Thanksgiving Events

Every year it’s the same Thanksgiving resident event. We have a lunch, dinner, or pot luck for the residents, but why not change it up a little this year? Have a pot luck, but resident must bring the recipe with their dish. It can be a turkey, side dish, dessert, or appetizer, and encourage them to share online what they are bringing, so you don’t get 15 different stuffing recipes. Have a panel of anonymous judges, judge the dishes, and announce the winners. As you may know, people love sharing pictures of food, so be ready to share pictures of the winning dishes and their cooks in social media and in your newsletter! What is beautiful about this event is that it doesn’t end with the event itself! One of the main purposes of the event is to create a cookbook of all entries...

Our Thanksgiving was held one week before Thanksgiving. I arranged for an area restaurant to caterer. We set up our community room as a restaurant with linen table cloths, napkins, nice dishes and glassware. The tables had beautiful lighted laterns with grens and log pieces tha the tenants made. For a surprise we had a harp player play during our meal. Also during coffee and pie. We even sang grace. It was a great evening with friends.

Every year around Thanksgiving we have a Bake Off. Residents will bring in the best baked goods. Everyone will taste everyone elses Baked Goods. Who every is voted to have the best bake food, wins a new stove for their apartment. This is a great way to learn desserts for the biggest fest of the year.

The residents thought htis was going to be the traditionary cut and dry Thanksgiving like every year. Ha Ha we fooled them. We had several volunteers dressed as Revolutionary soldiers and we also had a prositute. We served the meal they would have had back at that time. With cranberry bread, turkey on the spit, corn on the cob, potatoes and pumpkin/apple pie. While the residents ate, the servers described there life during Thanksgiving, away from their families. We also heard how busy the prositute was and how she hoped she would make it through the holidays. It was great fun watching everyone listen to the actor while they did their story. It was great fun and the residents have asked for them to come again.

Since we normally have a big holiday party in December close to Christmas time, we usually use November as a time of giving back to the community. We take this time to remember those less fortunate and to give thanks for what we have. Therefore, we have a Food Drive for our local Salvation Army and we set up a large blue bin in our leasing office to collect non-perishable food items throughout the month. In addition, we share reasons we are thankful on our website, in blogs, and on our Facebook status and encourage our community to do the same. It brings a sense of comradery to our residents.