10 unconventional ways to spend your Thanksgiving

Markus Rodder/flickr

Tired of the usual Thanksgiving traditions? Want to put the giving back in Thanksgiving? Try these 10 ideas.

1. Volunteer on an organic farm in Italy in exchange for room, board, education and culture. I’m sure there would be a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner on an organic farm. There are farms willing to take volunteers all over the world.
2. Help out at a food bank.

   Get involved with your local shelter and work on preparing and serving food to families that don’t have a home go to for the holidays. I know of a young couple with no children and limited family who have been doing this for years. It IS their Thanksgiving tradition.

3. Spend the day creating a home garden. Depending on what area of the country you are in, what you can do will be different. Make your goal to have a meal of homegrown foods next Thanksgiving.
4. Create or attend a food swap followed by a homemade potluck meal.
5. Make seed bombs and walk around your area seed bombing vacant lots that need more loving. Next Spring you will see the beauty of your efforts.
6. Adopt a family for the holidays. Give a needy family a basket of food so that they can have a special holiday with their family.
7. Gather needed winter supplies for the homeless. Spend the time and money you would spend on a big dinner making hygiene kits and handing them out.
8. Offer your services to a local volunteer group to help out on the latest international disaster. Don’t count yourself out just because you don’t have special skills (EMT, RN, teacher, or minister.) As long as you can be caring and calm while living in horrible conditions, you will be welcome.
9. Invite someone you do not know to stay at your house during Thanksgiving or vica versa. You can find free places to stay and people who need free places to stay at CouchSurfing or Servas. It goes without saying that one has to be smart about such arrangements, but there are truly lots of wonderful people out in the world just waiting to be met.
10. Spend the holiday truly giving thanks. Call your loved ones and thank them sincerely. Buy a dozen flowers and hand them out one at a time to your neighbors, the grocery clerk, the babysitter, the postal person, your teacher, hair dresser or random person on the street. Pay it forward. Hand out the love and it WILL come back to you. Make sure to remember to keep it stress free.

That’s my 10. Do you have any ideas to add?

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