Thanksgiving
Turkey Day
A Day to Give Thanks with Family and Friends
About Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is the heart of gratitude in the holiday season. It’s a day that brings family, friends, and communities together to celebrate blessings and reflect on what matters most: Christmas is coming. Kidding! Thanksgiving transcends religious, cultural, and regional boundaries. It’s one of the rare days that asks nothing of us but to show up, eat too much, and pretend the cranberry sauce isn’t weird. (If it were normal-good, we’d drink it out of 64-ounce Slurpee mugs at 7-Eleven. That’s how America works.) It’s also a day filled with traditions old and new, from watching parades and football to sharing recipes passed down through generations. Thanksgiving invites us to cherish the warmth of togetherness and to savor the joy of a table full of delicious food. Sounds wholesome, right? It is, which is why we embrace it without irony or cynicism. Mostly.
Ways to observe
(A) Low effort
Share a short message of gratitude with a family member, friend, or neighbor who has made a difference in your life this year.
(B) Recommended
Participate in a local Thanksgiving tradition, such as a turkey trot, a food drive, or volunteering at a community meal. Then, gather with family and friends for a dinner full of laughter, storytelling, and gratitude.
(C) High effort
Host a Thanksgiving dinner for those who may not have a place to go this holiday. Invite neighbors, friends, coworkers, or acquaintances who might be spending the day alone. Prepare a welcoming meal with traditional dishes like turkey, stuffing, and pie, and
Inspiration
Thanksgiving may have a tangled origin story—Pilgrims and Wampanoag, harvest feasts and presidential proclamations—but at its core, it’s always been about one thing: stopping to appreciate what you’ve got. It doesn’t demand costumes, fireworks, or romantic pressure. It just asks you to show up, be thankful, and eat like you mean it. The famous 1621 meal in Plymouth gets most of the credit, but harvest festivals were already a staple of Indigenous life across North America long before the English ever set sail. The modern holiday as we know it didn’t really take shape until the 19th century, when Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, campaigned to have Thanksgiving enshrined as a national tradition. She pushed for turkey and pie, and eventually convinced Abraham Lincoln, who officially de- clared it a holiday in 1863, hoping to unify a war-torn country with a shared day of gratitude. Thank you, Sarah. Since then, Thanksgiving has gone full Americana: the Macy’s Parade debuted in 1924, football games became tradition, and many families invented their own sacred rituals. Yes, other countries have their own versions (looking at you, Canada, with your early-October pregame), but American Thanksgiving is a heavyweight. It’s the second-most-important holiday in the U.S. after Christmas, though that may change once Claymation Monday catches on.
Adornments
Watch
What’s Cooking? (2000)
Four families in Los Angeles—Vietnamese, Latino, Jewish, and African American—each celebrate Thanksgiving in their own way. A Thanksgiving gem about the meaning of family.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (live broadcast)
A surreal blend of pageantry and product placement, this annual TV spectacle marks the unofficial start of the Christmas season. It’s the perfect visual metaphor for the “Christmas creep” that Gravy Bowl mocks.
Listen
Thanksgiving Song by Mary Chapin Carpenter
A gentle folk tune that has become a hidden holiday favorite. Carpenter’s lyrics speak of home, family, and love, offering a rather touching tribute to Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving by Loudon Wainwright III
Wainwright’s storytelling paints a relatable picture of a chaotic Thanksgiving gathering, complete with squabbling relatives and awkward moments.
Read
The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote
An autobiographical short story by Capote (a sequel to his classic “A Christmas Memory”). Young Buddy, growing up in Depression-era Alabama, is bullied at school, until his kindly cousin invites the bully to Thanksgiving dinner. A poignant lesson in understanding and forgiveness.
We Gather Together by Denise Kiernan
Kiernan traces how a humble harvest feast grew into a national holiday. Anchored in the Civil War era, the book follows Sarah Josepha Hale’s relentless 19th-century campaign to establish Thanksgiving, illustrating how an annual day of thanks helped heal a fractured nation.
Eat
Make a PieCaken
Can’t choose one dessert? Have them all at once! The PieCaken is an over-the-top Thanksgiving treat that layers multiple desserts into one show-stopping centerpiece. Picture a pecan pie on the bottom, a pumpkin pie in the middle, and spice cake on top, with apple-pie filling between each layer and cinnamon buttercream holding it together.