Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving Day! Not quite as big a holiday as it is in the US, nor does it mark the start of the holiday season. But it is a big holiday, with lots of food and family.
My mom usually baked a ham for Thanksgiving, instead of turkey. Once in a while, we’d do a turkey, but we usually preferred ham. For me, it was mostly a day off from school. It was one of the last holidays we could spend outside before breaking out the heavy coats. As I got older, I tended to spend most of my Thanksgivings on my bike cruising through the bike trails back home enjoying the spectacle of fall. Most of the trees turn colour by this time, and there are lots of nice crunchy leaves that are fun to go stomping through. Of course I’d be back home in time for dinner. Usually it was just me, my parents and brother and sister. Sometimes my aunt and uncle would have a big dinner at their place with even more family.
CBC would air It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! in the evening, which was always fun to watch. There was always a football game to watch in the afternoon.
So now that I live in the US, I get to celebrate 2 Thanksgivings. My regular Thanksgiving in October, and the US Thanksgiving in November. Double the fun and best of all, double the food 🙂
And while writing this, I also learned that Martin Frobisher, an English navigator, celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Canada back in 1578, 43 years before the colonists at Plymouth Rock did. Betcha didn’t know that Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving first!