Family traditions: spend a day or more cooking, baking and yelling at everyone to get out of the kitchen - eating Thanksgiving dinner early in the afternoon so we can collapse in front of the tube to watch football - eating again later in the evening - yelling at everyone to get into the kitchen to wash the dishes - swearing that this is the last time we're doing this and looking forward to next year when we can all get together again.

as far as traditions go ... as a child giant :

my immediate family always went to a long-time family friend's "cabin" in the "woods" in central-upstate New York. arnold's cabin had no electricity ... we used kerosene lamps ... fire / wood cooking stove ... snow was USUALLY up to the knees ... no tv ... no radio ... just wonderful times, pleasant conversations and remarkable aromas all through the late morning and afternoon until we'd have our feast ... which was usually ready shortly before sunset ....

also:

usually about mid-afternoon as i recall, we'd all go out on foot - except for mom ... who'd keep an eye on things as they cooked - on Arnold's rather extensive property and pick out and cut down the family's gentle Christmas tree for that year; rather like the Griswold's ... although dad invariably remembered the saw AND had a very good idea of the size and height of our cave's living room!

nowadays:

as far as gentler-half is concerned, i watch WAY too much football already ... especially college football. so i usually make a point NOT to watch any on Thanksgiving Day. for about the last five or six years, though, we've always managed to watch the movie Planes, Tranes and Automobiles ... if not ON the actual holiday, then within just a few days of it ....

Living where we do, my family and I have no one to share Thanksgiving with (not a holiday in Denmark!) but we always make ourselves a lovely Thanksgiving dinner every year. There was no way I was going to miss Thanksgiving dinner!

We couldn't for our life find a turkey anywhere, so we settled for some Cornish hens (yummy, those!) and duck legs. Plus cornbread muffins, cranberry salad, a host of smaller dishes and vegetables and of course pumpkin pie. My favorite!!

We decorate with fall themes and little pilgrims.  My mom likes to watch the Macys parade on tv, and when my uncles are there they spend the day watching football, but otherwise the tv turned off and we gather around for rounds of Uno, dominoes, Monopoly, etc. If we have a crowd, we bring out the big bingo game with its wire cage that can be cranked - the kids like that one.   Traditional Thanksgiving fare rules the day - turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes, stuffing, yams with brown sugar and marshmallows, green-beans with bacon, and some form of jello... and then the pumpkin pie, pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake! You are making me hungry just thinking about it.

 I get a little football in on Thanksgiving, after the Macy's parade, and March of the Wooden Soldiers. In between courses of the traditional meal served around chicken instead of turkey, Dallas and Detroit games are a fun part of our family tradition (that and a little trivial pursuit over pie and tea)...I'm just remembering that either Christmas or Thanksgiving has College ball, but I don't remember which...guess I'll find out on Thursday...

 Besides football my favorite family tradition is my mom's french apple pie and my aunt ellen's sausage stuffing! Oh yeah and cuddling with sleepy kids once they are done eating turkey...