For many, Thanksgiving is a time to show appreciation for those we love while we feast on our favorite foods, find liberation in libations, and cheer for a football team from the comfort of our couches. As for the rest of us, the holiday promises plenty of quality time with our kitchens, timers and patience. While breaking tradition might seem outlandish, there are more than a few reasons why going out to eat on Thanksgiving could be a choice everyone will be grateful for.

1. You don’t have to clean.

With great parties comes great responsibility. If you elect to dine out, there’s no pre-Thanksgiving cardinal cleaning or after-party polishing to attend to on your day off. It’s a vacation day, after all – you could sleep in, spend time with your family, or even do nothing.

2. Dirty dishes don’t exist.

If you don’t know what your kitchen looks like after your extended family has had an appetizer, soup, salad, dinner and dessert, this is an ignorance that should be clung to with complete fervor. If you do know, it’s time to start the recovery process of forgetting. Dining out means the only time you have to interact with a dish is when you’re eating
something off it.

3. There will be no need to creatively repurpose turkey in every recipe for the next week.

Egg and turkey scrambles? Turkey sandwiches? Turkey soup? Turkey lasagna? While you’re at it, why not add some color to your bowl of vanilla ice cream with half a can of jellied cranberry sauce? If you’re not looking forward to the Thanksgiving week meal remixes, spending the holiday out solves the problem.

4. … and you won’t feel guilty about inevitably throwing away leftovers.

The people who protested that last year’s turkey was too small and that they were assuredly going to be having thirds this year are always mysteriously absent from the kitchen when the leftover menu is in full swing, meaning that the fate of Thanksgiving dinner always results in wasted food or a science project in the back of the refrigerator.

5. There will be zero complaints about your cooking, and you won’t have to pretend to like anyone else’s culinary experiments either.

Some people like their mashed potatoes lumpy, some people like them creamy, some people like them with the skins mixed in, and you’re pretty sure you just heard someone describe their gravy as “watery” at the end of the table. Meanwhile, you’re politely chewing your way through the tiniest forkful of your cousin’s infamous “green bean surprise.” Imagine a dinner table where none of these situations are present.

6. No grocery shopping.

Every year – much like our holiday shopping ambitions – we resolve to start early. Somehow, our best intentions and planning culminate in a frantic last-minute dash from aisle-to-aisle, only to have to make a return trip because we ran out of something.

7. There’s something for everyone.

Your sister’s son is only eating chicken nuggets that are perfectly round, your mother is gluten-free, your father is low-carb, your brother-in-law is “trying the paleo thing,” your daughter has just declared herself vegetarian and wordlessly left a package of Tofurkey on the counter for you to figure out, and your last Google search is “how to run away without leaving a trace.” Sound familiar? Not this year.

8. Alcohol is expensive at restaurants.

This might not seem like a perk, but the price tag of restaurant cocktails might be enough to put a damper on that uncle – you know the one – whose harmless comments turn into alcohol-sponsored rants that have half of the family hiding their faces by the end of the night.

9. Break free from the television.

Sure, watching parades and games are a fun tradition, but how many times has one of the few days where everyone is in the same room devolved into a silent staring contest with the television? Getting everyone out of the house and around a table ensures quality time spent with the ones you love.

10. There’s no chance of ruining dinner.

You’re chatting with the cousin you haven’t seen in a few months, suddenly your glass of mid-shelf red blend starts tasting like a Château Lafite, and someone volunteered to help peel potatoes – life is good. Then you hear the three words that no host ever wants to hear: “Is something burning?”

11. The host gets to sit down for once.

If you’re usually the host, enough said. But if your mother, grandma or uncle has been expected to entertain all these years, maybe treating them to a labor-free holiday out is just what they need.

12. A full Thanksgiving dinner is merely a phone call away.

If you’re ready to make a reservation, the following local favorite restaurants will be open for Thanksgiving: Corked in Bethlehem (610.625.9463), Melt in Center Valley (610.798.9000), The Hamilton Kitchen and Bar in Allentown (610.433.3535), and Blue Grillhouse in Bethlehem (610.691.8400). You can also check out lehighvalleygoodtaste.com for a selection of Lehigh Valley’s finest restaurants.