Best Thanksgiving Traditions (Frugal Thanksgiving Mini Series)

Welcome to the fourth day of the Frugal Thanksgiving Mini Series! So far we have shared some of our best frugal Thanksgiving Side Dishes, Desserts and Craft/Decorating ideas. (don’t worry, if you are coming late to the party, you can still link your side dish, dessert or craft/decorating idea to the Mr. Linkys on those days).

One of the things I really enjoy doing as a family is participating in traditions. Traditions can be very frugal-they are usually about the experience and being together, not about spending money. They don’t have to be elaborate-many of the best traditions start and are easy to do.

Here’s an example. I have a friend whose fun family Thanksgiving tradition is that they always play board games together, as a whole family, after Thanksgiving dinner. I have another friend who has made it a tradition that the women do all the cooking, but then the husbands and brothers all chip in and do the cleaning up while the moms relax.

See? Neither of those cost anything! But they are shared experiences that bond the family together and give them fond memories.

Growing up we lived far, far away from family. Because of weather and the logistics of traveling with 5 small children, we didn’t start visiting the extended family for Thanksgiving until I was in Jr. High-before that it was just the 7 of us.

Our family tradition at home was that as soon as it started, the TV went on to the Macy’s day parade. When it was time for dinner, my mom set the table with all our best China, crystal and silver, and we all got dressed up for dinner-even though it was just us!

So share your family traditions today. It doesn’t have to be anything that you think anyone else will want or need to replicate, just share with us the unique ways that your family celebrates Thanksgiving.

Participating in the series is easy! It’s just three simple steps

1-Post your family tradition. It’s fine to dig through your archives and find a good one you posted last year, although personally I would just repost it as a “Best of” . Make sure you let folks know that you are entering it in the Frugal Thanksgiving Mini Series.

2-Enter the link in the Mr. Linky below. Please put a clue in parenthesis next to your name like this :

3-Grab the badge code from my right sidebar and share the love! The more folks who participate, the better resource this series becomes for all of us.

And you know what? If you don’t have a blog, that’s ok too! Just send it to me via my comments form, and I’ll give you your very own post here at Frugal Upstate and even do the linking too.

Make sure you tune in all week for the rest of the series. Tomorrow, Friday is Best Frugal Ideas/Recipes for Turkey Leftovers. Saturday will be a roundup with links to all the previous days and my personal favorite link from each.

Again-the Mr. Linkys will stay open all week, so if you think of a fabulous side dish on Thursday, don’t worry! Go right on back and link it. The point of the series is to make a resource that readers can come back to at any point to find the recipes they need to have a fabulous, frugal Thanksgiving.