Thanksgiving is a time to spend with loved ones and a time for a great big meal. Each family has its own traditions, whether it be eating a home-cooked meal or inventing an outrageous and creative activity. Traditions give a consistent and familiar holiday experience.
Students at the U don’t shirk their Thanksgiving traditions.
Haley Warner, a sophomore in exercise and sports science, spends her Thanksgivings eating shrimp cocktails and bowling turkeys.
“My grandma gets two different frozen turkeys: a big one and a little one,” Warner said. “The big one, the big kids and the adults get and we roll it down a lane that we make. The little kids have a little turkey that they get to swing around and roll down the lane.”
The excitement doesn’t end there for Warner’s family. They also have a piñata for after they eat. Warner said that until a few years ago, she thought everybody had piñatas at Thanksgiving. This has been a family tradition for as long as she can remember.
While not everybody’s Thanksgiving is as creative as Warner’s, others have their own ways of making Thanksgiving special. Kellie Ann Halvorsen, a senior in strategic communication, does the classic turkey and potatoes meal, but afterwards she and her family go to a movie.
“We usually go see the new Pixar/Disney [movie] that’s coming out,” she said. “We’re going to go see ‘The Good Dinosaur’ this year. It’s just a fun way to wrap up the evening [and] to keep the kids well-behaved during the actual Thanksgiving meal,” she said.
While some students have extra special traditions, others prefer to keep to a basic, traditional Thanksgiving, like senior in human development, Elise Rowley.
“We go to my grandma’s house and we eat turkey and mashed potatoes,” Rowley said. “We go around the table and tell what we’re thankful for. We switch off between my mom’s family and my husband’s family each year.”
But for Shane Williams, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, he and his family give thanks by helping those in need for their Thanksgiving tradition.
“My family and I take a trip to Mexico,” he said. “We have connections there with people who do service projects.”
Williams’ family has been building houses for struggling families in Mexico since 2006.
“It was just super eye-opening to see how people lived and what conditions they lived in,” Williams said. “Even though they worked and they were able people, they were still so happy and willing to give.”
Williams didn’t forget about having his Thanksgiving meal, though. One year, he and his family ate their Thanksgiving feast on a beach using Dutch ovens. He said it was the “best Thanksgiving ever.”
Whether it be turkey bowling, movie going, classic eating or humanitarian work, Thanksgiving traditions endure year after year.