The latter route, for foodies, can be a refreshing way to shake off culinary excesses and pretenses. A thoroughly 90s Thanksgiving table might be lade with butternut squash soup sprinkled with chopped apples, baked sweet potatoes with caramelized pecans, moist but crispy-skinned turkey, creamy pumpkin pie. And, if a couple of grandma's Jell-O molds grace the scene, well, that's history too. If your genealogy involves mini-marshmallows atop the sweet potatoes, ain't no shame in that. It's not a cynical day.
Thanksgiving is about American families, eating, spending time together.
Tradition here, while not always of the harvest, is of the family. But, if you put cilantro and mango chutney on my turkey, I'll smack you.