How to Make Thanksgiving Better, According to a Bunch of 8-Year-Olds
Listen up—the kids are talking. And they have lots of opinions, especially when it comes to improving Thanksgiving.
1/11Kiley Goldfarb
Loves: gymnastics, American Girl dolls, Katy Perry
Special talent: jumping hurdlesDo you usually sit at a kids’ table during Thanksgiving? “Everyone sits at the same table in my family, but the grown-ups ask all these questions: ‘How were your reports? Do you like writing? Do you like science?’ Sometimes I’m like, ugh, and sometimes I just don’t answer. Then they leave me alone.” ____
What’s your least favorite Thanksgiving dish? “Mashed potatoes are disgusting. They’re all mushy. I spit them in the garbage once and never told anyone—until now.” ____
How do you feel about leftovers?
“Oh my god, leftovers are the worst thing ever! My dad always says, ‘Let’s take home all the leftovers!’ and we end up eating turkey every night for, like, five days. It’s torture.” ____Compared to other holidays, where does Thanksgiving rank? “It’s somewhere in the middle. Hanukkah and Christmas are basically on the top and Rosh Hashanah, when we go to temple, is on the bottom.”
2/11Caleb Fumusa
Loves: tomatoes, chess, The Doors
Special talent: holding his breath underwaterWhat’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? “My aunt always brings chocolate-mint brownies, which are really yummy. It’s like a special treat.”
And your least favorite? “Pie. I hate it because it makes fruit look bad. And I love fruit!”If you could add any activity to Thanksgiving to make it more interesting, what would it be? “Video games! The whole family could play—even my grandma.”
What do you like to drink at Thanksgiving? “Cranberry juice, orange juice, water, or milk. The adults drink beer, but they behave. Sometimes the kids get a little crazy—we’re all, ‘Let’s get this party started!’”
If you had to explain Thanksgiving to someone who didn’t know what it was, how would you do it?
“It’s a turkey’s worst nightmare, that’s what is it.” ____
3/11Izzy Pingrey
Loves: pickles, burritos, Despicable Me 2
Special talents: singing, dancingWho does the cooking when you host Thanksgiving at your house? “My dad. He’s the cook, because my mom—I don’t know how to put this—my mom loves to email. She eats, she sleeps, she emails, she takes care of me, she plays with me, she breathes, and she works.”
Do you usually sit at a kids’ table or with the adults? “Most of the time I sit with the adults. But I like the kids’ table. The conversation is way different—you can talk about whatever you want, like video games. At the grown-up table, the adults laugh at things, but I don’t know why, because it’s not funny.”
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? “My auntie makes the best mashed potatoes, and I know great mashed potatoes.”
4/11Elijah and Elise Edmonds
Elijah:
Loves: macaroni and cheese, soccer
Special talent: memorizing facts about animalsWhat’s your least favorite Thanksgiving dish?
“I like spicy collard greens, but I don’t like regular ones. They taste like spinach, and I hate spinach.”If you could add a dish to Thanksgiving, what would it be?
“Ice cream! It’s never too cold for ice cream.”Compared to other holidays, where does Thanksgiving rank, and why?
“My top holiday is Christmas, my middle holiday is Thanksgiving, and my worst holiday is Valentine’s Day. I don’t like the romance stuff—only the candy.”Elise:
Loves: pizza, Wii We Ski, The Lego Movie
Special talent: Hula-hoopingWhere do you and your brother usually celebrate Thanksgiving? “Sometimes we go to our nana’s house in New York. When we go there, some of my grandpa’s friends come over and I don’t know them. But they all know my name and hug me and stuff; it’s weird. I’m like, ‘Why are you hugging me? I never saw you before!’”
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? “I like my mom’s macaroni. She puts breadcrumbs on it.”
And your least favorite?
“Turkey. It doesn’t taste like anything.”What do the grown-ups talk about at Thanksgiving?
“Important stuff. Like, my dad is a lawyer and he quit his job because he wanted to be his own lawyer and hire his own employees.”If you had to explain Thanksgiving to someone who didn’t know what it was, how would you?
“We’re celebrating thanks! We always say a prayer before every meal: ‘One, two, three, God is great, God is good, let us thank him for the food. Amen.’”
5/11Nico Martell
Loves: basketball, Nerf guns, Mario Kart 8
Special talent: magic tricksWhat’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? “Rice and beans with ketchup! My grandmother makes it.”
If you could add any dish to Thanksgiving, what would it be? “Pizza! Cheese pizza. Or mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce.”
Do you have to dress up for Thanksgiving? “I wear a button-down shirt and fancy pants because my mom dresses me up. But I like looking tidy.”
What would you do to make Thanksgiving a better holiday?
“I would get a fireworks machine! Then you could write letters in the sky. I’d put N-I-C-O and when they exploded, it would spell out my name. I would also buy those Thanksgiving hats with the buckles on them for everyone.”What kinds of things do you talk about on Thanksgiving? “Usually the adults talk about what happens at work. One time my dad was talking about this kid who made nunchucks out of paperclips and rulers at the school where he teaches.”
Do you like leftovers?
“What’s funny is that on Thanksgiving my little brother will say he’s full, but then he hears we’re having dessert and he says, ‘I want some!’ And my Mom and Dad say, ‘But I thought you were full!’ Happens every time.” ____
6/11Sydney Butscher
Loves: cupcakes, ballet, anything pink
Special talent: touching her tongue to her noseWhat’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? “Apple pie and sometimes cake, like chocolate or carrot.”
And your least favorite?
“Cranberry sauce is really sour. It makes me make a fishy face.”What dish would you add to Thanksgiving? “Instead of turkey, I wish we would have cherry Jell-O in the shape of a turkey. And the stuffing would be made of Nutella!”
Compared to other holidays, where does Thanksgiving rank, and why? “Christmas is number one, then my birthday, then Easter, then Halloween, and then Thanksgiving. Mayor Day, the day we vote for the new mayor, is the worst.”
7/11Daniel Cuff
Loves: fries, Minecraft, How to Train Your Dragon
Special talent: building LegosWhat is your Thanksgiving like? “We go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. The adults drink a lot of wine and get a little loud and talk about weird stuff like the weather. It’s boring. They say stuff only adults would want to hear.”
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
“Turkey tastes yummy. I love the drumsticks!” ____Do you dress up for Thanksgiving? “I usually just wear a T-shirt and pants. My cousins wear ties to Thanksgiving dinner, but I don’t have to. I’m lucky.”
What would you do to make Thanksgiving a better holiday?
“Trade the sweet potatoes for chicken wings, carrots for chicken pizza, and mashed potatoes for french fries. With lots of ketchup!”
8/11Salim Ptah
Loves: pizza, basketball, Space Jam
Special talent: Djembe drummingYour family is pescetarian. So what do you eat on Thanksgiving? “Usually we eat fish—like salmon.”
Is it served whole like a turkey?
“No, they get the fish ready and put it on plates, and then we say a prayer for all the Native Americans who have died.”
And what’s your least favorite Thanksgiving dish? “Mayi moulin—it’s a Haitian dish. There’s a lot of stuff in it but no meat.”What dish would you add to Thanksgiving? “Fish pizza! I really like fish and pizza!”
Do you help with the Thanksgiving meal?
“At our house we usually have chores like wiping the table and sweeping the floors. My father and I are the masters of washing dishes.”Are guests allowed to bring their cell phones to the table at Thanksgiving?
“Usually people just keep them in their pockets. Why look at your phone when you can have fun talking to people?”If you had to explain Thanksgiving to someone who didn’t know what it was, how would you?
“Well, the real story of Thanksgiving is that the pilgrims went to the New World and started taking all of the Native Americans’ land. They were killing people and there were a lot of fights. The Native Americans disagree about how people came together and had feasts. They say, ‘We didn’t do that! You took our people and our land. If you didn’t do that, there would still be a lot of Native Americans in this world.’ I think it’s weird that we call it Thanksgiving. I want to call it Mourning-giving.”Compared to other holidays, where does Thanksgiving rank? “Kwanzaa is the best holiday. There are seven days! Halloween is kind of lame. I don’t celebrate it, but all people do is walk around trying to find candy. It’s boring. Thanksgiving is right above Halloween—not so great.”
9/11Owen Patrick Splitt
Loves: cinnamon buns, soccer, Run–D.M.C.
Special talent: picking up song lyricsWhat do you think of kids’ tables? “I like sitting with the adults, because the kids are sometimes not smart. My cousin is a kindergartener, so he doesn’t know much.”
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? “Corn on the cob. It tastes really good and it’s yellow—and you don’t have to use a fork or a knife or a spoon, just your hands.”
And your least favorite?
“Mashed potatoes are the worst. When I have to eat them, I throw them under the table. Just kidding!”If you could add a dish to Thanksgiving, what would it be?
“Ice cream sandwiches and root beer floats. And everyone could eat them—not just the kids.”
10/11Sean Baptiste
Loves: Skittles, baseball, Full House
Special talent: dancingWhat’s your least favorite Thanksgiving dish?
“The turkey—it’s disgusting. I only eat turkey at school when they serve turkey-and-cheese sandwiches.”What kinds of activities do you do as a family on Thanksgiving? “I play games with my cousin. We play handball rugby inside, but don’t break anything. We also play with the Nerf gun. He shoots the Nerf ball at me and I have to try to dodge them.”
What do the adults talk about?
“They don’t really talk. They just eat. Well, I guess they talk, but I never know what they say. My nana’s always the loudest. Once she came and stayed with us and our cat was hiding the entire time because she was so loud.”Compared to other holidays, where does Thanksgiving rank, and why?
“Thanksgiving is the worst. I always get a stomachache because I eat too much: three plates of macaroni and Jell-O.”What would you do to make Thanksgiving a better holiday?
“I would hand out two candies to everybody and save the rest for myself and pour them all on my plate. I never get a stomachache when I get candy!”
11/11Lila Hertzberg
Loves: pasta with butter, friendship bracelets, swimming
Special talent: drawingWhat’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
“I like sweet potatoes with marshmallows, cranberry sauce, and apple pie.”What dish would you add to Thanksgiving? “My mom’s butterscotch pie. Grandma makes the Thanksgiving food, so we don’t bring it. It’s okay though—I think Grandma may be a better cook than our family.”
Do you ever go to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade?
“Yes, we watch it from inside a restaurant. What’s it called again? Oh, yeah: Per Se. I go with my grandpa.”If you had to explain Thanksgiving to someone who didn’t know what it was, how would you do it? “It’s when the Englishmen moved to America and the Native Americans showed them how to grow food. When a year passed, they celebrated with a big feast because they had survived a whole year in a new place.”
