Hello America! It’s me, Thanksgiving, a day to remember a time when the Pilgrims and Native Americans shared food.

We know that story has been embellished over the years but celebrating that special turkey dinner is now a 200-year tradition.

Sadly, I feel I’m in the shadow of my older, more popular sibling, Christmas.

The reasons are understandable. Last year, Covid robbed people of getting together at the biggest family celebration of the year, so people are anxious to put up Christmas trees and holiday lights.

Most of all, Christmas offers presents.

But I have a lot to offer you!

First, the food is outstanding on Thanksgiving. Turkeys are the main attraction, and they bring along their two favorite buddies – gravy and bread stuffing, or dressing as Southerners like to say.

In fact, people have taken this side dish to a culinary level unimaginable 200 years ago.

There’s oyster dressing, cornbread dressing, bread dressing, sausage dressing and even vegan dressing. People put everything in dressing from walnuts to pecans to cranberries. And dressing isn’t complete without its favorite companion, mashed potatoes.

Today’s the day when you can eat marshmallows as a main dish without any guilt. Any other day, you might feel a tad embarrassed to slather roasted marshmallows on a pan of sweet potatoes, but not today.

And desserts! Let’s examine those for a second. There’s pecan and apple pie and both bring along their favorite companion, a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

But the star of the dessert table is pumpkin pie. Nothing beats a slice of creamy, orange pumpkin pie with a big dollop of whipped cream on top.

I’ve seen pumpkin in coffee, candy and tea. There’s pumpkin vodka, ice cream, cookies, candles, room spray and car fresheners. You can thank me, Thanksgiving, for bringing pumpkin to your attention.

In all honesty, I’m not a fan of some of the side dishes. Green-bean casserole is one of them. At no other time of the year would you take two cans of green beans, drown them in cream-of-mushroom soup, dump an entire can of fried onion rings on top and serve that as a nutritious side dish.

Same goes with ambrosia. Mixing together coconut, pineapple, mandarin oranges, cherries and whipped cream and calling that a healthy side dish is stretching things a bit, don’t you think?

But they’re both yummy and a Thanksgiving tradition.

Thanksgiving isn’t complete without the smell of fresh, hot rolls. I know it’s tough to find time to mix yeast, flour and water to make home-made rolls the size of a softball, so it’s okay to open a box of pre-made rolls and stick them in the oven for 7 minutes. The smell’s still the same and you need something to sop up all that gravy.

And let’s not forget the decorations! Most of you can remember being in the school Thanksgiving play and either wearing a pilgrim hat or a headband with feathers. You can thank me for that memory.

If you have children, chances are good they drew at least one turkey using their hand as the template and you’re still displaying that on my day.

Just remember, without me, you wouldn’t have pumpkin pie, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and three, count ‘em three, NFL football games in one day.

But who am I kidding. Christmas is the big dog in this winter holiday fight. All I’m asking for is a smidge of respect, America.

So when you’re eating that turkey sandwich on Friday, turkey gumbo on Saturday, turkey quesadillas on Sunday and another turkey sandwich on Monday, you can thank me.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.