When you can’t celebrate a holiday, do you sit there and do nothing or make the most of your day? Thanksgiving is such an Americanized holiday, and some don’t celebrate or don’t believe in its origins. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have festive fun. Here’s a list a fun Thanksgiving activities that don’t necessarily mean celebrating Thanksgiving. 

• Host a Friendsgivig:  Friendsgiving is personal; that’s what I will be doing this Thanksgiving season: get your close friends together, and have everyone bring a different plate of food. Bring some games together and have a nice dinner with friends. Sometimes your friends can be closer to you than your own family, so it can be more special than going to spend time with people you might not even talk to as much. The meaning of Thanksgiving is to be with people you hold close to your heart, and that might just be a close circle of friends.
• Write Some Thank You Cards:  Thanksgiving is about appreciating the things you have around you that you may not take note of every day. Take some time out of your day to write thank-you notes to family, friends, cops, nurses, and anyone who you think deserves a letter of appreciation. You may not even have to write to anyone specific; you can write kind and encouraging words and put them in public areas to anyone who may need a kind pick-me-up.
• Take a vacation: Taking a vacation with your family is a great opportunity for some tropical family bonding. The weather during Thanksgiving in the United States is cold, and the workload on students is starting to pile up so taking a nice vacation by the beach is a perfect way to relax and get your mind on the sand and of the school work. Thanksgiving is an American holiday, so going around the world to resorts and seeing how they celebrate Thanksgiving is a nice way to see how others celebrate.
• Volunteering in a soup kitchen: Thanksgiving is generally supposed to be about giving back, so volunteering for your community is a great way to spend Thanksgiving. Not all people have the luxury of having a home or even being able to afford a big Thanksgiving meal, so they go to soup kitchens. Volunteering can leave you feeling happy and accomplished, knowing you helped someone on the day of thanks. Taking the time out of your day to help strangers can make them feel seen. Not many people think of others on Thanksgiving because they are so focused on their family and how their family dinner turns out, so when you have kind people volunteering, it makes others happy and noticed.