How to Make it Through Your First Thanksgiving Away From Home

For people finding their way in a new city, Thanksgiving might seem like an obvious time to leave town and embrace the creature comforts of time spent with family. But for some, sticking out the holiday in a new home can lead to new friends and great experiences. 

After studying at the University of North Carolina, Daniel Sircar worked for a few years in his home state. But he always had his eye on New York City, the city he considered the “media capital of the world.” In fall 2014, he got a job in the Big Apple as a multimedia editor and producer at NBC.

It wasn’t the easiest landing. Sircar had moved on November 1 with just a single suitcase and his camera bag. He didn’t have a dresser or lamp in his bedroom, nor a single pot or pan with which to cook. He slept in a sleeping bag on top of a mattress on the floor.

Since he was still so new in town, Sircar only had a few friends in the city. As Thanksgiving approached, he considered going home to North Carolina to celebrate. But after consulting his sisters and parents, who were scattered across the country, the family decided to reunite at Christmas. Unfortunately, Sircar’s backup plan wasn’t ideal.

“I was probably just going to eat a cold pizza at my apartment by myself,” he says.

New Friends to the Rescue 

A few weeks before the holiday, however, two of Sircar’s closest friends in the city – a friend from school and her boyfriend – saved the day. They invited him to a dinner their friend, a food photographer, was hosting at his apartment in Brooklyn. Sircar didn’t need much convincing to come along. And when he got an email detailing the full menu planned – which included two kinds of turkey, a house cocktail and a smorgasbord of delicious sides and appetizers – he was completely sold on the idea. 

“The fact that it was going to be this epic spread was the metaphorical cherry on top – or the cranberry spread on top, to be more seasonal,” he says.

The apartment was warm and inviting, a “light at the end of the tunnel” after Sircar’s first rough few weeks in New York. The host had invited his family. As relatives chopped vegetables in the kitchen, children played around the apartment and others watched football on TV, the place felt like home.

“It wasn’t just a bunch of broke, sad millennials sitting around trying to collectively eat a pumpkin custard out of a tin. It was a proper family affair,” he says.

Since last Thanksgiving, Sircar moved to Prospect Heights and has a kitchen, friendly neighbors and the city feels like home.

Finding a Bit of Home in a New Town

Katie Gray moved to New York for an internship early last fall. Since she’d planned to take two weeks off for Christmas, she knew she needed to stay in town for Thanksgiving. The two guys she was living with in Williamsburg invited her to celebrate the holiday in Boston. However, the day before she was to drive north with them, weather reports predicted a big snowstorm.. Braving potentially treacherous roads didn’t seem like a good idea.

“I just decided I was going to stay in New York and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade,” she says. 

But Gray’s first Thanksgiving away from family was much more interesting than she expected. The same day she dropped out of the Boston trip, her father told her that a few people from Bowling Green, her hometown, were going to be in New York for the holiday. When she texted one of the guys from the group, he invited her to spend the day with them. The next morning, she joined the eight Kentuckians for dinner at Peter Luger Steak House in Williamsburg.

“It was really nice to meet all of them and get a little piece of home because I hadn’t been home in months,” she says. 

Later in the day, she joined the group for the Rockettes’ Radio City Christmas Spectacular performance and a basketball game at Madison Square Garden, where Western Kentucky University’s team was playing. The next day, she met up with a few people for a performance of Kinky Boots on Broadway. In the evening, she received an invite to a Friendsgiving celebration with fellow architects in Queens. Gray is an only child, and spending her first Thanksgiving away from her parents was initially daunting, but she said going solo proved surprisingly rewarding.

“I had such a fun time. I thought I was going to be eating McDonald’s in my apartment,” she says. 

Gray now lives in Nashville and is adjusting to life in a new city again. She’s still in touch with many of the friends she made during that New York Thanksgiving. In Tennessee, she’s befriended many of her colleagues who have been showing her around town after work. 

“If you’ve ever heard of Southern hospitality, it’s very true. Everyone’s really nice,” Gray says. 

Though she’ll be reuniting with her parents at her grandmother’s house in Madisonville for Thanksgiving this year, she said the idea of spending the holiday on her own sometime in the future doesn’t scare her – and others needn’t find the idea intimidating either.

“Just be a little more outgoing and have an open mind. You can meet some really interesting people, go to some great new places and have a fantastic time even if you’re away from family,” she says.

This story was first published in 2015, but we fact-checked and updated it.