Hosting a Family Reunion This Thanksgiving? 4 Ways to Keep it Affordable

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to bring the whole family together. With everyone already planning to travel for the holidays, many decide to host family reunions during this holiday weekend. Preparing to have a Turkey Day family reunion? Read on for four tips on how to have the most affordable family reunion.

Gather at a Local Park

With 43.5 million Americans already planning a Thanksgiving road trip, odds are that anyone hosting a family reunion at this time of the year should prepare for a large gathering. 

Hosts that are looking for a separate location to have their family gather should rent space at a local park. Renting space at a park is a relatively inexpensive option for a family reunion venue, though you’ll want to do it well in advance.

Many families planning their reunion may find that they can use their local park free of cost. If the gathering is more informal and relatively small, parks make for an easy and free venue to have family and friends gather for a Thanksgiving reunion.

Make Other Bathroom Arrangements

When planning a reunion for Thanksgiving weekend, it’s important to consider details that may be overlooked otherwise. Homeowners worried that their two-bathroom home can’t accommodate everyone in their large family should consider making other bathroom arrangements. 

Port-a-potty rentals like Afford A Potty make it easy for homeowners to keep traffic through their personal bathrooms to a minimum, eliminating the possibility of potential plumbing issues.

Host a Potluck

With the average family spending near 50 dollars to feed 10 people on Thanksgiving, families expecting a huge gathering this holiday, should consider hosting a potluck instead of a traditional dinner. 

By asking relatives to bring their own meals with them, hosts will be able to keep their costs low without fear of running out of food. Be sure to ask family members well in advance what they’re bringing to guarantee that no one shows up to Thanksgiving dinner empty-handed.

Take Family Dues

Many family members view their reunions as a business gathering of sorts. Take advantage of bringing everyone together by taking a collection of family dues to cover the costs of the family reunion. To guarantee all expenses are covered during the big holiday weekend, hosts should be sure to take these dues several months before Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a holiday that is more enjoyable when shared with our loved ones. If you're hosting a family reunion this Thanksgiving, keep this guide in mind to make it as affordable as possible.

When Did The Thanksgiving Day Holiday Begin and Who Was Sarah Josepha Hale?

We all know the Thanksgiving story when the Pilgrims landed the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock. But when was the actual legal holiday established? 


Right in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln took the time to proclaim Thanksgiving a national holiday. 

But little is known of who really was behind influencing Lincoln and the government to make Thanksgiving a holiday.

Sarah Joespha Hale

Little is known of the women who petitioned Lincoln and the four previous presidents to establish the holiday. Her name was Sarah Josepha Hale and she is credited as the individual most responsible for making Thanksgiving a national holiday in the United States; it had previously been celebrated only in New England. 

Each state scheduled its own holiday, some as early as October and others as late as January; it was largely unknown in the American South. Her advocacy for the national holiday began in 1846 and lasted 17 years before it was successful. In support of the proposed national holiday, she wrote letters to five Presidents of the United States -- Zachary Taylor, Millard Filmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln. 

Her initial letters failed to persuade, but the letter she wrote to Lincoln did convince him to support legislation establishing a national holiday of Thanksgiving in 1863. 

The new national holiday was considered a unifying day after the stress of the American Civil War. Prior to the addition of Thanksgiving, the only national holidays celebrated in the United States were Washington's Birthday and Independence Day.

Lincoln's Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom. 

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. 

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. 

A. Lincoln

So when you are sitting down to have your Thanksgiving dinner give thanks also for Sarah Josepha Hale, for all her perseverance and hard work in making our national holiday a permanent part of our culture and history.

Happy Thanksgiving To All

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Today we give thanks to God for all our gifts we receive. We take a moment to say a prayer and reflect  on all the things we have. Whether it is our family's, our health or what we have. Today is a day of gratitude. 


The original Thanksgiving was first observed by the pilgrims long ago in 1621. The tradition was eventually permanently established by the highest office by President George Washington in 1789. The following proclamation by President Washington was signed October 3,1789 and entitled "General Thanksgiving"

"WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.:"

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wife, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine."

(signed) G. Washington

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I would like to wish a happy and healthy Thanksgiving to all. I will be spending my thanksgiving at home with my wonderful wife and children. My best to you. God Bless. Happy Thanksgiving.