After hearing my friends debate over the weekend about what time is the right time to change over from Halloween to Christmas, I quickly reminded them that they were forgetting the best holiday of all; Thanksgiving. The months of October, November, and December are said by many to be the best three months of the year and the perfect trifecta of holiday time. While Halloween and Christmas are great, here's why Thanksgiving, one of the most under appreciated holidays, is ultimately the best.
1. Amazing Food
This is the most obvious reason why Thanksgiving is the best. From Grandma's homemade pumpkin pie and pumpkin roll to your mom and dad's infinite spread of sides and the butterball turkey, this is the one time of year where no one will judge you for stuffing your face.
2. Less Drama
Thanksgiving is basically the chiller version of Christmas. There's not as much of an expectation for everything to turn out perfectly which overall means less arguments and less stress between family members and more time for relaxation.
3. More time with Friends
I swear that there's this unofficial rule that you must only spend time with your family and you can't have any contact with outsiders for Christmas. Thanksgiving on the other hand is all about being thankful for the many things and people in your life who sometimes seem more like family to you than your actual family. So its okay to have some friends over to enjoy your leftovers with you.
4. Football and Naps
Football for some reason has this magical element of bringing all kinds of different people together for a couple of hours to scream at a TV while watching a bunch of men throw around a ball and hit each other. Although I'm not the biggest fan of football, it's the perfect background noise to lounge around on the couches with everyone and lull yourself to sleep after all of the "tryptophan" you had from the big meal. Fun Fact: According to the website Live Science, Turkey isn't the main reason you feel sleepy after the Thanksgiving feast. It turns out heaps of carbohydrates, such as stuffing, potatoes and yams, ultimately remove most amino acids from the blood, but not tryptophan. This allows tryptophan to enter the brain and produce serotonin, and then ultimately melatonin. So basically any kind of meal that has tryptophan and a lot of carbohydrates can cause sleepiness, not just turkey. Also considering it's Thanksgiving and there's football, most of your family members are bound to crack open a cold one with each other which can also lead to tiredness.
5. Black Friday Shopping
Sometimes I think that my favorite holiday is actually Black Friday even though that's not an actual holiday. There's nothing like going out after you had virtually no physical movement all day and running around from shop to shop trying to find the best deals on things you need or even things you didn't know you needed before you went out. Some people hate Black Friday shopping because of how stressful it can be, but I on the other hand love the competitiveness it brings out in people. It's sort of like one big, fun night of adventure and shopping with your family and friends who eventually become sleep deprived and just as cranky as you are when you actually reach Friday. And for all the people that don't like going out, hey, you still have cyber Monday to look forward to.
