A feast for the family
In a year when, globally, it seems as if there is little to be thankful for, it makes us a lot more appreciative of our friends and wha¯nau. That’ s why some Kiwis are embracing Thanksgiving –because that’ s what the American celebration is all about, writes Serena Solomon.
When Courtney Pomare’s American au pair was homesick last year, the family decided to celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving.
The au pair made some American dishes such as a sweet pumpkin pie that Pomare wasn’t so keen on. There was also a giant turkey. During the dinner, everyone took turns to say what they were thankful for that year.
Though the au pair returned to the United States in February, Pomare is continuing the tradition as a way to spend time with friends during what has been a tough year, and to thank the six staff members from the business she runs with her husband.
‘‘I think Christmas is around the family side of things and ... Thanksgiving for us is more about the friend side of things and getting everyone together,’’ said Pomare, who lives in Pukekohe.
Inspired by an American connection, movies, social media or just because, some Kiwis are adopting the American holiday, and putting their own spin on it.
Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, when Americans typically host a big feast with extended family, with a turkey and the idea of gratefulness. It is often considered the biggest and most inclusive holiday in the country, as well as the nation’s busiest travel period.
‘‘There’s no religious element to it, no gift-giving or chocolate bunnies,’’ says Amy Johns, 40, from Auckland, who has celebrated the holiday for two decades. ‘‘It is just about people and being together.’’
Johns’ family began celebrating the occasion at the end of the 1980s when her mother Valda, who was adopted, met her biological father. He was an American serviceman who came to New Zealand during World War II.
‘‘It was a really positive integration into family and understanding of American culture,’’ says Johns, who also became close with her American grandfather.
With a new connection to America, Valda began putting on a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
Over the years, a core group of around 20 people – mostly Kiwis plus some American expats in need of a Thanksgiving table – has gathered each year.
The menu includes what Johns describes as some ‘‘crazy marshmallow dishes’’ that are considered traditional, such as mandarin jelly with cream cheese and marshmallows.
Lauren Jensen, 31, picked up the idea for Thanksgiving about four years ago from social media.
She wanted something to celebrate the end of the year with the bible study group she ran with her husband in Feilding, in Manawatu¯. They had a feast of seafood chowder, a roast meal (that wasn’t turkey), and a dessert of chocolate and berries.
‘‘It was more New Zealand-style food,’’ says Jensen, adding she has tried an American-style sweet pumpkin pie and describes it as ‘‘funky’’.
Throughout the year, the bible study group wrote down the positive things they had experienced and during the meal these were read out.
‘‘[It] was an awesome reminder of all the lovely things that we can be blessed with over the course of the year that we often forget,’’ she says.
Jensen hasn’t celebrated Thanksgiving since that initial dinner, but this year she is having a Thanksgiving dessert evening after the kids go to bed. The blessing jar will feature again.
Erin Kelsall, 32, will be celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time.
Living in Hamilton, she has no American connection. Nor do any of the dozen or so friends who are coming to the dinner.
‘‘Because Covid has caused this year to be so different, I feel like I haven’t seen a lot of my friends, which is unusual,’’ says Kelsall, adding that it is something just to ‘‘brighten everyone’s spirits’’.
Kelsall has rarely seen a turkey at the supermarket, so a few roast chickens will be standing in.
All the guests will bring a dish to the meal. Like many Kiwis, Kelsall is vaguely familiar with the American holiday through films. She didn’t know the reason behind the holiday, but she doesn’t consider that too important because, for her, the meal is not a traditional Thanksgiving, but rather a ‘‘Friendsgiving’’.
Most American schoolchildren are taught that the first Thanksgiving was a friendly three-day feast in 1621, between the pilgrims – some of America’s first European settlers – and Native Americans from the Wampanoag tribe. It was to celebrate a successful autumn harvest.
The reality wasn’t so rosy. Although some sort of meal or meeting probably did occur, it was also the beginning of American colonisation where European diseases desolated Native American tribes. Wars against European Americans ultimately ended with tribes confined to small patches of land called reservations.
An annual Thanksgiving celebration wasn’t a concept until it was declared a holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, during America’s bitter civil war. The largely forgotten events of 1621 were added to the holiday’s origins during the campaign to designate a national day of gratitude.
A small number of Americans say they do not celebrate the day because of the controversy but, by far, the majority still do.
Some Americans, and a growing number of Kiwis, have turned up to the yearly Thanksgiving meal put on by Morepork BBQ, according to Ryan Hammond, one of the restaurant’s owners who is from the US state of New Jersey. This year the event is at Morepork’s Kumeu location. Already, 100 people have booked.
‘‘I think it is more about curiosity,’’ Hammond says, on why Kiwis with limited US connections come to the event, which is in its fourth year.
The menu features turkey, ham, cornbread stuffing, and cranberry sauce, as well as Hammond’s favourite dish: green bean casserole with a creamy mushroom sauce topped with crispy onions.
‘‘We do candied yams too, but we don’t add the marshmallows,’’ he says of another seemingly savoury dish that became sweet even though it is served as a turkey side.
‘‘That would be taking it a bit too far for the Kiwis here.’’
Dessert is a sweet pumpkin pie.
‘‘I love the food, and the leftovers are just as good,’’ Hammond says. Turkey sandwiches are a popular day-after snack.
But the centrepiece of the meal, the turkey, is a challenge to source every year because the birds are not as popular in New Zealand, he says.
For Kathy Guard, the end of November and heading into Christmas is the busiest time of the year. The owner of Rangiora’s Canter Valley, a supplier of free-range turkeys, has been in the turkey business for 20 years, and runs the farming and processing business with her husband Lachlan Dick.
‘‘We are seeing more interest in Thanksgiving,’’ Guard says. ‘‘It is a little like the other American customs that we take on, and American [expats] invite their New Zealand friends, and they celebrate’’.
Canter Valley sells to supermarkets, butchers and direct to customers. Most of those direct customers are American, have lived there, or have other close ties. But some do not have a connection.
Supermarkets are making sure they have turkeys in stock at the end of November, and not just December, to make sure they cater to the Thanksgiving crowd, Guard says.
‘‘What I’m saying is people are acknowledging [Thanksgiving] more.’’.
For Hammond, from Morepork BBQ, Thanksgiving starts the holiday season in America. After that day, Christmas parties and the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah whip the country into festive overdrive. It also gives most Americans the green light to put up Christmas decorations and trees.
‘‘You get to see your family so many times between Thanksgiving and Christmas,’’ Hammond says, ‘‘and everyone is so happy around the holidays, and it starts then.’’