How to Create a New Thanksgiving Tradition

If you find yourself bombarded with company every Thanksgiving or are part of the travel crowd, it may be time to create a new Thanksgiving tradition. Expectations run high during the holiday season, and most people are pulled in so many directions that the meaning of the day gets lost. But try some of the following alternatives for celebrating Thanksgiving and you may just enjoy the day with your family.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Spread the work around. When hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, avoid stress and enjoy friends and family more thoroughly by asking everyone who attends to bring a side dish. This will give you a break and give others the opportunity to showcase their signature dishes.

2. Request that guests bring their favorite board games. Instead of sitting around the table for four or five hours or falling asleep in front of the television, keep the day moving with board games. Once the meal is finished, serve dessert and coffee while starting up a few tournaments.

3. Organize a touch football game. If the weather permits and you have a more active bunch, then it's a great time to get a touch football game going in the backyard. After dinner or during halftime, get the circulation moving at your own coin toss.

4. Create a Thanksgiving story book. Ask your friends and family to either bring a favorite Thanksgiving story or memory typed or handwritten with them to dinner. During the meal, take turns reading each one and then compile the pages into a book that you can add to each year.

5. Serve others on Thanksgiving. Create a new Thanksgiving tradition by gracefully bowing out of a feast and serving others at a local homeless shelter. Invite your friends and family to go with you, gathering afterwards for dessert, sharing your experiences and giving thanks for your blessings.

6. Ask children to perform a Thanksgiving play. Most kids love to dress up either as Pilgrims or American Indians to tell the story of the first Thanksgiving. This is something they can do every year and change by adding new music, narration and drama.

7. Save the table dressings for last. To keep kids busy and entertained, set up a craft area spilling over with Thanksgiving-themed supplies. Have them create place cards and the centerpiece for the dining-room table and save a place card each year for your scrapbook.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask kids and adults alike to share the things for which they are grateful before the meal begins.
• When you create a Thanksgiving story book, include little ones who can't write yet by asking them to draw pictures of a favorite holiday memory or story.
• If you're going to serve at a shelter on Thanksgiving, challenge yourself and your friends and family to volunteer regularly during the rest of the year.