Thanksgiving is more than just a holiday, it’s a time for students to celebrate diverse traditions, reconnect with loved ones and create new memories. Whether they’re staying on campus or traveling home, Stan State students celebrate Thanksgiving in ways that reflect their backgrounds and values.
Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It’s a day filled with family gatherings, festive meals and moments of gratitude, as people come together to reflect on the blessings of the past year.
Traditional foods like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie are staples on most tables, each dish symbolizing the holiday’s historical roots and seasonal harvests.
For many, the holiday also carries personal and cultural significance, allowing families and friends to blend old traditions with new ones, honoring their heritage and creating memories that will last a lifetime.
Stan State students share the Thanksgiving traditions they and their families enjoy each year.
Greggory Harris (Creative Media, Junior) typically spends his Thanksgiving with his parents, siblings and grandpa. They always celebrate at his mother’s house, with his grandpa living just around the corner from her.
Harris mentions that his family is relatively small, so they don’t have many traditions. However, attending the Thanksgiving Parade is a yearly tradition they enjoy. At home, they spend quality time together engaging in other activities.
“My mom likes a lot of board games and sometimes we’ll watch like either Miracle on 34th Street or like Peanuts,” Harris states.
Harris’s Thanksgiving spread is considered to be very traditional, consisting of turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and pumpkin pie. He shares that his family has a unique twist that they eat every year.
“Interesting enough, we always get a pizza every year because my brothers don’t eat that stuff. So there’s always at least some kind of pizza or pizza rolls or hot pockets,” Harris says.
Esmeralda Jimenez Casillas (Creative Media, Junior) celebrates Thanksgiving with her close family, often only seeing relatives who live further away on other holidays like Christmas. While her family doesn’t have any typical traditions as they are a Mexican household, they still spend time with each other.
“Always like to watch a movie depending what everyone kind of likes to agree on, because we all have different kinds. I’m more the horror fan, and my dad is into action, my little sisters is cartoons and my mom doesn’t like horror. Sometimes our genres don’t coincide,” Jimenez Casillas says.
On Jimenez Casillas’s dinner table, you wouldn’t see the traditional spread for Thanksgiving. Her family leans toward Mexican dishes, with her mom working hard to cater to the family’s tastes.
“My family usually just does tamales and since we all have different tastes, my mom always makes four different kinds,” she says. “The first one will always be like pork with vegetables, one will be pork with green salsa and then the third one will be just meat, then the last one, my favorite, is the one with cheese and jalapeno.”
Rebecca Sobrevilla (Communication Studies, Senior) spends her Thanksgiving with her immediate family members on her mom’s side, primarily at her grandma’s house. Her family likes to do movie marathons together.
“Usually we do different ones for Thanksgiving because for Christmas it’s always Harry Potter or Star Wars. But for Thanksgiving, we typically do all the Spider-Man movies,” Sobrevilla says.
Sobrevilla considers herself to be a foodie and greatly enjoys Thanksgiving. She claims that they normally have a pretty traditional Thanksgiving with turkey. Occasionally they have crab boil, but Sobrivilla says her favorite food served for the holiday is the green bean casserole.
“I love food, so Thanksgiving is actually one of my favorite holidays for that, because I like eating food. Also, it’s just nice to have all your family members there, getting to talk. Sometimes a lot of people we don’t get to see often come down for it, so that’s also pretty nice too,” Sobrevilla says.
Happy Thanksgiving to CSU Stanislaus Students and Faculty!
