The 3 Best American Thanksgiving Traditions
We’ve come to the best time of year. Once Halloween hits, we get three straight holidays back to back to back. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Each of these days has certain traditions that we’ve become accustomed to. Some of the traditions are good, some… well… we could probably do without (that sounds like a different article.) Today we’re going to stick with the good ones. Let’s do the three best Thanksgiving traditions (IMHO).
1. Thanksgiving Football
Football is king in America. So naturally the tradition of Thanksgiving football should be up there as well. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about family football games on Thanksgiving morning in the park, traditional high school rivalry football games, or the NFL games we get each Thanksgiving. This is the best non-eating Thanksgiving tradition out there. Two of those three football events mentioned give you bragging rights for an entire year. Trust me it sucks if you’re the loser. For the last 11 months my team has had to listen to four bozos brag about our friends Thanksgiving Day football game because they won. It’s just the worst, but the tradition is the best.
2. Thanksgiving Day Parades
I’m not a huge parade fan, but something about seeing people bundled up, while floats go past and marching bands play while walking down a major thoroughfare in a city. Different dance troops, huge character balloons. It just makes the morning feel bigger than just a morning that you’re preparing yourself to shovel so much food into your face 10 hours from now.
3. Getting Black Friday Deals Online before Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Listen, we all know Christmas has taken all the holidays from October to December. It’s not great walking into Home Depot and seeing all Halloween decorations in a stare-down with the Christmas decorations. It’s like an inflatable Sharks vs Jets gang war ready to break out. But that’s the time we’re in. The good thing is you can avoid all that nonsense by starting your online shopping before Thanksgiving! Everyone has their black friday deals available online. What’s the point of going to the store before the sun comes up on Black Friday? There is none! It’s the best new tradition out there!
All the New Hallmark Christmas Movies for this Year
It’s never too early to plan your Christmas viewing schedule! With that in mind, The Hallmark Channel is already getting into the Christmas spirit, with a new Christmas movie dropping every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 8 pm ET. Watch the Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and its streaming service Hallmark Movies Now. On the weekend of October 20, Hallmark kicked off their “Countdown to Christmas” with Checkin’ it Twice, Where Are You, Christmas?, and Under the Christmas Sky. On the weekend of October 26, the channel debuts Ms. Christmas Comes to Town, Christmas By Design, and Mystic Christmas.
Some of the actors and actresses who will be featured in the films include Kevin McGarry, Kim Matula, Lyndsy Fonseca, Michael Rady, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Ryan Paevey, Rebecca Dalton, Jonathan Keltz, Jessy Schram, Chandler Massey, Jaicy Elliot and Brant Daugherty, among many others.
Hallmark has made an industry of sorts out of holiday movies and most of them get re-aired every year. Per Vox, the 2006 film The Christmas Card, made Hallmark realize that it could focus on Christmas programming in November and December. And that film has continued to air every holiday season since its debut.
Appropriate for a channel that was started by a greeting card company, Hallmark does very well with seasonal programming. But apparently, they work on Christmas programming all year round. The Vox feature reports that they shoot Christmas movies even in the summer. Of course, they have to put effort into making it always look like Christmas. But it’s surely worth it to come up with tons of Christmas content.
Take a look below at the full schedule. And for more information about every new movie, head to their “Countdown to Christmas” site.
Keep scrolling to see the full lineup and synopsis of Hallmark’s Christmas movies this year:
Steve Vassalotti is co-host of “The Matt Cord Show with Steve Vassalotti” weekday mornings 6a-10a on 102.9 WMGK. He has been with the station since 2015. For WMGK he writes about inane nonsense that surrounds our daily lives, sports, food and other various topics. Steve writes about Philadelphia lifestyle content, the Philadelphia Eagles culture and trending topics.