Today I want to talk about a few things regarding Thanksgiving. For me, one of the biggest challenges for both Christmas and Thanksgiving is to not become busy during the event, but to be present, and also to not become stressed before the event, but to be relaxed, and to enjoy the time with my children, with my family, because that’s basically what it’s all about. It’s not about making it perfect. This is a concept that my brain doesn’t easily accept, but I really do want to be present. I want to have the mindset of being present and not the mindset of finishing, or making it just right, or making it just how I want it, but rather to enjoy that process with them. It is easier now that they’re a bit older – it was more challenging when I had many young children. But either way, I really want to engage with them, connect with them, and make special family memories together.
One of the things that helps is delegating tasks in advance, whether it’s cooking or cleaning, so that those can be done along the way without being a big deal. Maybe you can even set the table the night before. Making desserts in advance, thinking about table settings, and preparing things like the place names or the menus if you’re going to have those – all of those things really help you and me to then be able to focus on enjoying the time together.
I also find when we do games, or when we read something special about Thanksgiving, or when we take turns to talk about what we’re thankful for, and we pray together, it really helps me to be present, to relax, and to focus on the meaning of the day, rather than having all the things to be done. As mom, let’s face it; there’s always something to be done. And I also need to be careful not to ask my kids to do things all the time, or my husband, but to let them relax and enjoy the time together as a family.
I hope you have a special Thanksgiving coming up. I’m going to talk about a few ideas for table decor, for games and activities and, and then for delicious food.
Let’s talk about the Thanksgiving table. Natural elements really go well with Thanksgiving decor. Some easy ideas are tiny pumpkins, autumn leaves of different colors and different shapes, pine cones, and acorns. Once we tied a wide ribbon around the backs of each chair and then attached a pine cone in the center of the bow, and that was really pretty. Use oranges, browns, and yellows. Or you could go with something completely different. If you like Christmas colors, use red and silver.
Candlelight is always gorgeous. There are the ordinary candles, tall dinner candles, which are lovely, you can do beeswax candles, or you can do LED or battery powered candles if you want to avoid the toxins. But there’s nothing to beat a beautiful natural candle. You can put tall candlesticks on upside down glasses. I have a video on YouTube on that. You basically put a flower underneath an upside down glass, and then out the candle on the base. You turn your glass upside down, put a flower or an acorn, or even a baby pumpkin inside the glass, and then a candle on top. It should be quite a wide candle so that it balances nicely on top of the glass. You can put this at each place or in the center. To see that in a video, go to the Youtube channel Family Food for Moms, and I think it’s one of the shorts.
Then centerpieces make your table really amazing. You can go the traditional floral route with an arrangement of flowers or a vase of flowers. The colors of orange, red, or yellow are beautiful there. I like to delegate that task to my younger girls, and they’ll go and pick whatever greenery and flowers they can find in the garden, and we just put it in a crystal vase on the table. That’s one more thing for them to do, and one less thing for me to do. Alternatively, you can use your pumpkin theme, and do some decor, maybe using green ivy or whatever greenery you have, to place around the pumpkins.
And then browner things and orange ones kind of compliment each other. You could use things like figs, or even grapes or pomegranates that have been cut open to decorate the middle of your table. Sometimes it’s lovely to make little bunches of herbs to put at each place. You can use rosemary, thyme, or sage tied together with a bit of twine. It also makes it smell amazing, as do cinnamon sticks. You can put cinnamon or vanilla on the table. Vanilla would be the pods, and cinnamon would be the sticks bundled together with twine, put somewhere on the table, or as part of the centerpiece, and that makes it smell so good. Cloves and oranges are also often used to smell amazing.
We love to put personalized name cards at each place. You can do a square piece of cardboard, which you fold in half with the name written on the front part. You can even print a bible verse or a particular saying to put on the back half, or even a message to that person. So, you can do personalized name cards, and then some sort of party favors. These are always special, things like a little fancy chocolate, or a tiny little gift box with a piece of jewelry like a bracelet or a ring. Or use other edibles – anything that looks beautiful and elegant, and adds to the specialness of the meal.
We also love to put a thankfulness jar in the middle, and then there are strips of paper and pencils, and anyone can write anything they’re thankful for and pop it in the jar, and then dad reads those out at the end. Or we do thankfulness cards at each place, where you can write what you’re thankful for, and then read it out when your turn comes to say what you’re thankful for.
As far as tablecloths or placemats go, we like an orange or an off red color. Plaid tablecloth looks amazing, or you can use a rustic sort of tablecloth, almost like sackcloth. That could be beautiful.
Otherwise, just use warm, cozy fall colors and vibes. Gold or copper accents look amazing. I also like to put crystal vases or jugs on the table. And then napkin rings can be gold, or can be any kind of design that matches. Wooden accents are also amazing – wooden placemats or coasters. You could also use glass coasters. And then a table runner, whether it’s an earthy style, or like I have, a gold one – I like to put on top.
Just go wild and use your imagination. But if it’s something that you’re not really interested in doing yourself, then delegate it to your kids, because I’m sure they’ll love to do it. I’m also amazed at how creative and diverse it is when they do it, compared to when I do it. I kind of get stuck in a rut, and it’s often the same every year, but when I give it over to them, they come up with all kinds of new things. Sometimes they even put tiny little stones on the table, like those white stones and write a word on it, like thankful, and put those at each place – anything that’s different and brings interest.
Also, instead of just helping yourself at the table, we love to have everyone sit down, even if there’s a lot of people. We’ve been known to make makeshift tables that extend from one room through into the next to fit everyone in. But it’s so great to sit together. For you guests, seeing the beautiful table when they arrive can really help create a welcoming atmosphere, set the tone, and bring out the warmth and the beauty of the full season.
Next I’ll talk about some fun kids’ activities for Thanksgiving, games you can play as a family. There’s leaf rubbing, or even coin rubbing. Leaf rubbing consists of fetching some fall leaves from the garden – the kids can choose some different kinds that they like. Then put a piece of paper over them and gently rub to get the shapes of the leaves. You can do the same thing with coin rubbing, with the presidents’ faces on them. You take a few coins, put them under paper, and then you gently rub with a pencil or a coloured pencil crayon, and get the presidents’ faces from the coins.
We love to do Mad Libs. You can google “Thanksgiving Mad Libs printables” – there’s some hysterical things out there, and we’ve had such laughs in the past over those. Hopefully you can enjoy some Thanksgiving Mad Libs, or Thanksgiving Would You Rather questions. The latter are a great way to break the ice, and to get the conversation going. Here’s an example: “Would you rather eat a Thanksgiving turkey all by yourself, or have no Thanksgiving dessert?” Again, you can Google those, and I think there’s many out there.
You can play turkey bingo. Bingo that’s turkey themed, pumpkin themed, or fall themed is great fun. You can use popcorn as markers, although maybe that wouldn’t work because the kids will just eat them, so use some little tokens or coins.
There’s pin the feather on the turkey – blindfold the players and then get them to pin the feather. There’s Thanksgiving charades, using anything related to Thanksgiving – carving the turkey, fall harvest, watching football, or seeing the parade – those are all fun things to act out.
A Thanksgiving scavenger hunt works well for kids, using things that they need to collect like a stone, a brown leaf, a green leaf, an acorn, a mini pumpkin if you have those around, and anything that is fun for them to collect. For pumpkin bowling, you can use paper cups or cans, and tiny pumpkins, and then you bowl the pumpkin and try to knock over as many of the cups or the bottles as you can. There’s Thanksgiving Pictionary, which would be the same as the Thanksgiving Charades, except it’s drawing. You draw apple pie, family dinner, football game, etc.
There’s Thanksgiving hot potato. You can use an actual potato, or you can use a baby pumpkin or a soft toy, and you have to throw it around while the music plays, and then the moment the music stops, the person holding the item is out.
And then lastly, Thanksgiving trivia is fun, especially if you like to bring a historic theme to the holiday – talking about the first Thanksgiving, talking about history, Thanksgiving’s traditions, et cetera. You can divide into teams, and maybe mom or dad runs the competition. There’s lots of downloadable Thanksgiving trivia games online as well.
Another fun activity is to have a DIY dessert station, where guests can either decorate their own slice of pie with some cream, they can decorate cookies, or they can make ice cream sundaes with toppings like whipped cream, chocolate chips, Oreos, nuts, or M&Ms. Somehow it makes it easier for mom, and less work while the others, especially the kids, have lots of fun.
And now let’s talk about food briefly. I’m not going to talk too much about it, because most people have their own set menus that they like to use, but I’ll just tell you what we do as well. Sometimes traditional works, and sometimes twists work, and sometimes you have something completely different that’s a hit.
For main dishes, obviously there’s roast turkey with gravy, seasoned with butter and herbs – that’s amazing. You can do ham with brown sugar and pineapple glaze. The glaze really makes it delicious. We like to make gammon with a glaze, which is made from honey and Dijon mustard – equal quantities of both, very easy to make. It’s great when you’ve pre-cooked the ham or the gammon the day before and then you take it out of the fridge about half an hour early, cover it with the glaze that’s also pre-made, and then bake it in the oven for half an hour, and then it’s a lovely, rich, sticky mess. Or there’s a luxurious prime rib roast. It’s amazing! You need a good gravy to go with it. We like to use cranberry jelly with any of those, not just with turkey. Put your cranberry jelly on your meat – it’s always a good tradition for us.
For the inside dishes, our favorites are the sweet potato casserole and the garlic green beans. Sometimes we just mix them with restaurant onion rings to make it very easy. I’ll steam the green beans with salt and pepper, and then add some onion rings that are very small and crispy, or alternatively we brown and cook our own onions. The kids enjoy that one. Then the sweet potato casserole can be mashed sweet potato with some kind of maple syrup or something to make it extra sweet, if you like that kind of thing, and then with marshmallow or pecan topping. You could also do a pecan maple topping. We like to cook sliced sweet potatoes. We slice up a sweet potato with the skin on, and lay the slices out in an oven tray with a little bit of oil and salt, and cook them like that, and then make the maple pecan sauce to pour over it. That’s delicious! Creamy mashed potatoes or garlic mashed potatoes are very good, and are brussels sprouts with bacon. Perhaps you can make a cranberry sauce instead of cranberry jelly.
For these celebrations, I really like to prepare as much as possible in advance, or buy things that I normally would make myself, because I want to be present with my kids, with my family, and with our friends. I don’t want to be busy in the kitchen. I want to be there as much as I can. I try to get ready in advance. I try to cook the meat the day before to warm up. I try to make the gravy the day before, and warm that. We’ll make the sides and put them in the fridge. Sometimes it takes a lot of fridge space, so especially if you have a giant turkey, you may not always be able to do that, but the turkey would probably be in the fridge defrosting anyway. I do like to do the gammon or the roast in advance. I don’t think you can do it as easily with a turkey because it may become dry. Then we would make the desserts, the pies, in advance.
Oh yes, I was going through the rest of the meal. Great salads to have are a mixed green salad with sliced pears, walnuts, and then balsamic vinaigrette, or just olive oil and balsamic together, and perhaps some goat’s cheese sprinkled on top. Apple works as well in a salad with walnuts, especially with goat cheese and pecans. Those are also amazing, and a honey mustard dressing could be good. Then something like a garlic focaccia. Those are great on the side of some dinners, or you could do rolls.
And then, of course, there’s dessert. Pumpkin pie and pecan pie are our favorites. I’ve seen apple pie with a cinnamon crust, or even a fancy cheesecake with pecans or with cranberry orange. Those are amazing.
Traditional works for us for Thanksgiving, but maybe you’re completely different. Whatever you do, try to make it something that is not going to be labor heavy on the day, but that you can do a lot of on the day before, and then really enjoy the holiday with your family.
Another thing that you could do if your kids are old enough – this is what we’re going to do this year – is to allocate one course to each child who wants to cook, and then they will get that part going, and that takes the burden off you. It also makes it fun to do it together, the cooking as well as the eating. This year, my oldest son, who’s almost a gourmet chef in our home, is going to make the pumpkin pie dessert. My oldest daughter is going to make the sweet potato with the maple pecan sauce, and also a salad with pecans and goat’s cheese. One of my daughters will do the roast potatoes and green bean casserole, And another will help with cooking the ham. My youngest daughter will do a lot of the table setting, and so on. It really helps them to be engaged with the whole process.
Happy almost Thanksgiving friends! I hope you have a special week. I hope you have a good time connecting with family and friends. And if it’s a sad time for you with sad memories, then my heart goes out to you, and may the Lord bring you comfort and strength.
Thanks so much for joining me. I’ll see you next time.
