How to Escape Thanksgiving Dinner With Family

Thanksgiving dinner is a time for families to gather together and enjoy a quiet meal. It's a time to rejoice and bask in each other’s love. Thanksgiving dinner also offers the opportunity for aunt Hilda to drink too much, cousin Freddy to make a pass at you and cousin Judy’s children to run around like unleashed banshees, leaving a trail of cold, wet turkey bits in their wake. Sound like fun? If not, then you need to escape Thanksgiving dinner with family.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Plan a vacation for Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving weekend can be the perfect time to explore a city you’ve never visited. Depending on the weather, you may be able to go skiing or travel south and go surfing. Many resort destinations offer special rates for travelers during holidays.

2. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Not only will volunteering at a soup kitchen help you escape Thanksgiving dinner with your family, it will also provide you with a sense of pride from knowing you helped those less fortunate. This can be an intensely regarding experience and can give you insight into a world that you are unfamiliar with.

3. Get a job. Get a part time job working in a local restaurant and volunteer to work on Thanksgiving. This may seem an extreme step, but if you wish to avoid your nieces and nephews and their habit of throwing cranberry sauce on your head, it may be worth it.

4. Compromise. Explain to your family that you would like to spend Thanksgiving in your own home. Let them know that you want to spend Christmas with them experiencing the regular family traditions, but for Thanksgiving you wish to create new traditions in your own home.

5. Organize your own Thanksgiving celebration with friends. There are many individuals who do not have families to go home to for Thanksgiving, or who share your desire for a peaceful Thanksgiving celebration. If anyone in your circle of friends fits this description, find out if they want to spend Thanksgiving together. You can have a pot luck and ask everyone to bring a dish that is traditional to their family’s feast. In doing this not only will you escape Thanksgiving dinner with your family, but you will provide camaraderie to those who might have spent the day alone.

6. Be honest. Explain to your family in the nicest, most diplomatic way possible, that there are certain circumstances that make you uncomfortable. Maybe you don’t like noise, large groups or fighting--whatever you find averse about your family Thanksgiving experience.

Tips & Warnings

• Be diplomatic and spare feelings when discussing your plans with your family.