Many De Soto High School students have different traditions that they have to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.

Senior Alyssa Perry often spends her Thanksgiving break traveling. If she chooses not to travel, she celebrates at her grandma’s house.

“I’ll make some side dishes and she [her grandma] will usually make me vegan stuffing,” Perry said.

Some students celebrate with both their immediate and extended family.  

“For me, I have a really big family,” said junior Audrey Zubenel. “My mom has eight siblings so we always gather at one of our houses and just have a big feast.”

With her immediate family, Zubenel takes a walk around Loose Park in Kansas City after they eat Thanksgiving dinner.

Zubenel also helps her mom make the food including stuffing and mashed potatoes.

Junior Lane Hileman celebrates Thanksgiving not only with her family but also with friends.

“On Thanksgiving I do a tradition of “friendsgiving,” and so I have my closest friends over and we all bring different appetizers or main courses and desserts and just share it with each other,” Hileman said.

She also is sure to celebrate with both sides of her family and makes pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes to share.

Some students travel to their family’s houses for dinner, while others, including junior Arianna Carlos, host Thanksgiving dinner at their house.

“My mom’s sister and her family come over. I help my mom out with cooking and we like to make pumpkin muffins,” Carlos said.

Carlos also has non-traditional foods at Thanksgiving such as rice because her family likes to incorporate it into most of their meals.

Carlos’s parents moved here from Mexico in the 1980’s. Before coming here, her mom didn’t know how to cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal, so she had to learn over the years.

There are a variety of Thanksgiving traditions that students have already developed and will continue to do for years to come.