As a first-generation American with only my four-person family in the country to celebrate most holidays with, my experience with Thanksgiving has been a bit different than most people’s. While Thanksgiving has been different, I have formed unconventional but fun traditions that I look forward to each year.
Growing up, I never related to my classmates who would spend the week of Thanksgiving with their large families or have multiple Thanksgiving dinners with different sides of their families. I didn’t have the traditional idea of the holiday that I saw in movies, but I do have unique memories that I am thankful for. My family and I have celebrated Thanksgiving in different ways over the years, and I have a few traditions that I love and would recommend to anyone looking for a way to spend the holiday.
Theme Parks
Growing up in Florida, many theme parks were just a short drive away, so I could take advantage of them year-round. Trips to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens and to Orlando to visit Universal Studios were regular occurrences, but visiting theme parks also became a Thanksgiving Day tradition for my family and me.
I knew that my classmates and friends who had large families would spend the entire holiday cooking and getting their homes ready for large family dinners. I couldn’t relate to Thanksgiving being an all-day affair like it was for my friends. Rather than cooking and cleaning to get ready for a big dinner, my family and I would wake up early and spend Thanksgiving Day at a theme park, which became a tradition that I love. Riding a roller coaster over and over and walking around the theme park with my family was a fun way to would spend Thanksgiving Day.
The Movie Theater
If my family and I weren’t spending Thanksgiving Day at a theme park, we’d be at the movie theater. Seeing a movie on Christmas Day has become a tradition for my family, but I also associate the big screen and a bucket of popcorn with Thanksgiving Day. Watching a movie in theaters has become one of my favorite traditions and something my family and I look forward to as the holiday season begins.
This November, new movies are coming out in theaters such as The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which I will hopefully convince my family to see on Thanksgiving Day. Watching a movie in theaters with my family for the holidays is one of my favorite activities and one that I would recommend to anyone looking for something to do on Thanksgiving Day.
Friendsgiving on Thanksgiving Day
While Friendsgiving dinner has now become a common occurrence, it’s something that I have done on Thanksgiving Day since I was young. Most people I know host or attend a Friendsgiving celebration during November, but Friendsgiving dinner was what I did for dinner on the holiday. Thanksgiving dinner would usually be shared with my family and our friends who also didn’t have relatives around to spend the holiday with.
Although Friendsgiving is a different experience than the traditional idea of Thanksgiving dinner, I always loved to get together with friends and share a meal and what we were thankful for. Friends are chosen family, and spending a day all about giving thanks to my friends has always been meaningful to me. I learned over the years that it was likely that I had friends who didn’t have a large family to spend the day with, and those friends became the people I would eat my Thanksgiving dinner with.
Thanksgiving Dinner at Restaurants
Dinner with my immediate family or Friendsgiving would sometimes be spent at a restaurant instead of a home. Depending on where you live, restaurants may be closed on holidays, but there are usually locations that remain open and happily serve Thanksgiving Dinner to customers. One of my favorite memories is one year that my family and friends spent at a restaurant having dinner together and sharing what we were thankful for.
As someone who can’t relate to spending a whole day cooking and cleaning my house for extended family to visit, I can say that to an outsider it sounds fun, but it also sounds like a lot of work. I’ve always loved going to a restaurant, ordering a meal, and relaxing with my family and close friends.
As a first-generation American, I have found unconventional ways to spend the Thanksgiving holiday over the years that have allowed me to cherish and look at the holiday differently. While it’s fun to have an excuse to eat turkey and pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving has become much more to me than how I choose to spend the day or what I eat. It’s important to remember that Thanksgiving is meant to be spent reflecting on what you are thankful for with the people you love, which can happen while you’re at a theme park, movie theater, or restaurant with those people.
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