Weird Thanksgiving Traditions Americans Think Are Normal
Gobble Gobble
As holidays go, Thanksgiving can be a weird one. There’s a downright shocking amount of food, and if you’re unlucky, one relative that tries to get everyone to say what they’re thankful for while everyone tries to watch football.
Beyond the basics, there are some pretty weird traditions out there—does your family take part in any of these?
Canned Cranberry Sauce
What’s the point of making an entire meal, with a whole roast turkey and sides from scratch, if you’re going to get your cranberry sauce from a can? There are myriad reasons why this one is weird.
For one, cranberry sauce is incredibly easy to make, needs just a few ingredients, and can be made ahead.
For our money, what’s really weird is when families insist the canned stuff is the tradition—and bonus points for serving it still in the shape of the can.
Cracking A Wishbone
This tradition actually dates back to ancient Rome, if you can believe it. But the reason that it’s weird is that you can’t actually break it properly until the bone is dry, which takes at least a day.
Meaning if you and grandpa are splitting it, but he’s driving home after dinner, you’re on your own.
Deep-Fried Turkey
This one we can understand. Everything tastes better deep fried.
It’s more that a lot of people don’t seem to know the proper safety around deep frying, especially something so large, which leaves a lot of room for some extremely dangerous error—as the many videos of turkey fires on YouTube can attest.
The Turkey Toss
Perhaps it was those same videos of flaming turkeys that inspired Indianapolis’ traditional Turkey Toss.
Every year, people attach their turkey to a chain, put it in baby clothing, light it on fire, spin around swinging the chain, and attempt to fling it as far as possible.
As you can imagine, it’s quite the spectacle.
