you can think of at least a couple of your relatives that are extremely ready to watch it for hours on the TV. You even think you saw one of them wearing a foam finger. It’s probably safe to bet on a loud afternoon as the sports-fans of your family stare in rapt attention at the game. About halfway through the game, if not sooner, at least one of them will head out to the store and pick up a pack of beers. Once their car pulls back into the driveway, open the fridge and make some room for the drinks, which they’ll insist must be refrigerated for them to taste any good.
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