North Staff, Students Share Family Traditions During Thanksgiving

Whether it is spending time with family, Black Friday shopping, or watching a special movie, many families have traditions that they carry on throughout the holiday season, specifically at Thanksgiving.
“I think [traditions] are really important because they give people something to look forward to and you know it’s always going to be there. It’s always going to happen,” said junior Christina Ibrahim.
According to social studies teacher Bill Vogt, having traditions is important because they “have served to bind generations together in community. They allow us to partake in the tradition together with the past, present, and the future.”
To many people, traditions are an important part of the way they celebrate special days, and they remember past holidays by the traditions that have lasted throughout the years.
“My parents usually invited some of the people who would have otherwise been alone from our church to Thanksgiving dinner,” said Vogt. “We would wake up early and spend the morning and early afternoon cutting, carrying, and stacking firewood. When our guests were scheduled to arrived, we would hurry to change and all of the kids would set the table.”
Now, Vogt’s family has a different tradition than the ones that he grew up with.
“After attending services, our family puts a puzzle together before we eat the Thanksgiving meal [that] I cook. Afterward, we gather together in the living room to watch the movie Home Alone,” said Vogt.
Similar to Vogt, people inviting guests to share a meal is a very common tradition on Thanksgiving.
“We celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. We have all of our family who is in St. Louis currently over to our house,” said Ibrahim, “Usually I cook the turkeys.”
Families such as Ibrahim’s also go Black Friday shopping as part of their Thanksgiving celebration.
“On Black Friday, we usually get small things, like groceries, instead of what normal people do, which would be getting electronics and things that actually cost a lot of money,” said Ibrahim.
When thinking about whether or not she will continue to celebrate her family’s traditions or make new traditions like Vogt’s family has, Ibrahim said, “I think making new traditions would be kind of fun, so I would keep up with my old traditions but make new traditions on top of them.”
by Lauren Sparks, editor-in-chief