Inspiration To Write About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Table

Holidays are natural topics for writers and those who write only to add to their Family Stories Book. Thanksgiving provides myriad paths to follow as we write about the foods, the decorations, the giving of thanks, the family gatherings and more. 

Here are a few paths to follow when writing about this treasured American holiday:

Food:  We probably place food at, or near, the top of the list. Our gathering together for this American holiday takes place around a table. Whether your table setting is elegant like the one above or uses paper plates, it's the food itself that takes the spotlight. One thing I love about this holiday is that the menu is pretty well set by every family, repeated year after year. One year, I didn't make the famous Green Bean Casserole, and I thought my adult son was going to cry. "But Mom," he said, "we have to have Green Bean Casserole on Thanksgiving." You can write about your traditional foods, the years that things went wrong with one or more of the dishes you make, and more. Don't forget about what it takes to shop for and prepare all that food.

Decorations:  This topic is wide open. Some families have a simple table while others go all out to make the table worthy of a magazine photo shoot. Kids often like to make place cards--fun for them and gets them out of the busy kitchen for awhile. Some families decorate the entire house and outside, as well. Others concentrate solely on the table. Write about it from any angle you like.

Gratitude:  This is such a wide topic that you could write a dozen essays or memoir pieces using this one word as your guide. It's a time of year that many people pause a bit to consider the blessings in their lives. Some are everyday things we normally take for granted. Others are big ones such as the healing of someone who had been very ill or the safe return of a military family member. Does your family take time at the table to express your thanks aloud, or does no one say it but perhaps think about it? Does your family include a church service on Thanksgiving morning? 

Where You Celebrate:  This is not a big thing but it could be of importance if you always have Thanksgiving at one place. How about when you worked up your courage and suggested a change? How did it go? Does your family take turns hosting the meal? Again, there are lots of angles to write about. You might start with a paragraph or two about the family tradition at Aunt Polly's and then veer off to an entire essay as to why that's important to you. 

Childhood Memories:  Thanksgiving memories from childhood are going to be different than the ones where you were the cook with children and other relatives all over the house. What did you do as a child on this holiday? Played outside in the piles of leaves or had football games in the yard? Were you sent out so you'd be out of the way? What did you like or not like about this holiday when you were a youngster?

Thanksgiving Disasters:  By this, I mean disasters in the kitchen or at the dining room table. We all have those Remember the year that....? stories. My own was when I had a houseful of people, all the side dishes finished only to learn that the turkey was nowhere near ready because I miscalculated the time. So we....well, I may share the story with you later this month. 

People:  Think about the people you have been with many Thanksgivings. What is unique about some of them? Why does Uncle Oscar always grumble? Why is Cousin Angie always picking at the food in the kitchen before it's put on the table? Why does Aunt Gert criticize every dish but the one she brought? It can go on and on--both positives and negatives.

Once you begin writing about any one of the above, or incorporating all of them in one piece, your mind will fill with memories and thoughts that will make you keep writing. You might even find inspiration for other personal essays to write.