Real talks? We don’t all agree that Thanksgiving is a holiday worth celebrating. After all, its colonialist roots resulted in the genocide and marginalization of indigenous people—and later, imported and immigrating people—the effects of which persist to this day.
So, yeah...there’s that.
But as black folks have been doing for centuries (see: soul food), even if we’re dubious on the sentiment, we’ve managed to bright-side Thanksgiving, appreciating it as a time to celebrate feasting, fellowship, four-day weekends and, in some cases, fashion.
Case in point: we did some random trolling of some of our faves on Thanksgiving, to see how they celebrated the holiday. And they did not disappoint, from donning aprons and getting their best recipes on the stove to getting atop a float at the 2018 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, to...getting atop the table itself.
But the main theme? In spite of everything, it’s always great to give thanks for another year with friends and fam (and framily).
For instance, here’s our favorite super-woke ingenue Yara Shahidi, keeping it real with her culturally-blended clan while asking “Pumpkin Spice, who?”
And then, there was Oprah, reminding us that it takes a village (or, in her case, one tremendous chef and three smokers) to both make Thanksgiving dinner and welcome home her now college-aged “daughters” from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa.
Tamron Hall took matters into her own hands, tasked with making the mac-and-cheese for her family’s gathering in Texas. As we know, this is not a task assigned lightly, so we’re guessing she’s correct when she says it’s not “struggle mac-and-cheese!”
For supermodel Winnie Harlow, it was all about the pie—pumpkin pie, that is. (Yeah, we know. We paused, too.) We’re not sure if there was a sweet potato shortage in Atlanta, Ga. this year, but Harlow was definitely having a gorgeously good time with her family—including adorable goddaughter, Samia!
This Thanksgiving likely couldn’t have been more special for Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, who are still basking in the glow of the recent birth of their “miracle baby,” daughter Kaavia. The result of a successful surrogacy after years of trying to conceive, baby Kaavia joins Union’s three stepsons, ages 11-17. This year, the over-the-moon power couple had even more to be thankful for.
For the very talented family of legendary entertainer Diana Ross, it was a reunion, of sorts, as the clan returned to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, 39 years after the diva performed atop a big apple in November of 1979.
For their return to the parade, Ross asked her attending children—who included Tracee Ellis, Rhonda, Chudney, Ross and Evan and their partners and children—to wear all white, making for a snowy fashion statement on an especially brisk day in New York City.
Of course, fashion-lover Tracee Ellis Ross took advantage of the theme, donning pieces Gucci, Dapper Dan (for Gucci) and Balenciaga to create her head-to-toe white look—and peep the bedazzled Gucci Flasktrek sneakers.
And last but never least, supermodel Naomi Campbell blessed us with a visual feast this Thanksgiving, replacing the turkey with a slay only she could deliver. Styled by British Vogue’s Edward Enninful and made up by Pat McGrath for a shot by Steven Meisel, Campbell’s Thanksgiving greeting was sweet, but mostly just reminded us to put the leftovers down, and get our post-Turkey Day workout in.