Two Funny Traditions That Make My Thanksgiving

As I write this, we are in Thanksgiving week. We celebrate holidays with family traditions. Whether your holiday is celebrated with a big family or within your own household, traditions are important. They connect us to years past and memories of previous holidays. Some of your traditions may be certain recipes that are repeated, movies to be watched together, or even running jokes. 

Candy Corn

In my family, Thanksgiving is not complete without candy corn sprinkled all around the table. I know it sounds strange and I know that not everyone loves candy corn, but this tradition started when I was a kid and it has taken on a life of its own. 

My mom, with her three kids, and my aunt, with her three kids, would always get together for Thanksgiving. After the table in the dining room was set, the candy corn would be spread out on the table like confetti. As dinner was being prepared, we children would manage to make all kinds of excuses to walk through that dining room to snag a handful of candy corn before dinner. We thought we were pretty clever, but I’m sure it was no secret what we were doing. Every year, one of my brothers would stick a piece of candy corn into my mashed potatoes when I wasn’t looking. I actually don’t hate the taste of that combo. 

I’m not sure exactly when the tradition began, but I have taken to getting a bag or two of candy corn half off post Halloween so I can keep it alive. There is something festive about those little candies all over the table. There was even a year that we spent on a cruise ship for Thanksgiving. Yes, I brought a small bag of candy corn to decorate our table in the dining room of the ship. They probably thought we were strange, but it was worth it to keep the tradition alive. 

Orange Sherbert

Another fun tradition in our family is orange sherbert. No, it is not one of the desserts. It was served with our Thanksgiving meal, usually in silver bowls. I think this started as a way of being a “fancy” palette cleanser between courses. Obviously we were fancy with candy corn on the table and orange sherbert too. (LOL) As kids, we loved having dessert at the ready during our meal. There may have been years that my only sustenance was from rolls, orange sherbert and candy corn. Somehow I survived! 

Now, traditions are a funny thing. You want to repeat it every year, but what if you just can’t find that orange sherbert anywhere? Well, this happened one year for my step mom when I was in college. She went to 3 different stores and could not find orange sherbert anywhere. She ended up getting raspberry instead. I didn’t mind, but we were worried that my brother would not be a fan. So, that year, we turned the dimmer down low at the table and all pretended that the ORANGE sherbert was delicious. He thought we were nuts and refused to eat it. Oh well! We tried and we had a good laugh about the whole thing.

Now, I know that my family has some strange traditions, but they make us unique. What kinds of traditions do you have in your family? Is there a famous recipe that gets made every year? Is there an uncle who always makes quarters appear from behind your ear? Tell me what traditions you have in the comments.