Thanksgiving Survival Guide

11/23/2011 19:38

 

If your family is anything like mine, Thanksgiving dinner is always a recipe for awkward situations, and passive-aggressive conversations. After being on your own at college for so many months, spending a long weekend at your parent’s or relative’s home can feel like an incarceration. Through the years, I’ve come up with some tips that help me survive the holidays. I’m not promising that they’ll make the experience enjoyable, but they should keep you sane.

1. Bring Entertainment

If Thanksgiving only involved eating dinner it wouldn’t be so bad, but it inevitably ends up being an all day (if not an all weekend) event. On paper, endless hours of chit chat, game playing, football, and eating sounds like a great time. But, when you combine those activities with your creepy uncle, your egomaniacal older brother, and your almost lucid great-aunt you are undoubtedly ready to gouge out your own eyes.

The best solution to this situation is to bring some type of entertainment (iPod, book, laptop, etc.) to help pass the hours. There’s nothing like a good game of Angry Birds to help you tune out what’s going on around you.

2. Hang Out with the Kids

Although your iPod can keep you occupied for hours, eventually you are going to have to come up for air. When it’s time to convince people that you’re not totally anti-social, head over to the kid’s room for some surprisingly enjoyable conversation. It always amazes me how much more pleasant the kids are to hang out with than the parents. There’s never any discussion of religion or politics, and they are always good for a laugh.

3. Avoid Bringing a New Boy/Girlfriend

Traditionally, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are the times people bring their significant others home to meet the parents. As tempting as this is… it never works out like you expect. Do you really want him or her to see your mom stressed out and on the brink of tears, and your drunk cousin loudly shouting racial slurs. I don’t think so.

Unless you want to expose your new girlfriend or boyfriend to the full force of your family’s dysfunction, then it is better to introduce them on a non-holiday.

4. Keep Your Opinions to Yourself

You know you’re dad is going to start up his usual rants about how the hippies have run this country into the ground, and how you should have become an accountant. Instead of trying to convince him of reason, it is better to just stay out of it. Just nod your head and act like you agree. No matter how long you’ve been in college or how old you are, he’s never going to think you know anything anyway. It’s not worth an argument, which will undoubtedly make your mom cry.

5. Don’t Overeat

Even though it’s tempting to gorge on carbs and meat in the hopes of inducing a food coma, overeating will ultimately just make you feel worse. Once the event is over a good run or workout will help you shake off all the built up stress, but this is impossible to do if you’re carrying around 10 lbs of pie and stuffing in your stomach. Just eat moderately and you will feel like yourself in no time.