Transforming Traditions

Every year, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my family gathers for our Thanksgiving meal.

My family is full of Anglo-American couples, and without really speaking about it we have decided to preserve a few American traditions now that we all live in the UK. The biggest one is certainly Thanksgiving, a holiday I have always enjoyed because of the focus on family and food—two of my favorite things.

Our Thanksgivings have transformed a bit throughout the years. In college, I only went home for one Thanksgiving because experiencing the rush of travel for a very short handful of days combined with the risk of potentially getting snowed in¹ just didn’t make sense. When I was a journalist in New York City, I usually worked Thanksgiving, bartering for precious time off around Christmas so I could go home to Los Angeles. Now that I am in the same geographical location as my sister and her husband and my parents, we’ve made the holiday work for us.

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Tweaking traditions

Here’s what Thanksgiving looks like at the Kelly household. The actual US holiday is a working day here in the UK (obviously) so those of us who aren’t lucky enough to already be retired work. Instead, we celebrate on the Saturday that follows Thanksgiving.

That weekend, we all gather at my parents’ house. It usually works out that Mum creates the plan and leads the cooking, with the assistance of my husband, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and me.

Our meal usually follows roughly the same plan:

• turkey²

• cornbread-sausage stuffing with apples from The Silver Palate Cookbook

• mashed potatoes

• maple bacon Brussels sprouts

• something else green or squash-based

• homemade cranberry sauce³

• enough gravy to float a small flotilla

My father and my sister are on baking duty, turning out loaves of bread, snickerdoodle cookies, and pies for the meal⁴. Some of these, I’m sure, will be baked in advance and brought up to London.

All day, people will be wandering in and out of the kitchen, pitching in. We always record and watch the Thanksgiving NFL games on Sky, so I’m sure those will be on in the living room. A relative from the US might pop up on video chat to say hello to everyone and virtually join our happy chaos.

At some point, someone will set the table, and around 7:30 p.m. we will sit down to eat. After dinner, pie will be served with coffee or tea, and we’ll all be groaningly full as we watch a movie, usually suggested (successfully) by The Gentleman.

All though the rest of Britain won’t be following suit with our holiday, there’s something comforting about the familiarity of home.

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Postscript

What I’ve been reading: Murder at Holly House by Denzil Meyrick

What I’ve been watching: Severance season 2

What I’ve been listening to: The Sports Gossip Show

What I’ve been knitting: Ingrid Sweater by PetiteKnit (it’s finally done!)

What I’ve been cooking: Ina Garten’s Salmon and Melting Tomatoes

1. My college was in the Midwest.

2. I have found that it is vital to order the turkey specially since in turkeys don’t usually start to be widely stocked in British supermarkets until December. This is because turkey is generally the bird of choice for Christmas dinner.

3. There was a time when my parents first moved over to the UK that finding cranberries and pecans in British supermarkets was a challenge. Now they are readily available, making it much easier to replicate the meals of my youth. Pumpkin puree, however, can still prove to be a challenge.

4. I always advocate for one pumpkin and one pecan, but I might have to concede that it’s time to let poor Dad make his favorite, apple pie, this year.