A mini essay on Thanksgiving

No one likes holidays more than I do. And my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.

There's just so much to love about it. It's not super cold yet, it's a low-key day to gather with family, it revolves around appreciating what we have, it involves lots of comfort food, it invokes happy memories.

This summer, my family went on a vacation to New England, and Plymouth was the highlight of the trip for me. I was super excited to get various Thanksgiving-themed souvenirs, and I did get a number: a squishy Plymouth Rock, a pen with a moving Mayflower, a Mayflower ornament. But one souvenir has forever altered the way I think about Thanksgiving: the book Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday by James W. Baker.

Once upon a time, I was looking at an old Latter-day Saint hymnal from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. (I'm not going to track it down right now. Sorry.) In the "Topics" index in the back, I looked under "Thanksgiving," and they had one or two typical songs, "Now Thank We All Our God" or something like that. I also noticed that this book had a song about the Pilgrims, and they even had "Pilgrim Fathers" as one of the topics in the back, but this song was not listed under "Thanksgiving." "Why," I wondered, "is there a song about Pilgrims in the book, when it's not even considered a Thanksgiving song?"

Well. It turns out that Pilgrims weren't always part of the holiday, and in fact Thanksgiving was retrofitted to include them. Thanksgiving was already an established holiday, and in the late nineteenth century, people found a newfound interest in the Pilgrim Fathers. Some people found accounts of the 1621 harvest feast, thought, "That sounds just like our November celebration," and dubbed it "The First Thanksgiving." Even though it wasn't. 

So the Pilgrims didn't celebrate Thanksgiving? Well, they did, but it's not what you think. In the seventeenth century, Puritans and other religious adherents held thanksgiving days and fast days. The Pilgrims had a true thanksgiving feast in 1623, their first recorded one. But other groups had held similar thanksgiving days before that in America and Europe. These thanksgivings did involve feasting, but they were also religious observances. The 1621 "First Thanksgiving" was a secular harvest feast that looked nothing like the religious feast days.

Over time, these thanksgiving days became an established, recurring part of the New England calendar. You've probably heard that Abraham Lincoln officially made it a national holiday in 1863. That's true, but he didn't invent it; it was already a popular celebration.

I have sometimes wondered why Thanksgiving is all about the autumn and harvest, when much of the harvest and autumn has already passed. Well, it wasn't always that way. In the nineteenth century, before Christmas had gained its massive (over)popularity, Thanksgiving was regarded as a wintry holiday. You might go to church, hold a feast, and after dinner go on a sleigh ride. A "White Thanksgiving" was the ideal. That's why "Over the River and through the Woods" was originally a  Thanksgiving song before Christmas stole it (as if it didn't have enough songs already!), even though it talks about snow and sleighs. It bothers me when it snows in November and people think "That means it's Christmastime!" Snow is part of Thanksgiving.

Which brings us to "Jingle Bells." I had long heard that "Jingle Bells" was originally a Thanksgiving song, so I have included it in my Thanksgiving playlist since 2014. The story you often hear is that it was written for a Thanksgiving Sunday school program, and it was so popular that it was brought back for Christmas. Some historians question this account, because the lyrics aren't fitting for Sunday school. Fair enough. But the part they question is the Sunday school, not the Thanksgiving. Knowing what I do about the nineteenth-century Thanksgiving, I think it is not unlikely that it was indeed meant for Thanksgiving. So I continue to count it as both a Thanksgiving and a Christmas song. (James W. Baker doesn't mention "Jingle Bells" in his book, so I don't know his take on it.)

Now, you may ask, "You read this one book, so you have one author's interpretation. Does that mean it's fact?" Fair question. But it's entirely consistent with the nineteenth-century sources I have personally seen. I already told you about the Pilgrim hymn I saw. Once I found a syndicated sentimental, fictional Thanksgiving newspaper story from the 1850s, and it had a very wintry setting. And I have begun doing research for a personal project. I have found several references to Pilgrim Fathers pop up in the 1870s (in non-Thanksgiving contexts), whereas they weren't as common in the 1850s and 1860s. 

So turkeys and pies have been part of Thanksgiving longer than Pilgrims. But I don't think that means we should toss out the Pilgrims and the Indians. They've been part of the holiday for so long that they're very much a tradition, and we don't have any other holidays for them. Some cynics like to focus on the Pilgrims' seventeenth-century attitudes and actions against the Native Americans and thereby disparage Thanksgiving. (Even though that's not how Thanksgiving began anyway.) You can wallow in your negativity if you want. Or you can instead focus on the fact that these differing groups chose to put aside differences for a time (before things went downhill). I prefer this latter interpretation.

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Now that I've given you an overview of the holiday, I want to show you a few of my Thanksgiving decorations and tell you about my November memories of them. I delight in having Thanksgiving decorations. Why put up Christmas lights already when you can put up Thanksgiving lights?

We have had this ugly felt turkey for as long as I can remember; my mom says it originally held candy. I associate this turkey with my elementary school memories of dark November evenings at home, making my own arts and crafts from brown, red, orange, and yellow construction paper.

We have likewise had this cornucopia for as long as I can remember, but I have put different fake fruits and veggies in it. When I was in fourth grade, I was obsessed with these Veggie Friend Seedies and Fruit Seedies toys, and now I think they're a great filler for the horn of plenty. In fact, it was during those dark November nights that I was introduced to the Fruit Seedies (the Veggies had come out in the summer, but the Fruit came out in the fall). One evening, my cousins were over, and my mom brought me home Sunny Orange, an orange with sunglasses. I went around the house chanting "Sunny Orange, Sunny Orange!" My cousin Chancey was playing Nintendo, and he messed up on the game, and looked at me and said, "Sunny Orange made me die!" He often said things like that, and the whole idea of blaming others for your video game mistakes was entirely foreign to me. Later that month, my cousin Tammy left Hula Pineapple (on the right in this picture) under my pillow because I had let her sleep in my bed while she was visiting.

Back in 2007, my mom bought me the Fisher Price Little People Thanksgiving and Mayflower sets. I still think of them as kind of new, but it's been eleven years! They don't even make the Mayflower anymore. My niece used to play with them, and when she was seven she told me I was too old to play with them--I think because she wanted them for herself. The horse (not pictured) ended up in her other toys, which they gave to someone else--but she rescued it for me (i.e. stole it back) when she was eight. When we went to Plymouth this summer, I saw the squishy Plymouth  Rock and knew it would be perfect for this set.

We have had this inflatable turkey since 2004, which means it's older than all of my nephews, and it's still in great shape! I remember taking my baby niece out to look at it.

I got these light-up Pilgrims online in 2007, and for many years I put them on our doorstep, where they would fall over when it was windy, and the cord was a potential trip hazard. Then in 2014 I bought the turkey on eBay, and I found a better place for them all.

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Since pumpkinundation roundup now includes Thanksgiving foods, I have quite a few weird things this week.

The frozen turkey meals continue with the Banquet Turkey Meal. I really liked the peas, so this one had the best veggies. The Banquet turkey wasn't as good as the others. It's all right. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix tastes pretty similar to its gluten free counterpart from last month. Good, but not groundbreaking. 7/10.

I went to the Neighbor's Market convenience store, and they had a sign saying "Pumpkin and Cheese-Cake Muffins." I don't know whether they had two flavors of muffins and only the pumpkin ones were left, or whether these are pumpkin and cheesecake together. I noticed a slight tang, but it didn't really seem like cheesecake to me. 7/10.

The Atlantis Burger Pumpkin Spice Eggnog Shake has been around at least since 2011, and they sell it at least October through December. I don't know why it's their thing, because it's not especially noteworthy. Mostly it just tastes like eggnog and not pumpkin. But who can complain about that? 8/10.

I made pumpkin turkey black bean chili from this slow cooker cook book. It's not the most flavorful chili, but it's still satisfying. 7/10.

I learned of a new dessert shop called Last Course, which has some...interesting seasonal flavors. I got a sample of the Last Course Pumpkin Brownie Cheesecake, since I couldn't get three scoops. It's hard to judge on just one bite. The chocolate seemed good, but the ice cream was a little more tangy than I would like. 7/10.

What I was most eager to try was Last Course Cranberry Turkey Ice Cream. If you think that turkey and ice cream don't go together, you are right. The cranberry ice cream part was fine, but the turkey had a really weird texture, like it was freeze dried. It was super weird to be eating ice cream and then suddenly be eating savory turkey. This ice cream is only useful for the novelty. 6/10.

I also had Last Course Candied Yam Ice Cream. I'm guessing this one was vegan, though I don't officially know. Part of me even wonders if they gave me the right one. When I think of candied yams, I think of deep orange potatoes with marshmallows on top. This was a purple ice cream with a few pecans. It was decent, but nothing about it said "candied yam" to me. 7/10.

I was happy to see that there is now a See's Candies in City Creek. I love See's! I stopped in, thinking of buying their Pumpkin Spice Lollypops. I didn't see any on display, so I asked the cashier if they had any. She said they were all out, but she had a full box of samples (I didn't even know that was a thing), and since she didn't have any of the real thing to sell, she gave me a bag of them for free! So I got a ton of small Lollypops with no sticks. They're my least favorite of See's Lollypops, because they don't really taste like pumpkin spice, and they almost taste like plastic. But they're OK. 6/10.

After getting a haircut in Trolley Square, I had Normal Ice Cream Apple Pie Composed Cone. Their ice creams might not be "normal," but they're more normal than turkey! This flavor (made just for November) has vanilla ice cream with apple pie filling and crumbs. You can't go wrong with apple pie! It was great. 8/10.

Earlier this month, I tried to order Thanksgiving Pringles, but there were so many people trying to get them that the site froze and they sold out. It was like trying to get Tabernacle Choir Christmas tickets! But I was still able to get Trader Joe's Turkey and Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips. They are somewhat reminiscent of stuffing. My dad ate most of the bag, but my mom thought they were terrible. I thought they were OK; I mostly like them for the novelty. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Almond Beverage is officially the worst pumpkin item I have had this season. It tastes like they blended almond milk with melted pumpkin candle. It's OK enough that I will likely drink it all rather than throw it away, but I won't look forward to it. 3/10.

Since I count apple pie as a Thanksgiving dessert, I bought this JJ's Bakery Apple Pie, even though they sell these year round. It was not as good as real pie, but still decent for 99 cents. 7/10.

Every other time I have tried to get a Parsons' Bakery Pumpkin Cookie, they have been sold out, so I was glad to finally get one (the penultimate one in the case). It's a typical pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, but it has a lemon frosting. Most frostings for pumpkin items are cream cheese, so this was a refreshing change. 8/10.

Cafe Zupas Turkey Cranberry & Brie has good turkey, good cranberries, and decent bacon. I'm picky about cheese, so I didn't much care for the brie. It was OK, though. 8/10.

I also had Cafe Zupas Pumpkin Spice Crème Brûlée. I had never had crème brûlée before. That part was fine, but it was the non-pumpkin part--the caramel and nuts--that was the best. 9/10.

I had a Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice Glazed Doughnut because I heard them advertising it for just a limited time. It's just flavored glaze on a regular donut. (I choose to spell it "donut.") As a donut it's great, but the glaze wasn't noteworthy. 7/10.

All the fuss I heard was about the glazed version, so I didn't know there was also a Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice Cake Doughnut. It didn't look or taste like pumpkin; I think it was just that lame "pumpkin spice without the pumpkin" nonsense. Again, it was great as a donut, but not as a pumpkin donut. You're one of the biggest donut companies, and you can't even do a pumpkin donut right? 7/10.

The Hungry-Man Roasted Carved White Meat Turkey had the best turkey of all the frozen meals, but the stuffing was a little tough. It was also the only one to feature cranberries. This was a "cranberry apple dessert," which just tasted like pie filling. 8/10.

I hadn't seen Pumpkin Puffins all season, and to be honest, I was almost disappointed to see them, because they're really not a great cereal, unless you're a hippie. But they probably are the best kind of Puffins cereal. 6/10.

If you had not told me that Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes were gluten free, I would have never known. But if you had not told me they were pumpkin pancakes, I wouldn't have known that either. Good as pancakes, but not very pumpkiny. 7/10.