Thanksgiving, “Friendsgiving” or both? We asked CSUN students how they celebrate and found that many Matadors enjoy each of these events: While Thanksgiving is typically spent with family, Friendsgiving, as the name implies, has become a cherished gathering with friends and “framily” (friends-like-family). A number of clubs and groups on campus have even adopted Friendsgiving. At CSUN Newsroom, we loved hearing how people blend their own cultural traditions and favorite foods to turn this American holiday into unique and personal celebrations of community, multiculturalism and diversity. Happy Holidays, Matadors!
Warning: The food descriptions will make you very hungry!
“This year, I’ll be celebrating both Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving! I’m excited to have that balance of spending time with my friends and family that are really important to me. To Friendsgiving, I plan on bringing mashed potatoes and stuffing, keeping it traditional — which you can never go wrong with. As for Thanksgiving, I’m Filipina so I will make lumpia (traditional, fried spring rolls) with my mom!” — Annie Duncan, sophomore, business marketing
“I typically only celebrate Friendsgiving. I turned 21 this year and just came back from studying abroad in Germany — I was also traveling around Europe — and I fell in love with (the cocktail) Aperol spritz. I’ll be making a cranberry Aperol spritz for a little get-together with my hometown friends. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to spend quality time with [those friends], so it’s really nice that I will finally get the chance to, especially during the holidays. In previous years, I have typically made Colombian empanadas,which everyone loves — so, I might bring that back, too.” — Paula Contreras, senior, entertainment media management / linguistics
“My plans for Thanksgiving are to visit family that recently moved to Texas and spend a few days with them in their new home. My parents split and remarried, so I have two stepfamilies. I’ll spend one Thanksgiving with one of them, and then spend the next one with the other. One [family] does it big, the other does it small. A typical Thanksgiving for us is just like any other birthday party, but with more people and turkey or ham. Lots of catching up with family we don’t see that often, making of plans to get together again and spending the whole day together at one house.” — Francis Louie Elgincolin, senior, computer information technology
“Every Thanksgiving, me and [my] family have a tradition to gather at one of our houses and have Thanksgiving lunch. Before we eat, we all gather around in a circle and say what we are thankful for, whatever it may be. We have multiple types of turkey, where they are cooked in different ways — one year someone brought a fried turkey! [Also] the standard stuffing, ham and all sorts of side dishes like mashed potatoes, collard greens, potato salad. Of course, there are things more enriched in our culture, us being Hispanic, there are [also] things like tamales.” — Juan Daniel Perez, senior, psychology
“For family Thanksgiving, I’m planning on going to my hometown, Clovis, which is about three to four hours up north, and we are planning on getting a bunch of food like tamales and of course turkey and just be around family and food. Those are two of the best things in life, and my sister just gave birth a month ago! So, we will be [focused on] the baby.” — Cristina Espinosa junior, cinema and television arts
“We usually have a big feast, kind of like a small party. We have all the fixings of course, and we watch the football games. My mom makes some good turkey, but there is one specific [dish] that she makes — it doesn’t use eggs, so it’s all about pumpkin and cinnamon. It’s like a take on pumpkin pie — kind of like pumpkin bread, in a sense.” [Editor’s note: We’re going to need that recipe, Alanm! 🙂 ]— Alanm Magana Gonzalez, junior, music education
“This year, like every year since the pandemic, I will be celebrating Thanksgiving with my parents, sister, grandparents, uncle and my dog. I’m not the best chef, so I leave the cooking to my amazing mom. She’s going to be making the classic Thanksgiving dinner. We’re going to be eating turkey, ham, potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and mac and cheese, along with a few [other] sides. Of course we’ll also have my favorite Thanksgiving dessert, pumpkin pie! We like small and intimate celebrations with the family before Christmas. I look forward to this time of the year, where we can come together and spend time with our loved ones.” — Jose Castillon, junior, kinesiology / sports studies
