Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends and food. It is a time where one realizes what’s important to them and spends time with loved ones. Some people may have specific traditions that they carry out. For example, a family may go around the table at dinner and announce what they are thankful for, others may wait in line for hours to get the best shopping deals for Black Friday.

Some eat their huge meal and then search through the newspaper ads in order to strategize their shopping adventure for the next day. They highlight the best deals and plan their attack to get the best deals in the ultimate time frame of sales on Black Friday.

Junior Noah Yeck has a large family and in order to have everyone together for Thanksgiving, they need a large area to gather and celebrate.

“I go to the Yeck’s family reunion at the Big Knob Grange with my dad’s side of the family. I also hang out with the Zahn family [mother’s side] and we eat lots of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and corn,” Yeck said.

In order to keep relatives happy on both sides of a family, many people must be able to eat numerous times during Thanksgiving Day. Junior Trisha Speicher does exactly that.

“I go to both my grandparents’ houses. I go around 11[a.m.] to my mom’s side and we eat normal Thanksgiving food. The only thing that’s special that we eat differently is a fruit cup. Then I go to my dad’s side and eat dinner and play family games. Then ‘Santa’ comes because all of my cousins are in for Thanksgiving,” Speicher said.

 “On Thanksgiving I have two dinners. I go to my dad’s side of the family for lunch and then my mom’s side for dinner. We always have this cranberry jello dish and eat the whole thing before dinner is over,” sophomore Morgan Swab said. “ Also on my mom’s side, most of the meats come from the animals they raise. The most important part of Thanksgiving is seeing all my cousins and being with the family members who live far away.”

Another tradition is the Turkey Bowl at Green Valley Park that involves playing flag football with multiple families. They gather in the morning before their Thanksgiving meal and participate in the football game while the turkey is being prepared.

          “Reader’s Digest” is a magazine that is commonly found in homes and offices and had an article, “9 Meaningful Thanksgiving Traditions.”  One of the suggestions was to choose a person from your senior community and invite them to share Thanksgiving dinner with your family.

Another suggestion was to hold a Thanksgiving Olympics with various games to involve the entire family. It was also suggested to write things that you are thankful for on a strip of colored paper and share your thoughts with everyone at the dinner table. When all  of the responses written on the papers are read and shared at the dinner table, then a ‘thank you’ chain is made with the strips of paper.

The National Turkey Federation found that 46 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving.

“Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. Canadians celebrate it too. Except they do it the second Monday in October,” according to CNN. Thanksgiving is a tradition that many families look forward to no matter how they celebrate the holiday.