If you have a teen who’s already excited about Thanksgiving, then you have something to be thankful for: count that blessing right away. Why? Parents know adolescents often get surly about participating in family events and activities – especially those that last for literally hours and hours like Thanksgiving dinner. If yours isn’t surly about family time, then we hope that attitude lasts: it helps home life keep running smoothly.
We want to be careful not to paint all teens with the same brush, though, because – as we imply above – some are already excited about Thanksgiving. If that’s the case in your family, then you don’t need any suggestions.
However.
For every teen excited about Thanksgiving – and willing to say it and act like it – we think there are probably several who are over it and not excited. Or if they’re not really over it, they’re unwilling to admit they’re excited about family time this Thanksgiving. And for reasons known only to teens, they prefer to play at being jaded and cynical about the holidays.
Those teens might need a little help getting engaged – and that’s where our list can help.
How to Get Your Teen Interested in Thanksgiving This Year
If we had a magic wand, we’d wave it and make your entire holiday season proceed without a hitch. Since we can’t do that, instead we’ll help you with these ten ideas for getting a reluctant teen engaged in the Thanksgiving holiday.
1. Give Them a Leadership Role
For teens ready to take on responsibility or teens who need a way to feel engaged during a holiday they may not feel connected to anymore, one thing that can work is involving them in what the adults do: organizing, planning, and taking care of all the practical aspects of the holiday. Depending on your family and your situation, this may mean:
- Planning airport pickups for out-of-town relatives
- Planning sleeping arrangements
- Making a dinner seating plan:
- Should Uncle A sit next to Nephew B?
- Planning meals:
- Making shopping lists
- Making a cooking plan
- Doing the shopping:
- If they drive, this takes a big item off your to-do list
- They won’t find everything, so be ready to go back for one or two things
- Cooking:
- They can help to the extent they’re able
- Some teens are ready for a big job, others are good for prep work
- Dessert Boss is a great title, and an important responsibility
2. Organize a Volunteer/Community Service Day
This is perfect for teens who are socially engaged and aware: they can align their actions with their values. Thanksgiving is about recognizing the blessings we have in our lives and giving thanks for them. The holiday is about gratitude. An excellent way to understand what we do have to be grateful for is by volunteering at a local homeless shelter, food kitchen, or special Thanksgiving meal event. You can consult the National Homeless Shelter Directory to find shelters in your area, or check these national non-profit organizations for ways to help feed people in need on Thanksgiving Day:
3. Sign Up For a Fun Run/5k Turkey Trot
This is not only for your athletic and sporty type kids – it can be for kids who want to raise money for a good cause, too. Most big cities, and even smaller towns around the country, host a Thanksgiving Day Fundraising Fun Run. Your teen can show off their athletic prowess, or simply enjoy themselves and pick up a cool t-shirt when they’re done. Events typically include activities for everyone:
- Fundraiser Walks
- 5k races for athletic people
- 5k categories for casual joggers/runners
- 1 mile “Fun Runs” for kids and beginners
These organized races/runs typically emphasize fun, rather than competition. They’re a great way to get the family together at the beginning of the day, work up a serious appetite for a hearty Thanksgiving Meal, and have ready-made excuse to eat all the dessert in sight.
4. Football: If It’s Inevitable, Include It
We know some family members are all about the football on Thanksgiving. We suggest formalizing this preoccupation. Organize a family flag or touch football game in the yard or at a nearby park. You can go all out with uniforms, team mottos, fight songs, and trash talking. The sky’s the limit. We do have one great suggestion here, though, which we think everyone should use. Losing team washes the dishes!
5. Movies, Movies, Movies
If the family is at home for the week, then you’ll have plenty of time on your hands. A great, low-stress way to get in quality family is by watching movies. You’re together, but you don’t have to talk the whole time – in fact you shouldn’t talk during movies – and you can get comfortable and snuggle up like old times. Take turns choosing what you watch. Parents can choose one night, and kids choose the next. Or you can make choosing fun: write a list of films down on small sheets of paper, put them in a hat, and play movie lottery.
6. Music Playlist: Sounds of the Season
If you have a music-centric teen, this idea leverages their interest in music and directs it toward the holiday. Here’s how: get your teen to make a playlist for every day and event of the holiday. They can make a cooking playlist, a cleaning up playlist, and a mellow playlist for mealtime. If your family organizes a football game as we suggest above, they can play the MC and the announcer, and provide a soundtrack to your epic family athletic event.
7. Digital Storytelling: Harness The Skills of the Generation
For teens into making video content for social media, you can direct that interest to the family on Thanksgiving. Ask them to make a video diary of the holiday to send to everyone afterwards: it can be a fun and funny record of the holiday, and might just be the beginning of a lifelong tradition. If that doesn’t spark their interest, then organize a viewing party where they’re the center of attention. They can organize all their videos, stories, and digital creations – whether for social media or another purpose – and share them with the family.
8. Organize a Friendsgiving
We love this idea: have your teen organize a Thanksgiving meal exactly how they want it, with only the people they choose in attendance, and call it Friendsgiving. This can be as involved or as easy as they like. From organizing and cooking an entire menu to ordering pizza and calling it a feast, let your teen and their friends take ownership, and make an all-teen Thanksgiving. Note: this is for a separate day/evening, rather than a suggestion to replace your family holiday.
9. Go Out for Dinner
Let’s be honest: as amazing as Thanksgiving is, some years you and your family might feel like you’re not up for doing all the planning, cooking, cleaning, and socializing the holiday typically involves. That’s okay. If that’s how you feel right now, then you have permission to take the year off, and go out to dinner for Thanksgiving. How this plays out depends on you and what your family decides, but we’ll tell you ahead of time that most teens love going out on Thanksgiving. Actual fancy Thanksgiving at a restaurant? Go for it. The anti-Thanksgiving fast food extravaganza? Go for it. Remember: you get to decide – and you may accidentally start a fantastic new family tradition.
10. Get Outta Town!
A holiday vacation is a great way to make lasting memories for the whole family. If getting out of town is a real possibility, we suggest giving it some real thought. Beach, mountains, a new city – you name it, and it can be a great family holiday. And like the suggestion above, it can be one hundred-percent classic Thanksgiving, or it can be something different entirely. You choose and make it happen, depending on what you and your family want and need. We have two notes for this suggestion. First, like going out for dinner on Thanksgiving, most teens love holiday travel. Second, don’t worry about disrupting your home-based rituals and routines: they’ll always be there for you, and you can get right back them next year.
There’s something on this list for nearly every kind of teen. Budding social justice advocates, teens ready to take on more household responsibility, sporty teens and athletic types, teens into music, teens into making videos, teens who are all about their friends – everyone can find something to do, and everyone can do something they enjoy.
We’ll let you pick which one might work for your teen this year: good luck, and Happy Thanksgiving!
