It's kind of a big deal ...

There's regular Thanksgiving, and then there's Italian Thanksgiving. What sort of stuff can you expect when the biggest food holiday of the year meets a culture with 2,000 years of world-famous cooking? Well ...

It starts early

Sure, a lot of people start prepping their Thanksgiving dishes the night before. Italian Thanksgiving, however, starts a full year in advance. By the time that everyone's doing dishes on one Thanksgiving, everyone's already brainstorming on what to cook for the next one.

The WHOLE family shows up

On one hand, you have to invite that one cousin. On the other hand, there's plenty of crowd to hide in.

Regular turkey is overrated

Does anyone actually enjoy roasting a whole turkey these days? It feels like you're practically fighting the other people for some of the drumsticks and wings. Meanwhile, roast lamb, duck, and mushroom stuffed turkey breasts will have people fighting for the leftovers, if there are any.

So. Much. Pasta. 

There's no such thing as too much pasta, but if there were, Thanksgiving would come close. Butternut squash ravioli, garlic butter tortellini, and at least two different types of noodle casserole. And that's just one course of the meal. 

Fried food galore

Stuff and fried green olives? Absolutely. Fried eggplant in tomato spread? Yes please. Fried soup? We don't know how that's possible, but sure. 

It's a cheesy time ...

Asiago, permiggiano, pecorino, homemade mozzarella, gorgonzola, the list goes on! 

You don't need to buy food until January

Forget the 12 Days of Christmas, December is 31 days of Thanksgiving leftovers. 

Ultimately, it's about the family

All of these celebrations don't mean as much without the people who make them special. While big Thanksgivings might not be an option for people right now, that's just more time to start planning next year's dishes! 

What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving? Let us know in the comments!