Editors’ note: Turkey. Football. Toasts. Naps. Movies. Turkey trots. The Macy’s Day Parade. Expanding the table for “orphans.” These are just some of the cherished Thanksgiving traditions Cognoscenti readers shared with us. Whether you are celebrating with 30 people or a more intimate crew, we wish you a happy and peaceful holiday.
As a child, my family and I typically drove up to Redding, California, from the Bay Area to spend Thanksgiving with our family friends. All of the family members matched up: two dads, two moms, and two sets of sisters. And our ages aligned perfectly. One year, we wrote and sang a song to honor Thanksgiving. We then sang it in a round in front of everyone (about 15 of us). We were nervous and giggly and silly. And it is forever etched into our brains – and we still jokingly sing it to this day (38 years later). It’s one of my favorite memories. — Jessica Sinnarajah, Kansas City, Kansas
We host Thanksgiving orphans! We have a grandmother’s table that can expand to 20 people or so and we have often invited as many orphans as we can find. We play a game. “I’m leaving England and I ‘m bringing … ” Each person must add one item to the list that came before them – by the time it has gone around the table, there are 20 items to remember, including my Brannen gold flute, my tennis racket, my Lindt chocolate, etc. And we sing “Simple Gifts.” — Julie Scolnik, Brookline
My grandmother used to put the last pie in the oven when Santa showed up at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade every year. When I started hosting and did the same, it’s one of the only things that I’ve ever seen make my father cry. — Jillian Jennett, Sharon
When I was growing up on Thanksgiving, my grandmother always pulled out the ancient pressure cooker, chopped up a head or two of red cabbage, threw in some cinnamon, spices and vinegar and made braised red cabbage – a delightfully sweet and tart German side dish. I never thought anything was different about that until I was an adult and realized it wasn’t on everyone’s buffet. Then one year the dish made the cover of Martha Stewart Living and I finally felt validated.
Since then, I’ve married into a family who are all direct descendants of William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony for 30 years. As you can imagine, their Thanksgiving table is pretty traditionally stocked. But every year for the last 18, I’ve added braised red cabbage to the table and I’ve never come home with leftovers. — Miriam Bradford, Manchester
My grandmother used to put the last pie in the oven when Santa showed up at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade every year.
Jillian Jennett, Sharon
Every year we host a big family Thanksgiving gathering. Our number of guests have ranged anywhere between 18 and 31. We move all the furniture out of our big room and replace it with fold-up tables and folding chairs. We gather at our places for a moment of gratitude before heading into the kitchen to make our plates. My husband makes a deep-fried turkey that everyone loves. Our daughter counters it with an oven-made turkey. I have no comment, since I’m the only vegetarian in the whole bunch. — Georgette, Pepperell
Turkey is the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving table, but next-day turkey soup is true delicious-ness! We roast our turkey over chopped carrots, celery, fennel, parsnips, collards, parsley, rosemary and thyme. We add just enough water to the roasting pan so the turkey can’t swim. Part of this stock makes the gravy. Then, the next day, we add more vegetables and make bellissimo turkey soup. Stir in a few cooked tortellini then skyrocket to heaven on earth! — M. Susan Hamilton, Cambridge
Pastelón can be a Puerto Rican or Dominican dish; it’s lasagna but with sweet plantains as the “noodles” (spoiler: there are no noodles). Everything else mirrors most lasagnas: a tomato-based sofrito, protein of your choice — usually ground beef — and cheese. My family is Puerto Rican and even though I love pastelón so much I make it several times a year, it’s a holiday hit in my family. I love a one-pot meal (especially during the holidays, when I usually cook for two homes) and pastelón scratches a comfort food itch for me. If that’s not enough, I’m a sucker for a dish that’s both sweet and savory and this is definitely that. — Liv Jones, Hyde Park
We routinely talk about “simplifying” the menu “this year.” Ha!
Steven Bergstein, Hingham
My family always celebrates Thanksgiving the day after, on Friday. We travel on Thanksgiving day, so fares are always lower, the transit is easier, and we don’t have to take any extra time off work. The stores are open if we need extra ingredients or want to go out for breakfast. We then still get several days together to enjoy the holiday! — Anna Gibson, Somerville
Every year my sister and I watch the Macy’s Day Parade together. As kids we would watch in PJs as Al Roker (a Thanksgiving icon) introduced Broadway numbers and pop stars we loved. During commercial breaks we sprinted to help our mom cook, or to shower and get ready to go to our aunt’s house. We always made it back on the couch in time to watch Santa arrive. Now that we live in different cities, we send each other texts as we watch. It’s my favorite part of Thanksgiving day! — Alea S., Boston
My dad made a potato gun years ago. It’s constructed from PVC pipes, lit with spray deodorant and loaded with potatoes. He buys bags of potatoes and my cousins take turns shooting the potatoes into the lake. My family is from Indiana and this feels like a very Midwestern tradition. — Gabrielle Malina, Somerville
My late husband, Dr. Jeremy Bangs (1946-2023) was creator and director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, in Leiden, The Netherlands, the Dutch city where the Pilgrims spent nearly a dozen years before embarking to America. Thanksgiving Day was the museum’s busiest day of the year – of course! — Tommie Flynn, The Netherlands
In the early 1900s, our grandparents immigrated to Boston from Eastern Europe. They were observant Orthodox Jews who never drove on Jewish holidays. As their children’s families moved out to the suburbs, it became impossible for everyone to celebrate Jewish holidays together — so they celebrated on legal holidays. For more than 75 years, five brothers and sisters celebrated Thanksgiving together. The 11 first cousins, aged 69 to 92, are still alive and the celebrants have grown to over 50 every year. All the out-of-staters do their best to be with us. Our meal begins with a prayer over homemade challah and then it’s a free-for-all! A delight for all of the generations. — Lisa Korklan, Sudbury
In the weeks before Thanksgiving, I usually look for the email discussion of the previous year’s menu. We routinely talk about “simplifying” the menu “this year.” Ha! Every year it’s the same: no one wants to give up their favorite dish. Mine is a wild rice stuffing with almonds, water chestnuts and prosciutto. Another tradition? Some of us run the local “turkey trot” road race. For me, that requires a careful schedule of starting the oatmeal rolls before we leave home for the race. Our daughter-in-law remarked one year that “someone should warn you before you marry into a family that runs road races on major holidays.” To be fair, we do only two: Thanksgiving and July 4th. — Steven Bergstein, Hingham
We always do a toast: “To Ruby and Orval! Without them, we wouldn’t be here.” Ruby and Orval Phelps were my mother’s parents. (My mom is now 92.) My Uncle Ken, who married my mother’s sister, always proposed this toast, because he was glad to have joined our family. He died last year, at 101. So, last Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law proposed the same toast, and we continue the tradition, although now by toasting Ruby and Orval, we also honor the memory of Uncle Ken. — Ann Gillette Parsley, Franklin
Our meal begins with a prayer over homemade challah and then it’s a free-for-all!
Lisa Korklan
We go to my cousin’s family’s house for Thanksgiving … and then on Friday we have a second Thanksgiving dinner, cooked at our house, because my dad loves all of the food and wants to have his own leftovers! — Naomi Gutierrez, Arlington
As a young teenager living in Northwest, Conn., my father and I would get up early and go deer hunting in the thousands of acres of state land right in my backyard. Because it was Thanksgiving we would never shoot an animal, just get out to see where they were. We’d be back home by 11 a.m. and the house would smell great with all the cooking my mother and sister were doing. As I aged into my late teens and early 20s, I invited a few friends to join us for the pre-holiday party. After the walk in the woods, we’d come back and play pool with bloody marys in hand. By 1 p.m. everyone scattered back to their own turkey dinner and the four of our family sat down to a wonderful dinner. — Dan Nelson, Hyde Park
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