Although Thanksgiving is often known as a day reserved for family gatherings and feasts and gives students a chance to reap the benefits of the five-day weekend, many UHS students celebrate Thanksgiving a little differently. 

In the following interviews, we asked UHS students to tell us about some of their favorite Thanksgiving traditions.

“My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is drinking tons of apple cider and playing board games with my family afterward,” junior Nikki Azarafza said. 

“My favorite tradition would probably be when my whole extended family would come over to my house and we would all try to cook either turkey or hot pot the whole day and after dinner, we would go out shopping,” junior Lauren Peng said.

A staple in Thanksgiving tradition is the enormous golden brown turkey that has been cooked to perfection as it was sitting in the oven for four hours, stuffed with fillings such as bread cubes, cornbread, rice and potatoes. UHS students seem to be especially passionate about the food they devour. You may also find some of your favorite dishes mentioned here as well. 

“My parent’s mashed potatoes are the best,” junior Amy Hwang said. 

“My favorite Thanksgiving food item is the breaded mac and cheese I make,” Azarafza said.

“My favorite Thanksgiving food item is probably apple pie . . . ” senior Jamie Kim said. “I don’t know if that’s even Thanksgiving because it’s not pumpkin pie . . . but apple pie is so good.”

“Personally, I particularly enjoy the mashed potatoes and stuffing,” junior Edward Lin said.

“My favorite Thanksgiving food is macaroni and cheese or pie,” junior Bryson Harris said.

However, times are changing and so are Thanksgiving foods. Even if gravy, mashed potatoes and pie are staples of a Thanksgiving meal, you can never have too much food. Some people may suggest other foods to be on their Thanksgiving plates instead of the standard turkey leg. 

We asked UHS students to tell us about foods they’d like to see at Thanksgiving dinner. 

“I would like ice cream [for] the entire meal,” Hwang said.

“I would serve sushi instead at Thanksgiving because I love sushi,” Azarafza said.

“I would probably serve some Korean or Japanese food because it’s my comfort food,” Kim said.

“I would like some sort of noodles, like jajangmyeon,” Lin said.

“I want to serve croissants or pasta during Thanksgiving,” junior Vivian Huang said.

“I would do a mix of Asian and traditional American Thanksgiving food because I think some fusion between the two would be really good,” Peng said.

Along with the festive day of Thanksgiving, Black Friday is also a holiday that everyone looks forward to. Black Friday is a day when you get to excuse your shopping addiction and buy anything you wrote on your Christmas list at a discount. 

We asked UHS students to tell us what they would like to snatch this Black Friday.

“I would like to buy some figures of my favorite characters [on] Black Friday,” Azarafza said. 

“Although I probably won’t end up Black Friday shopping because it’ll be so busy, if I had to I would go clothes shopping,” Kim said. “I also want to buy some vinyls and a record player.” 

“I would probably buy clothes or computer parts [on] Black Friday,” Lin said.

“I want to buy one of those letterman jackets and more hoodies/bomber jackets since winter is coming,” Huang said. “I also want to buy new shoes!”

“[On] Black Friday, I would buy a new video game,” Harris said.

Along with the food and gifts, the people at Thanksgiving dinner are essential. Most people invite their families, friends and neighbors. But what if you could invite celebrities or past presidents to your Thanksgiving meal? Who would the students of UHS invite to their Thanksgiving dinner?

“I would invite Gordon Ramsey so he could cook all the food,” Hwang said.

“If I could invite someone to Thanksgiving dinner I would invite the K-pop group, Twice,” junior Reyna Lao said.

“If I could invite someone famous, it would probably be Neil Degrasse Tyson so we can talk about astrophysics for hours together,” Azarafza said.

“I would definitely invite my celebrity crush, Nana Komatsu,” Kim said.

“I would invite Isaac Newton to help me with my AP Physics,” Lin said.

“To be honest, I would love to invite my dad’s dad. I’ve never met him before so it would be really cool celebrating Thanksgiving with him,” Huang said.

Even with all the festivities that surround Thanksgiving every year, our first Thanksgiving and the ones that have interesting happenings are often what is most memorable. 

“The first Thanksgiving I remember is when my mom had a massive party and everyone from my family came and we all ate and had fun for hours and my cousin and I built a pillow fort together,” Azarafza said.

“The first Thanksgiving I remember [was] in my kindergarten class,” Kim said. “I went to kindergarten in Kansas and they did much bigger Thanksgiving celebrations there. In class, we all had a huge class feast and everyone got to eat mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and turkey! It was so fun and memorable for me as a kid.”

“I remember my dad buying [a] microwave turkey for Thanksgiving a few years back,” Huang said.

Perhaps most importantly, Thanksgiving is a day where you share what you’re most thankful for. 

“I am thankful for my amazing friends and my economic status for allowing me to live a comfortable life in the US,” Azarafza said.

“I’m also thankful for my friends and family, who I know will continue to be there for me even when I’m struggling,” Kim said.

I am thankful for my friends and my ability to spend time with them,” Lin said.

“I’m mostly thankful for my friends and family,” Huang said. “They’ve made me who I am today and I’m so grateful for everything they’ve done for me.”

“I’m thankful for having the time to spend with all my family and friends [on] Thanksgiving,” Peng said.

Thanksgiving helps us realize all aspects of our life that we might have taken for granted. For this year’s Thanksgiving, we hope you eat a lot of food and enjoy time spent away from school.

Lastly, we invite you to contemplate the following creative submission by one of our beloved Features Editors, Veronica Kuo:

To eat or not to eat

The turkey’s precious meat

To thank or not to thank

Our parents and our banks

To talk or not to talk

With aunts and uncles, awk!

To be or not to be

With thankful, cheerful glee