Thanksgiving Traditions at SPACE
Woodstock and Snoopy dining al fresco.
Thanksgiving is by far the best holiday: when done right, you eat an incredible meal and then lay around the house and rot with your favorite people. And if your boss isn’t a monster, you have the day off the next day to continue the grazing and lazing for a four-day weekend. (Our hearts go out to our brethren in hospitality and retail who are stuck working all. the. time. We hope you make loads of money, and everyone is patient and nice to you this weekend.)
Over the weekend, St. Louis Public Radio aired a segment about movies (or film for those of you who watch cinema) that families viewed every year after Thanksgiving dinner. It got me wondering what my coworkers do every year for Thanksgiving, but opening it up to movies, TV, Aunt Iris’ weird green jello and olive “salad”, or other funny family rituals that are repeated every year.
Most of the team have pretty standard celebrations, but two stood out and I desperately want to see pictures of both of these traditions.
Pilgrim Cosplay
Marge and Homer in period costume. Moe leers at them menacingly in the background.
Tom Hereford, our erudite new Construction Project Engineer, responded with this succinct email:
“We used to dress in period-accurate pilgrim costumes.”
I have SO MANY questions that I’ll have to hash out on Monday. To be a fly on the wall during dinner at their house.
The Sweatshirt
Thanksgiving sweatshirt featuring a saucy lady turkey
Architect Nicole has an infamous sweatshirt that makes an appearance every year:
“We actually have a turkey sweatshirt in our family. It was my grandma’s (probably purchased from QVC). She would wear it every Thanksgiving and then complain about how hot she was because she spent most of the day in the kitchen. It’s been passed around the last few years, and I have it now. Which reminds me I need to find it before Thanksgiving…”
Fingers crossed she found it, and she didn’t get too hot.
TV Comfort Food
Bob’s Burgers’ homage to My Neighbor Totoro
My childhood Thanksgivings were spent in Wisconsin eating standard Thanksgiving food and watching the OG Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder, while fighting turkey coma from our favorite spots on Aunt Pat and Uncle Jerry’s velveteen landscape-patterned sofas. As an adult with children of my own, watching TV together is a luxury. Between school, work, after-school activities, and the mental fight against existential dread, sitting down to watch the big screen on the wall instead of the little work-riddled screens in our pockets is something we don’t do much, so it’s comforting to have both the time and those seasonal comfort shows to enjoy together.
For Thanksgiving, these shows are a must in our house:
Bob’s Burgers has an incredible collection of Thanksgiving episodes, but the standouts are:
An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal (s3 e5), which features both Linda’s banger Thanksgiving song and an incredible absynthe-fuelled homage to My Neighbor Totoro, which is another family favorite and New Year’s Eve viewing tradition.
Turkey in a Can (s4, e5), which — despite the premise of the episode — is a sweet contemplation on the too-fast passing of time with children.
To all of our friends, clients, vendors: thank you for another great year. Because of you, we continue to do what we love to do, with a fabulous group of people we are proud to have on our team. We hope you’re able to enjoy Thanksgiving however you like best: with family and lots of food (with or without your pilgrim costume!), or taking some quiet down time to recharge your batteries and catch up on your favorite TV show. See you next week.
Over and out from SPACE. ✨🚀✨