The Thanksgiving holiday is a wonderful time for the extended family to get together. And this year it’s your turn to have everyone over to your house. While you are excited at the opportunity to serve all your loved ones in this way, maybe the expense of serving a traditional holiday feast for the entire clan is prohibitive. Perhaps you feel that, with grocery prices rising like the morning sun, it’s hard enough to feed the family every day—not to mention a turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and all the other trimmings. If this is how you feel this year, here are a few ideas to help lighten the load on your holiday budget.
Pray
Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. –Philippians 4:6-7 KJV
Commit your holiday to prayer. Ask the Lord to not only provide the means to have the entire family together, but to show you money saving ideas. Having an attitude of Thanksgiving is more important than having a table spread with food.
Think outside the box
Ask yourself if a traditional turkey meal is necessary. Take a poll of family members. Would pasta and salad suffice? If the focus is on the fellowship and not the food, it doesn’t really matter what you eat.
Play the game
And I don’t mean football. If you want a traditional Thanksgiving meal you have to play the grocery store game. Start watching the ads now. Some stores have you save your receipts to earn free or reduced-priced turkeys. Others will offer a free turkey for a certain dollar amount in purchases. You need to do the math and see which store and which deal is the best for you. Also, things like sweet potatoes, canned pumpkin, butter, and marshmallows go on sale during November. You just have to get them when the price is right—not necessarily the week before Thanksgiving.
Ask for help
Just because the family gathering is at your house doesn’t mean you have to provide all the food. There is no reason why cousin Patty couldn’t bring the pies or sister Sue the stuffing. If you provide the turkey, ask each family unit to bring a dish. This is a great way for everyone to share in the load and appreciate the cooking skills and recipes of loved ones. In fact, have everyone that brings a dish bring the recipe typed on a 3×5 card. Collect all the cards and compile a little family cookbook to present to everyone else by Christmas.
Skip the meal altogether
Rather than keeping to yourselves this Thanksgiving, consider having the family serve in a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or nursing home. Sharing the love of Christ with those less fortunate than ourselves brings greater rewards than lolling over-stuffed on the sofa in front of a ball game. After ministering to others, invite the family back to your place for dessert and board games. Here again, ask each family to bring their favorite pie.
Remember, Thanksgiving Day was instituted as a time of remembrance and thanksgiving by people with grateful hearts full toward God for bringing them through tremendous hardship. May our Thanksgiving Days forever continue in that same spirit.
Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred. –Proverbs 15:16-17 NIV
Share with us some of your favorite Thanksgiving memories. What might you do differently this year? Meet us in the comments!
Image by Luiz Rocha/Shutterstock
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
A local grocery store here had a good idea. They, too, have a turkey stamp program based on how much you spend during the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Yet you also have the option of donating your turkey to the local foodshelf. Or, if your card is incomplete, it can be combined with other incomplete cards which will then be redeemed for turkeys that will be donated to the foodshelf.
That sounds wonderful, MGalloway, for those that can afford to pay full price for their turkeys and want to bless others. Thanks for sharing.
Sometimes as the host/hostess we feel that we have to provide everything for the meal but our family has masters the art of “everybody bring something”. No one person is overwhelmed. We just make sure everyone knows who is bringing what so that there is no duplications or absences. Besides, the real meaning of Thanksgiving is the “THANKS” part and being with family!
Thanks for your thoughts, Penny. You are right about the real meaning of the holiday.
A whole turkey is too much for my family to consume for the Thanksgiving dinner so we invite family members and friends to celebrate with us. We have a potluck dinner to serve everybody.
That is an important point, Cherleen. If a whole turkey is too much, and you do not have anyone to share it with, you can always buy just the turkey breast.