Every holiday season, it seems that each one of us has a set tradition; be it with family, friends, or a combination of the two. It is these family activities, days spent cooking Thanksgiving dinner, picking out a Christmas tree, baking cookies; that shape what our ideas of the holidays really are (in a cultural aspect, at least). When it comes to these traditions; however, I always receive a rather annoyed response when I tell people that my family doesn't really do Thanksgiving.
Since about middle school, my family has chosen to leave town during the Thanksgiving holiday, usually in favor for warmer weather (be it a rental house in Florida, a resort, cruise, etc). We don't cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, nor do we gather around a table with all of our extended family. (In fact, none of my immediate family members even like turkey, myself included.) I can't remember the last time we stayed home and cooked a massive homestyle meal for the family. (We save that tradition for Christmas.) This past Thanksgiving, my family sat around a table in the Caribbean, enjoying meals of shrimp, lobster and spaghetti squash. We speculated how non-traditional our Thanksgiving was, and yet I couldn't have appreciated it more.
What I've found, over the years, is that my family's Thanksgiving is less about the turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie; rather, it's the tradition of non-tradition that has held strongest. Our location on Thanksgiving and our meals may vary from year to year, but the one consistency is that my family is together, experiencing new cultures rather than staying within our own. To all of the people that scoff when I say I couldn't tell you the last time I ate Thanksgiving turkey: open your minds.
The tradition of a non-tradition carries the same value as any other "classic" tradition; what's important is the people you have around you in the meantime.
