Beginning new Thanksgiving traditions.

Thanksgiving BEGINNING A NEW TRADITION

Thanksgiving is, perhaps, our most favored national holiday. For many people, Thanksgiving it is one of the few chances we have during the year to gather with our families or chosen families to share a fabulous meal, give thanks for our blessings and revel in the pleasure of each other’s company.

Over the years, families and groups of friends often develop their own special Thanksgiving traditions that they bring out every turkey day. Those can range from goofy to touching, culinary to crafty, athletic to relaxing — and most require few to no additional materials other than everyone’s enthusiasm.

If you have been thinking of starting your own new tradition, the list is long. Here are a few favores to get your creative juices flowing…

• Watch the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day parade together. • Ask everyone to write down what they are most thankful for, take the slips of paper, and place them into a bowl. Then take turns around the table reading them out loud. • After dinner, watch a classic holiday movie which you can repeat annually. • Play a game such as charades or Family Feud. (If you are playing Family

Feud, make sure to write down the questions and solicit the answers before the holiday.) • Turn your tablecloth into a keepsake. Cover the table with a white fabric tablecloth and scatter cloth markers along the table. Ask your guests to draw what they’re thankful for, their favorite Thanksgiving memory or even a quirky self-portrait. • Ask every guest to bring canned goods to dinner and then donate them to your local food pantry. • Create a signature cocktail (and mocktail) for your guests that will become the annual drink. Then ask everyone at the table (even the children) to make a Thanksgiving Day toast. • Begin an around-the-world culinary adventure to add to the traditional turkey and sides. Choose a different country each year and make a dish from that cuisine. • Send your guests a Thanksgiving themed thank you card after the event.