Most Thanksgivings are pretty standard: juicy turkey dinners with family, maybe some football, capped off with a tasty slice of pie for dessert. But some of our favorite Thanksgivings are the ones that took a turn for the unusual. Here are a few fond holiday memories the Content4Demand team is grateful for.
Serf and Turf
On our absolute best Thanksgiving, the entire extended family went to Medieval Times instead of cooking and cheesed it all up with a crowns-and-jousting, no-silverware dinner with huge mugs of beer. Everybody still talks about how fun it was!
—Dana Harder, Vice President of Strategy
The Perfect Storm
One of our most memorable Thanksgivings was spent in the garage. The weather was terrible, and the power went out about 2 hours into turkey cooking. In an attempt to salvage the meal, we fired up the grill to see what parts of the dinner could be barbecued. (Mashed potatoes: no. Baked potatoes: yes. Toast: yes.) It was like that all afternoon as we shuttled in different dishes to see what we could cook.
It wasn’t a traditional Thanksgiving dinner to say the least, and we spent pretty much all day on folding chairs amongst the lawn care equipment, wearing heavy coats to stay warm. The garage turned out to be the best place to hang out though, because with the doors open, there was light. (The rest of the house was pretty dark with no electricity and ominous skies.) And we had front row seats to the thunder and lightning show taking place outside.
—Patrice Galvin, Client Services Manager
Shots in the Dark
Before I married my husband, we went to visit his family in the country outside of Tampa. Post dinner in their trailer, everyone headed outside with a beer cooler and guns and started shooting various targets on their property—well beyond darkness. I wanted my mama!
Post marrying the guy who brought me that memory, we spent one year boating to the Jekyll Island Club Hotel (think early 1990s) and played croquet on the lawns and hung out the rest of the day in the boat laughing and digesting, with nothing to set up or clean up!
—Lisa Wallace, National Key Accounts Director
Tofurkey Travel
My goal in life for the past three years was to spend Thanksgiving in another country. So one year I found myself alone, eating at a vegan buffet in Vietnam in a cult-y restaurant playing videos of their supreme master.
—Laura Tiffany, Client Services Manager
Green Bean Castlerole
I spent my third year of college at Durham University in Durham, England. The coordinator of our program hosted a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner for all the American students in the dining hall of the castle. It was perfect: stone walls with tapestries hanging on them. It’s a real castle.
—Brenda Caine. Senior Content Strategist
Hollywood Reruns
When I lived in Orange County, I always hosted “Island of Misfit Toys” Thanksgivings. Anyone who didn’t have family to visit was welcome—friends, neighbors, people I’d just met. But when I moved to L.A., my friend Erin already “owned” Thanksgiving. I wanted so badly to cook a turkey one year that I invented Stretchy Pantsgiving. On the day after Thanksgiving, I cook another turkey with stuffing and a pie or two, and the rest of the meal is pot luck. Everyone is encouraged to bring whatever leftovers they want to get rid of from the day before. After dinner, we drink and watch terrible Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel.
Do you have an unusual Thanksgiving memory? Please share it with us in the comments section below! And of course, everyone here at Content4Demand wishes you all a happy, safe and memorable Thanksgiving.
Holly Celeste Fisk
Holly Celeste Fisk is an accomplished marketing pro with 20+ years of experience in B2B and B2C. She’s responsible for Content4Demand’s internal marketing efforts, managing everything from content creation and email marketing to events and sponsorships, blog publishing, website management and social media presence. When she’s not working, you’ll find her sliding into third at softball, buried in a book or practicing her Italian.
