1. Cinnamon Butter Baked Carrots

The beauty of this side dish is its simplicity. All you need are whole carrots: Drench them in butter, sugar and cinnamon, then bake until tender. The yummy golden snack is beautiful on its own, but a sprig of parsley will make it look like you know what you’re doing. 

2. Hasselback Butternut Squash

You’ve probably heard of Sweden’s signature Hasselback potatoes — an Instagram classic — but have you tried butternut squash cut and sliced into the patented Hasselback style? That’s right, Hasselback butternut squash has everything you love about the original but with more color and beta carotene. This recipe includes both maple-pecan and brown butter sage versions so diners can choose between the sweet and the savory. 

3. Stuffing Muffins

This is usually a way to handle Thanksgiving leftovers, but we love stuffing muffins so much we’ll eat them on Thursday. This recipe is cornbread-based, but it should work with your traditional family stuffing recipe too: Just add those tasty morsels to cornbread batter and bake ’em up. If you love stuffing too much to get creative with it, just make these muffins with the leftovers on Black Friday. 

4. Brussels Sprout Latkes

No, we’re not going to recommend heavy duty potato pancakes when you’re most likely going to be all starched out this Thanksgiving. Instead, these latkes are lightened with Brussels sprouts. Lightly pan-fried ’til crispy and golden, this recipe adds leek, maple syrup, Dijon mustard and Greek yogurt to the mix for some real cross-cultural decadence.

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1. Over the Moon

After seeing visions of her lost mother in her dreams and dreading her father’s remarriage, Fei Fei decides to build a rocket to the moon on a mission to prove the existence of a legendary moon goddess, Chang’e, who pines for her dearly departed soul mate. It’s the child’s last-ditch effort to thwart her father’s union and a fun way to look at a very common reality for kids everywhere. The Netflix original is streaming now. 

2. The Borrowers

Based on the 1952 novel by famed English children’s author Mary Norton, The Borrowers follows the lives of small people who, after years of living under strict rules within the walls of the “human beans,” embark on a journey of discovery that includes befriending a full-sized boy and confronting an evil lawyer. This fun 1997 film is great for the entire family as it cleverly shows how the smalls get one over on the bigs.

3. Kannathil Muthamittal

This Indian Tamil-language musical war saga was adapted from the Sujatha Rangarajan short story, “Amuthavum Avanum.” Titled A Peck on the Cheek in English, the award-winning 2002 film follows a girl who learns on her ninth birthday she was adopted from a refugee camp. Once discovering her mother’s whereabouts in Sri Lanka, young Amudha’s Indian parents agree to take her there, only to discover she’s the child of militants in a touching and raw film that focuses a geopolitical lens on universal family dynamics. 

4. August: Osage County

What is family without dysfunction? August: Osage County digs deep into the trope with an Oscar-laden cast that includes Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper and Julia Roberts, following three sisters to Oklahoma where they confront a bevy of old skeletons after their father disappears. Their search for him and their souls brings a little more clarity, but does not lead to the happiest of endings. Which is life.  

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1. Marco Polo

Between different time zones, conflicting schedules, and, honestly, not being up for a full-blown conversation, getting together for a video call right now can be really taxing. Marco Polo solves all of these problems. It’s a messaging app that works a bit like Snapchat — think of it as a video walkie-talkie or a voicemail for videos — and it’s all the rage with celebs like Ice T, Pink and their contacts. Each person can watch and respond when it works for them, meaning no more looming calendar invites or worries about how best to cut your inebriated cousin off.

2. Holiday Care Package

Just because family can’t (or at least shouldn’t) be together this year doesn’t mean you can’t make your presence felt. Holiday care packages can be a pleasant surprise for loved ones and leave room for you to get both creative and personalized. From chocolates and jams to recipes and toilet paper, this could be a new tradition for times to come. Here’s a yummy one … or if you’re feeling ambitious, make your own!   

3. Jitsi Meet

Let’s face it, despite a hard shift to digital, many of our grandparents aren’t adapting. So when social distancing this holiday, you might want to introduce them to Jitsi Meet. It’s like the diet version of Zoom and Google Hangouts. The video conferencing platform is free, doesn’t require an account, works on most browsers and has a downloadable app on Android and iOS. Copy, paste and share your Jitsi URL with whomever you want to see and, quite seamlessly, they will appear. It’s the easiest and fastest way to video call today. 

1. Chuseok

Korea’s September festival, also known as Hangawi, is a three-day celebration where families return to their ancestral towns to exchange gifts in gratitude for the harvest. In a memorial ceremony called charye, they offer thanks to their ancestors and then chow down en masse on dishes that include freshly harvested rice and fruit. If Thanksgiving has ever disappointed you because it doesn’t involve getting presents, this might be the answer. 

2. Crop Over

Originally Barbadian, this summer festival celebrating the end of the sugar harvest has spread to neighboring Caribbean nations as well. It’s less family banquet and more island-wide party, with Carnival-style dance parades. The most productive male and female cane cutters of the season are traditionally crowned king and queen of the festival — something you can adapt for your home by having everyone get in a circle and take turns recounting the year’s brightest moments.  

3. Fiesta de la Vendimia

Or the Grape Harvest Festival, if your Spanish is a little rusty. As you can tell by the name, the crop of the hour in this cultural celebration is the grape (and wine, of course). Dating back to 17th century Argentina, this autumn festival attracts tourists from around the world with dancing, parades and fireworks. From January to March, the city of Mendoza parties up to the main event — a beauty pageant where the Queen of Vendimia is selected. While we don’t recommend asking who the prettiest family member is, you can make this Thanksgiving a wine-only affair.