Pranksgiving

[Carrot Top]

Pranksgiving comes but once a year, and it is the duty of all to celebrate this national holiday. There remain some people who argue that the old traditional holiday “Thanksgiving” should remain in place for everyone, unaltered, stable, full of tradition and lore. This partisan approach has led to undigested holiday dinners for those who wish for something different.

Thanksgiving can be a problem for some when it comes to dress code, due to an underlying sense of guilt that hints one should dress up a bit.

Pranksgiving outfits help solve this problem and even make dining more pleasant. For children, Quaker serving outfits are advised. Large aprons with pockets to catch falling food, with bonnets or large black high top hats which cover the head entirely including the eyebrows will both keep chocolate and pies from being smushed into the hair. These outfits also keep the children busy trying to balance well enough to stand up, thereby avoiding some of the traditional holiday bickering.

Once the children are dressed this way, of course they can be encouraged to enter even more into the spirit of things. Mother should sit at the table, directing the children as to how to feed the ravening hordes (i.e. “the family”).

Some of the newer dress options offered for grown-ups on Pranksgiving include The Fur Trapper (torn old dark-colored t-shirts and ragged dungarees complete this outfit, though the effect is better if the clothes are so old and unwashed that they seem to be growing some sort of fur); The Missionary (any old dark-colored sheet will do, draped around oneself then tied with a bathrobe cord. If you can find a graduation ceremony cap, it will add a touch of immense drama). Some adult Pranksgiving celebrants who choose to have their dinners as twosomes without the madding crowds might enjoy The Chief (one of those little triangle things around the bottom, with a feathered headdress and nothing else but bodypaint) and The Chiefess (tie some chamois around your waist with a shoestring for a skirt. Simplicity itself.

More than Thanksgiving, though, the Pranksgiving menu can be challenging. Whatever is served should be a complete surprise to those who dine, and where possible it should make reference to old traditional menus.

One of my more successful Pranksgiving menus is as follows:

Roast Giant Squid

Ink Gravy

Grits with Hoop Cheese, Peanuts, and Canned Fried Onion Topping

Sweet Potato Foam on Apple Peels

Cranberry and Corn Chip Brittle

Small menu, yes – but it made its point with the beauty of that roast giant squid as it sat towering in the center of the dining table, a glistening icon of delight!

There is only one rule must be honored on Pranksgiving: Invite who you really want to, and nobody else. Guilt should play no part in giving real thanks, nor does it belong in the realm of fun pranks. If this means that you dine alone, that's okay too.

Enjoy your holiday, however you celebrate it. Much, to be thankful for and so many ways to show it!

[srhcb]

There is only one rule must be honored on Pranksgiving: Invite who you really want to, and nobody else.

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Better yet, you could specificallty not invite those you especially don't want to dine with!

In order to keep the non-invitation list from becoming too long, it should be limited to people with whom one had once dined?

Pranksgiving is thus an excellent occasion to "celebrate" without ex's and in-laws.

SB (like Lucellus, sometimes prefers to dine alone, in which case everyone isn't invited)

[miladyinsanity]

Thanksgiving Thirteen

If you need more ideas, Doug shared thirteen of his.

[Carrot Top]

If you need more ideas, Doug shared thirteen of his. 

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In comparison to that guy, I feel rather sane.

Darn it.

[Carrot Top]

SB (like Lucellus, sometimes prefers to dine alone

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If you're going to be Lucullus, you will need many slaves.