Site

Categories

What Is Your Post Thanksgiving Day Meal Movie (or activity).

General Posted by Chet_Manly 7 years, 5 months ago

As we sit and digest our high calorie feastes in a stupor of tryptophan, carb overload and sugar, we will most likely watch something enjoyable. It seems to me that only certain movies are appropriate; in our house, you can't just watch any old movie to close out Thanksgiving.

What post Thanksgiving meal movies are most appropriate?

Are there any traditions out there?

Include a reason if you have one, but a reason is hardly necessary.

My list of appropriate options: Any movie from the Clint Eastwood "Man with no Name" series

Any of the first three Indiana Jones movies

Any of the first three Star Wars movies

Pirates of the Caribbean

My wife has a tradition from her childhood of watching Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. (I can handle it once a year, but when the kids are a little older.....)

I would include Die Hard, but that's more of a Christmas movie so I save it for another month.

11 replies

  • jordan

    I second any of the first three Star Wars. Growing up, those were always on some cable channel Thanksgiving afternoon, and we'd hide in my grandma's basement and watch the trilogy after lunch. Now, I usually go take a long walk.

    Reply

    • Chet_Manly

      Funny, I think many of my movie choices come from what was on TV that afternoon/evening back when I was a kid.

      A walk is a great idea. We like to have Thanksgiving as a lunch meal so that some activity could occur afterwards.

      I typically like to get in the gym for a few hours before the meal and squat till I can barely waddle up to the table that afternoon, so a walk would work well for me on multiple levels.

      Reply

  • glen

    I used to like watching It's a Wonderful Life on Thanksgiving, but I think that was just on whatever channel we could get with our rabbit ears.

    It's not a movie, but my brother and I have a long-standing tradition of seeing how many rolls we can eat and then playing a game of pick-up basketball. It is terrible and hilarious at the same time.

    Yes, we're stupid.

    Reply

    • Chet_Manly

      hahaha. Sometimes it's the stupid things we do that we enjoy the most.

      One year about 10 of us that went out and had a croquet game that stretching over about 150 yards. That was fun but we had to make special rules for the first and last place player to keep the game coherent... Not really stupid, but I tend to be a fan of activities where the chances of losing my meal are low. You have my respect though!

      Reply

      • glen

        Wow, now THAT is a croquet game. I bet it took forever.

        I can't recall how our BasketRoll Challenge started, but it continues almost solely as a way to vex our mom. Every year she playfully makes comments about how stupid it is, which is probably the only reason we still do it. The best part is that she knows we only continue the tradition to spite her, and she still nags us. It's great.

        Anyway, sorry to hijack your thread with this. Oh, and to date, nobody has lost a meal yet. There have been some close calls, though.

        Reply

        • Chet_Manly

          No hijacking. Movies...Traditions. It's good. Sounds like an excellent tradition to get your kids co-opted into.

          Plus is there a more compelling reason for a man to do something than a women thinking it's stupid?
          (I can see the Far Side cartoon: "Mrs. Columbus had mentioned many times in 1491, how stupid it was to sail west to go east.")

          So a croquet game of that magnitude needs these rules once everyone is through the first double wicket: 1. The winning player never gets an extra turn even after going though wickets.
          2. The last place player gets an extra turn every time even if they don't go through a wicket.

          It was a family game, so winning was only half the fun. Preventing the other players from winning was just as rewarding.

          Reply

          • glen

            It was a family game, so winning was only half the fun. Preventing the other players from winning was just as rewarding.

            This is the essence of croquet and just about every board game.

            Reply

    • Chet_Manly