Blending Food and Festivities with Family on Thanksgiving

​​​Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that means many families and friends are gathering together for feasts, football games, float watching, shopping and other fun festivities. While every gathering has different traditions, most families enjoy feasting with loved ones.

Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cornbread, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie are among the favorites for many. So how do you balance individual preferences and cultural blends of your family while having fun on Thanksgiving?

Boys Town Pediatrics Offers Recipe Ideas and Activities

Offer a variety of food options to appease pallets, but try not to overstuff yourself. You are not a turkey! More choices lead to more options and more family interactions. Take time to prepare dishes with your family, from finding the perfect recipe, grocery shopping for the ingredients to cooking.

• Creative Food – For those picky-eaters, try options that just might change their way of picking at their dinner plates forever.
  • Kiss-of-lemon roast turkey and cran-raspberry sauce. Indulge on these twists on classic recipes that will be sure to tingle your Thanksgiving senses from rachaelraymag.com on Thanksgiving for Picky Eaters.
  • Southern biscuits, crinkly carrot fries and ice-cream pumpkin pie. Try these recipes and more by Katie Knorovsky from parents.com on Kid-Friendly Thanksgiving Menu.
• Healthy Food – Who says healthy can’t also be delicious? Try these options below.
  • Find pumpkin soup, apple salad with figs and almonds, glazed turkey breast with fruit-stuffing, and more healthy options on mayoclinic.org in Thanksgiving recipes: Delicious and healthy options.
  • Jalapeno-cranberry relish, roasted rainbow carrots with sage brown butter and honey-glazed roasted squash are just a couple of the recipes on eatingwell.com in Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes, Menus and Cooking Tips.

With such a variety, there should be a dish to satisfy family members!

Stay Active with Festivities

• Crafts – Move those fingers and make decorative Thanksgiving notecards. You can write about what you are grateful with a hand-made note your family can treasure. For more crafty ideas, venture through Thanksgiving Craft Ideas from parenting.com.
• Games – This is where you can get really creative. You can change classic games and make them themed for Thanksgiving. Think pumpkin races, turkey hopping games, and instead of Duck, Duck, Goose, you can play Chicken, Chicken, Turkey and more.

Thanksgiving is about enjoying time with family. We wish families a Happy Thanksgiving weekend from Boys Town Pediatrics!