Thanksgiving Traditions Differ

Happy Thanksgiving

Nov 23, 2011 by Girl Friends

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Thanksgiving means different things to each of us. For some girlfriends it’s a special dish that brings back childhood memories. For others it’s the people sitting around the table.

All The Single Girlfriend authors share What makes Thanksgiving “Thanksgiving” for us. For some Gf the holiday is a melancholy time. For some it’s a time of new beginnings. Over the next days we’ll share our experiences and memories with you. Please join the conversation and let us know what are some of your Thanksgiving traditions.

Thanksgiving means being with the people I love, eating whatever version of the foods I love show up. I am not a stickler for how it used to be but I honor the past while creating traditions that start in the present. This year: cutting the turkey up first before roasting and adding cardamom and candied ginger to my favorite cranberry-orange relish. Most important – being in my daughter’s beautiful home and seeing what a wonderful life she has with her adored and adorable husband and my two grand-pups. I am a lucky woman! Hope your Thanksgiving is fabulous. – Rebecca Crichton

An optimal Thanksgiving involves a big group of people at my house, with kids playing in the yard. It’s a way of being thankful for all my friends. I cook for them, gush about the wonderful things they bring and make my house into a welcoming place for people to gather. This year, I’m having fewer people over, but it will be a celebration of our local farms and of happy lives for everyone, including the animals who are part of dinner. I’ll serve a locally procured goose and ham. A friend with a farm will bring vegetables she raised, and others will bring sweets and good company. We are very lucky to have such abundance. – Bonnie Simon

Thanksgiving to me is gathering all my family and friends together for a good meal, some fun conversations and a day of relaxation. Now that we’re in CO, instead of NY – where we used to have HUGE family gatherings of 60 -70! – we have a much smaller group. But, it’s just as pleasant as the old days of busy family gatherings. There’s the requisite great food (brought by everyone who attends), fine conversation, and the delight of letting the children entertain us. – Yvonne DiVita

Is the worst, most loneliest holiday. I am not a fan. – Dorothea Bozicolona Volpe

Thanksgiving is my fave holiday, more so than Christmas. It’s the first holiday of the winter season and the food is comfort food, reminding me of the 50 or so Thanksgivings I’ve experienced with my family, mostly, and new friends. It’s the ONLY time I eat cranberry relish and really enjoy it. It’s the ONLY time, now, that I we all get together with my original family or my husband’s family. It’s the ONLY reason that we feel we should get together, and it can be fun. I suppose if there were no Thanksgiving we would “do” Christmas instead but if I am hosting at my house, I try and cook something different, unexpected to add to the dinner. One year I made Moroccan chicken in the clay pot (chicken tangine) instead of turkey. It was delicious. Delicious is a good word to describe Thanksgiving all the way around! – Kelley Connors

I have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving. There used to be the traditional holiday festivities when my mother cooked a wonderful meal for all seven of us.After I married, I tried to create a new tradition with my husband and in-laws. Sometimes my mother or dad would join us, not both since they divorced while I was in college. The food and table settings seemed to turn out fine—even the time I forgot to thaw the turkey.

Now I’m twice-divorced, in my mid-fifties, and living with my dad. Never the ideal homemaker, I struggle to plan a holiday for Dad and me. I don’t know if I should buy a turkey or make reservations. Maybe my eldest sister who doesn’t like me will have pity and invite us to the farm for Thanksgiving. In the final scenario, I wouldn’t have to cook and could get by with a couple of pies from Costco. – Maggie Buerger

When I moved to Atlanta from Boston to go to grad school I had a choice to make. Did I go home for long Thanksgiving weekend or hold off for winter break e.g., Christmas/Hanukkah? Since winter break was longer than Thanksgiving a new way to celebrate was set in motion. Thanksgiving became an away from family holiday that was shared with wonderful friends who had become extended family. However, traditions are important; they serve not only to anchor us but gives us some

thing to look forward to. As a single women I had a strong need to create a few holiday traditions of my own. Sometimes people come to my home and sometimes I go to friends’. But I always watch the Macy’s Day Parade while making my most yummy chestnut stuffing (not dressing). A week or so later it’s turkey soup time!

This year I’m especially thankful for all the amazing women who have given their talents to build the community of All The Single Girlfriends. Hope you have a day where you know you are special. – Toby Bloomberg

More About Thanksgiving

An Old-Fashion Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 85th Anniversary Stats

About the Author

Girl Friends Has Written 19 Articles For Us!

All The Single Girlfriends is a social content destination for single girlfriends over 40 who are meeting life with style and denial! Each of us, along with you, brings a unique idea of what it means to be single after the big 4-0 birthday. There is not one right way to do that. However, we double dare anyone to deny that women over 40 are not fun and fabulous!

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