The food is easy. I’ll make it easier than OP’s suggestion.

Buy the premade Thanksgiving dinner for any grocery store. Add on a couple premade pies.

The conflict and stress come from family. We cook the meal and that’s the easy part. It’s everything else. Personally, pot luck is much harder because everyone gets offended about something.

OP must not have difficult family members.

Plot twist, OP annoys the living sh*t out of their family every year and they are the ones posting on other threads about how much they hate Thanksgiving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No issue here. Thanksgiving food is also easy to make - Just mixing and baking.

+ 1

It is such nothingburger bland food. I cannot believe that people get stressed about it. Mix and bake, mix and bake. It is like people are having heartattack when they are hosting. Such a big pile of poop!!

I'm concerned that you are serving bland food and mixing and baking random stuff

1) Hoarder house, cluttered house, dirty house
2) Inability and inexperience cooking
3) A tradition of cooking the most horrible tasting meat (turkey) that takes too long to cook. Turkey is such a horrible meat that even a good cook is disheartened after cooking it.
4) A selfish and entitled culture that makes the individuals unable to do anything for another person
5) No idea how to host and what the process of putting together a party is.
6) Low energy, other priorities
7) Bad marriage, stressful parenting, stress of work, stress of eldercare and childcare.
8) Haven't grown up learning to effortlessly cook, run the household, host.

Most people beeitching about TG have at least several issues listed above. Inability to host is due to dysfunction.


Normal people expect the tiredness that happens after hosting. They are not shocked by it. They plan better. They spread out the prep work over several days. Dysfunctional people start to lash out because they feel victimized.

It's not about the food most of the time, and even when it is, that is the surface issue. The deeper issue is dealing with difficult people. You try to keep things peaceful and there are some relatives determined to piss on people's cheerios.

Anonymous wrote:OP stop humble bragging. Not every family is as AMAZING as yours.

Chill chica.

OP stop humble bragging. Not every family is as AMAZING as yours.

Anonymous wrote:I love hosting Thanksgiving. Prefer to do everything myself except the desserts. Agree with pp that Thanksgiving food is usually pretty easy and basic, you just need to juggle a lot of it.

I also like to cook it all myself when I host, but everyone is different. I also have Wednesday off to cook and clean, which makes a huge difference. I’m also happy to bring dishes when someone else hosts.

The biggest part of “easy” Thanksgiving are the personalities in the mix. When the high-needs relatives aren’t in the mix, it’s hard not to have a good time hosting.

Anonymous wrote:One relative hosts, provides the turkey, apps and some drinks. Others bring a side and a dessert. No one is mad or stressed. The host rotates year to year. This is how it is for both sides of our family. It’s not hard or anger-inducing. Men and women both help. What’s the issue?

The issue is some of us have a**holes in our family. Could you be more unaware of the world around you? Self focused much?

Anonymous wrote:People don't usually post in this forum when life is good and they don't have any problems. I have a stellar relationship with my mother in law with very minimal drama but I don't feel compelled to write about how I get along so well with her

Same. My in-laws are great. They'll come over and my FIL will say hi for a half hour than wander off, then come back an hour later and be like "I fixed that light that was flickering downstairs," and we're like "I didn't know you were an electrician in your spare time, thanks!" and he'll shrug and mumble about having read an article about wiring. Last time my MIL was over she brought some sort of chocolate molding melting maker (??) and she was melting fancy chocolate bars with my kids and making desserts with them. Or they'll spend an hour sitting reading books with the kids. One time they came over and I was overwhelmed at work and trying to plan to host a baby shower for a close work friend and my MIL sat down with a pen and paper and helped me outline the components of the party and made really great suggestions. They're just the best.