The Rule That Saved Thanksgiving -- An Epilogue

Post Date

Mon, 11/28/2016 - 23:30

Categories

Holidays

Last week, I asked you all to share non-food Thanksgiving traditions. There were some fun suggestions.

In my house, we decided to repeat last year’s agenda and first posed Table Talk questions (ie: “Which of your ancestors would you most like to meet?” and “Name one goal for the upcoming year?”) followed by our annual round of “I am thankful this year for ___________________”

But really what saved our Thanksgiving was the “No Politics Zone” created at the dining room table. We literally put signs on the table reminding everyone that the current state of politics in this country was off limits table conversation. When we strayed, we waved the sign in the air and returned to our regularly scheduled Thanksgiving programming.

Ben suggested this in his blog on Thursday but I wanted to talk about the implementation. I hear that the “No Politics” rule was ever popular this year at Thanksgiving tables around the country. I saw one statistic that more than 65% of the holiday celebrations had adopted this rule. It certainly worked in our house.

Hoping that you all enjoyed a happy holiday.

Comments

Fred Klein

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The sun will come up in the morning...

Liz Saldana

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Jerry and I spent several days in Florida celebrating Thanksgiving with his 1st wife (the mother of his children), her boyfriend, Jerry's adult children and their significant others. We are a happy extended family and agreed there would be no talk of politics the entire time, not just at the dinner table. The reactions of people when some one slipped... exaggerated hand waiving, funny faces, ridiculous sounds, etc. made for some really good laughs. At one point Jerry's son started saying random political words just to see what the reactions would be; they were getting creative and hysterical. After all the stress of the election, it was great to find a way to have fun with it instead of arguing about it.

Rona Gura

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It's so funny you wrote this. We had to implement that rule this year given that some of my family had differing opinions from others. At one point it appeared that someone was going to break the rule so we had to specifically enforce it.

Cayce Crown

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Probably a smart idea, though I'm torn. It is so important to not "stand idly by" while the threat of human rights violations go unchecked, one day with the "family" can be a good idea, especially since this is such a sensitive topic. And gratitude and kindness are always the most important.

Daniel Schwartz

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Maybe it is me, or my immediate family. Politics rarely if ever makes it to the table. Now bringing up how school is going, planning a vacation or what the current friends are up to, that is what goes on at our dinner table. Maybe even some sports talk. But why on earth, especially with the election over, would politics make it to the table? We also do not allow cell phones or TV on when having a family meal. Call me old fashioned, but that works for us and creates a much more stress free meal.

Marilyn Genoa