Thanksgiving: Different Traditions For Different Holidays

Coming from a German culture, my family stays traditional in the way we celebrate holidays and eat food. The differences between German and American culture are very evident in their holiday traditions and meals, but there are also some similarities, such as language, that are often overlooked.

This year Thanksgiving is on November 23,2017. Every year my family Thanksgiving is the best, to me at least. So we always have Thanksgiving at my Grandmas and Grandpas, but not this year we are having it at my house. Which I mean could be good and bad. Good is it is at my house so it’s cool and bad, the house has to be completely spotless or my mom will freak out. Normally what we do every year is we get my family together and have dinner, mess around, and watch football. This year my dad's brother is coming with his three daughters and his wife and my grandpa and grandma. I really can’t wait to see them all because I don't really see them that much as I would like to. When we have a family dinner like this we always have a lot of food for everyone.

On the fourth Thursday of every November, families gather together to spend a day filled with food and laughter. Thanksgiving celebrates the day the settlers and the Native Americans enjoyed their first meal together. However, my parents were both raised in Mexico and never had a typical yearly Thanksgiving celebration. Despite my parents home being Mexico, they started a family in America and decided to teach their children about both of the places they come from. A compromise between American and Mexican traditions formed and served as a family tradition until last year. A year ago, my family ate a Thanksgiving meal at my sister's parent-in-laws house.

Every year for me, we head to my aunt's house on my mom's side at 2 o’clock where all the food is homemade. Soon after that we go to my grandma on my dad's side were the food is a little bit worse. Other people often have Thanksgiving held at their house. The whole family comes to their house for Thanksgiving. I thought everyone had two Thanksgiving like me!

Thanksgiving, most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving but not everyone celebrates it the same way as you. Grandma’s house, that’s where i always go for thanksgiving. But that doesn’t mean that everyone else who celebrate thanksgiving goes to their grandma’s house, some people don’t even leave their home. Every person has a unique way to spend their thanksgiving

What does your family do on thanksgiving? My family compared to other family’s might do something the same or something different It all depends on the family. My family does different things, goes different places, and eats certain food on Thanksgiving. Everyone’s family does something different on thanksgiving.

Other families may celebrate by eating foods traditional to their culture. Some of my peers ate tamales and dumpling at their Thanksgivings. Other families do not cook at all, and simply go out to a restaurant to eat their Thanksgiving dinner. Others may simply have an odd dish, such as turducken or lasagna. Just as many people’s Thanksgiving would not be the same without turkey, their Thanksgivings would be very odd if they didn’t have these foods.

When you think of Thanksgiving, what usually comes to your mind? Thanksgiving is all about being thankful and eating great food. It is the one day of the year that no one will judge you for eating so much food that it should be humanly impossible. It is so great! Other holidays have food, but nothing like Thanksgiving. There is usually a good meal on Christmas, but the whole day isn’t dedicated to food. You don’t spend all day preparing a feast fit for a king. Valentine's Day is filled with chocolate and candy, which is good, but not near as good as the turkey on Thanksgiving. You also might go on a date to a nice restaurant, but that’s only if you have a significant other. The food would still be hard to compare with the Thanksgiving meal. Just thinking about Thanksgiving could make anybody's mouth water. I’m talking about stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, sweet potatoes and brown sugar, and then the pies! The smells and aromas of the food cooking before the dinner outways

Thanksgiving is a holiday that is celebrated in America, but it has a fairly dark history to what most people know. Most people know that the Pilgrims came over to America on a boat called the mayflower and made friends with the Native Americans then they celebrated it and made this holiday. While this is somewhat true there is more to it than that. For example the Pilgrims may have came on a boat called the Mayflower, but it wasn’t to make friends with the Native Americans but to spread

The first thing my family and I think about is who we are going to invite. We consider if thanksgiving this year will be a simple close family get together or loud aunts and uncles kind of gathering. We acknowledge what we did last year and choose the opposite to switch it up. The messages and emails are sent as soon as the invite list has been created. Replies from our family must be given as soon as possible only to make the preparations a little easier even though, we all know it will be hard anyway. Once we get all our responses in we can now move on to our next step.

I have discovered that people don’t share the same Thanksgiving traditions as me. Chicken, Duck, Turkey, and Turdunkin are all enjoyed as main course meals! Vegetables, mashed potatoes, rolls, cookies, ice cream, lemon pie, and blueberry pie bars are also enjoyed on Thanksgiving. Cookies, assorted pies, and blueberry pie bars are commonly enjoyed, and they actually sound pretty tasty! The favorite part of some people’s Thanksgiving feast would be the pie and rolls. Meals aren’t always eaten with family at the table. Some families sit on the couch, while they watch tv, or they eat at a fancy restaurant. Everyone has their own customs when it comes to the holidays.

One of these is that on Thanksgiving everybody comes together to my parents’ house in New Jersey for a huge feast. On Christmas only my mother and the children (me and my brother) travel to Illinois to spend a week with my grandparents. On New Years Eve we all get together at my parents’ house in New Jersey and toast to the New Year with champagne and apple cider. During Labor Day weekend all of my family travels to South Jersey to my grandfathers’ condo. We usually spend all of our time on the beach and barbequing, except on Sunday when we go to church. After all, my grandfather is a minister. One of our biggest family traditions is going back to Puerto Rico. Every year my mother and I travel back to Puerto Rico for a portion of our summer vacation. Now that I am older I travel there more often and stay there much longer. My father never joins because he doesn’t like my mothers side of the father too much and he thinks that we when we speak Spanish we are all plotting against him. Of course that’s not true though. My bother doesn’t speak Spanish so he doesn’t like to go either. I guess that tradition is one that belongs solely to my mother and I.

Since my family lived so close together, we had many family traditions that remain important. We gather for nearly every holiday for a meal and routine. For Easter every year, we have an Easter egg hunt and dinner at my grandmother’s house. For Christmas Eve, we always went to my great-grandparents house and had dinner and exchanged gifts. For Christmas, we celebrated at home, and then went to my grandmother's for breakfast with our cousins. The importance of all of the holidays we celebrated was that no matter what was going on in our lives,

In my family, when we eat at the dinner table, we talk about our day and build better bonds through our interactions. My mother cooks the meal, my sisters and I set up the table with utensils and place mats and my father is ready to eat. We all sit at the table, no technology, elbows off the table and we give grace. While we eat, we talk about our day or anything exciting has happened and we argue and laugh with each other.

As the family grew older, every one separated and as my cousins and I got older and had our own children the holidays at grandmothers house have faded away. No one even goes to grandmothers house for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and there are no more Easter Sunday egg