At a recent mommy-and-me workout class that I attended with my infant, we each had to go around and share our holiday traditions. I instantly became stressed, mostly because I hate public speaking, but also since I didn’t grow up with any and have no new riveting ones myself. However, I was kind of in awe at what some of the other mamas in the class do with their loved ones; one mom said she and her family do Turkey Day tacos as lunchtime appetizers before the big feast, while another is starting a new tradition of visiting the Lehigh Valley on Thanksgiving weekend with her kids’ cousins to go leaf-peeping. How fun?!

It’s inspired me to perhaps start — or at least consider starting — a few of my own new traditions that my kids will remember one day, because, in my humble and non-professional opinion, it’s never too late. And in this day and age of social media, there are a million ways to find inspiration if you’re lacking in the creativity department as I am.

Here are 8 of literally thousands of possible holiday tradition ideas that you may consider bringing to your table this year. Just don’t start searching for Thanksgiving family traditions on TikTok. Trust me on this one. You’ll be scrolling all day:

• Pass around a journal at the table and have each guest write what they’re thankful for. Make sure to date each entry so you can look back and reflect each subsequent year.

• Have a “gratitude pumpkin” as your table centerpiece, where each guest writes on a pumpkin in sharpie what they’re most grateful for that year.

• Give gifts to the kids on Thanksgiving night that will come in handy for Christmas or Hanukkah—think matching family jammies or a new menorah or ornament.

• Buy a solid table runner for Thanksgiving and have your kids paint it with their handprints. Mark each hand with the year to track the kids’ growth. You can even draw each handprint into a turkey if you’re feeling extra artsy.

• Enjoy a little friendly competition with your relatives as the food cooks; consider playing board games, card games, video games, or whatever else your family enjoys, and keeping it consistent each year.

• Delegate a Thanksgiving task to each kid in the house to keep them busy; best yet is to have each child be in charge of the same thing every year so they feel a sense of responsibility with it.

• Spend the morning outside before you start cooking, be it a family walk, a community-wide Turkey Trot, a volunteer opportunity, or a backyard game of touch football.

• Cook an (easy) breakfast for whoever slept at the house the night before, especially if the kids aren’t too keen on stuffing, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. You can’t go wrong with blueberry or chocolate chip pancakes or cinnamon rolls.

• And finally, if your family is full of jokesters, enjoy a round of “spank the turkey.” One Reddit user said on a thread of unusual Thanksgiving traditions that her husband first gave their bird a spank to help disperse the marinade, but now she and her four sons continue the tradition each year even after he passed away. I’m not crying, you’re crying!

Will you be starting a new Thanksgiving tradition with your kids this year?

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