You're sitting at Thanksgiving dinner and you're about to cut the roasted turkey sitting on the table when someone brings up the most recent election, and that is when the night starts to turn sour. Even during years when there aren't any presidential elections, someone brings up politics or an issue in the news and all hell breaks loose. The holiday season is supposed to be a time of relaxation, endless discounts, plentiful food, and time well spent with family, but every single year Thanksgiving becomes an complicated and overshadowed national holiday due to a number of things.
1. Politics
If you're on the winning side, you're probably not dreading a political argument as much as people who are on the losing side of the most recent election. There is always going to be someone in the family who has an opposing viewpoint on a political leader or political policy, and for some reason the hostility of these opposing viewpoints makes its way into Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner starts off calm as everyone is digging into the food and enjoying the stuffing, also known as the best part of Thanksgiving dinner. Then, out of the blue, someone says something about politics or something that happened on the news and it is all downhill from there until someone storms off into the living room. Perhaps this does not happen with every family, but from what I have heard it is a common Thanksgiving trend.
2. Diet
Someone is either gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, or on the Atkins diet. Preparing a Thanksgiving meal when every person in the family probably cannot eat many of the things on the table can make things pretty complicated for whoever is hosting the holiday party. The only good thing about all of these conflicting diets and the complex menu that would come with them is that it makes for a few good laughs at the dinner table when you realize there's a separate entree for everyone.
3. Allergies
On top of varying diets, a lot of people may have allergies or be lactose intolerant. Unless you want your bathroom to have an unpleasant smell from one of your family members, I suggest laying off the heavy dairy. Since 75% of the world's population is intolerant to dairy, someone in your family will likely be intolerant and feel lethargic throughout the night. If you have people with many different allergies attending your house for the Thanksgiving dinner party, it can be complicated and nerve-wracking as you don't want anyone having a terrible reaction.
4. Sales
Black Friday sales are no longer the main event of Thanksgiving/holiday mania. Now that more and more stores are opening Thanksgiving night and staying open through Black Friday, people do not feel the need to rush to the mall on Friday. Since the best sales now happen right after Thanksgiving dinner, there is heightened stress between deciding to drink and spend time with family conflicts or shopping for the rest of the Christmas gifts on the list. Instead of Thanksgiving being a holiday that is supposed to be stress free, stores are opening earlier and earlier each year, and the stress of shopping has overtaken the relaxing holiday.
5. Weather
Global warming was not funny last year and it's not funny this year when someone in New Jersey wears a warm sweater dress to a party, and it ends up being 70 degrees. Depending on what part of the country you live in, it is either going to be very warm or very cold on Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving this year is likely to consist of odd weather for either region. Why is this so stressful? Because you'll probably be stuck sweating in a turtle neck while the heater is turned up and this weather does not fit well with the cozy aesthetic of Thanksgiving.