Six reasons why celebrating American Thanksgiving is even better in Canada
For envious Canadians or Americans stuck up here in the frozen North, the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday can seem, from the outside looking in, like a bit of a dream come true. To get the same four-day long weekend many Americans enjoy you’d have to use up a vacation day (or two). Even Canadian Thanksgiving isn’t an official holiday in Nova Scotia, P.E.I., and Newfoundland & Labrador.
But fear not: you can still enjoy yourself celebrating a second Thanksgiving this year. In fact, I dare you to go out and have even more fun enjoying American Thanksgiving in Canada than at your own traditional family get-together.
Watch all the football! (Or Thanksgiving movies! Yes, that’s a thing!)
Not only do you get your weekend of CFL games in October, now you get a blast of three games back to back (plus the Grey Cup is this weekend in Winnipeg, if you need a fourth game to watch). Set up the DVR if you don’t have the day off and you can spend two whole regular weekend days sitting on the couch catching up on the action while getting your fill of turkey and stuffing.
Check out the parades.
If you are lucky enough to have the day off, you can tune in to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
If you can’t watch the department store march on TV, don’t fret; plenty of cities around Canada will be hosting their annual Santa Claus parades this weekend, so you can fill up on food and bundle up to stand around in the cold like a genuine New Yorker!
Invite the folks you love, leave out everyone else.
No annoying Aunt Matilda or your brother’s screaming kids, or that random dude who no one really wants to be there but just won’t un-invite. You can spend your weekend home alone completely naked, or invite your favourite people over and host a harvest-themed leftover potluck.
Eat all the foods you didn’t get at home.
Sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, corn bread muffins, ambrosia salad, deep fried turducken with oyster stuffing? America’s Thanksgiving traditions are varied and while the meat, veg and potatoes tend to form the foundation, there are a dozen different regional dishes you can add into the mix to spice things up. Go. All. Out.
Keep a freezer full of leftovers from November until January.
Perhaps the best thing about big holiday meals is their potential for homemade frozen dinners. Make 5 times (okay, ten times) as much food as you’ll need for the big meal. Throw a spoonful of everything but the cran sauce into pie plates, cover with tinfoil, and pack them up into the freezer for all your future sessions of the aforementioned couch-and-TV dinner marathons.
You still get all the deals and you don’t even need to cross the border.
Black Friday has really started to catch on in Canada in recent years, so you can still go out and get deals, fighting the crowds to get the best before it disappears. These days, however, you can also enjoy Black Friday sales without even leaving your hometown. Buy all the gadgets, visit all the malls, and don’t spend one second worrying about the exchange rate or how you’re going to get all that stuff through customs.
Bonus: Cyber Monday will round out the Thanksgiving holiday long weekend, so you can jump on all those great deals and never even leave the comfort of your pyjamas.