5 ways to avoid conversational catastrophe at Thanksgiving

You may not realize it but when you’re sitting around the table, enjoying some good food, sharing stories, shooting the breeze this Thanksgiving, you and your family are balancing a very delicate line between casual banter and a complete conversational catastrophe filled with political opinions, prejudices, and shit talking.

A conversation can go from the last project you worked on at the office to a debate over gun control at the drop of a wishbone. Yeah, everyone saw cousin Ben’s status about Mike Pence three months ago but there are ways to avoid it being brought into the conversation. So just… tread lightly my friends, stick to our prompt of topics to discuss that a will keep you and the fam in friendly, lukewarm water throughout the holiday:

1. Jim Harbaugh

Ah yes, the man we all love to hate. Assuming your family consists of only Buckeyes, keep up the positive moral with a long string of embarrassing facts about Harbaugh. Gold: Did you know he was featured in a hip-hop video? Read up

2. Booze-related Christmas events

Now this one could be tricky—you wouldn’t want to drudge up Aunt Teresa’s former lover, Captain Morgan—but it is possible. Columbus is bursting with holiday drinking excursions which present the perfect opportunities for you and your family to congregate once again. The last time grandma was drunk was the summer of ’92 and you’ve all been dying to make it happen again, right?! Make plans

3. Holiday shopping agenda

With the turkey out of the way, it’ll be pedal to the medal Christmas. What will you be getting your wife? What does your boyfriend want? Where will you be shopping? E-commerce, brick and mortar? The Q’s are endless but will you be armed with the A’s? Come up with your holiday shopping plan ahead of Thanksgiving to seem prepared and also provide some inspo for your less informed kin. Here is our complete list of #Shop614 local businesses.

4. How great Columbus is

The heart of it all is also a destination on the top of many national lists. Here are a few things Columbus has been recognized for in the last year:

New report: Columbus 2nd best place to live post college graduation

People Magazine thinks ice cream in Columbus is among the nation’s best

Columbus kinda geeky: 19 out of 25 best tech cities in nation

Dublin ranked 6th best place to live in US

11 OSU Programs Ranked as Best in America

5. Embrace the silence

A lot of things…most things you try to bring up in a conversation have great potential to result in a screaming match over differing opinions. When in doubt, embrace the silence and exchange completely neutral, non-politically charged smiles with your loved ones.

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