The Holidays are quickly approaching, and first up is Thanksgiving. What a wonderful time of the year! Everything is done a little differently down here, and Thanksgiving is too. Whether this is your first Holiday Season here in Southwest Florida or you’ve been doing it for decades, it is the perfect opportunity to inject a little “Florida style” into your holiday traditions. Here are a few of our favorites, but we bet you can think up a few of your own too!

#1 Incorporate some Florida Food into the Meal. New York has pizza, Louisiana has jambalaya, and Florida has great dishes too! If you aren’t a Florida native, you may want to go easy on incorporating new dishes with something everyone will love, like key lime pie. An orange thanksgiving jello salad is delicious too. If you are ready for something really adventurous, try adding  fried gator tail as a side dish.

#2 Go to the Beach on Thanksgiving. You may be a little jealous as you see Northern friends and family members wearing nice sweaters and drinking hot cocoa on Thanksgiving. Well, you can make them jealous by making Thanksgiving a beach day! If your family eats the big meal later in the day, that leaves several hours beforehand to enjoy a nearby beach. If you eat Thanksgiving “dinner” early, you’ll enjoy walking off the extra calories along the shoreline at sunset.

#3 Eat Outside. The weather is wonderful this time of the year, barely any rain and the humidity has finally gone away. That makes it the perfect time to eat your meal outdoors. This doesn’t necessarily mean a picnic. If you have an outdoor seating area on your pool deck, patio, or lanai- eat there. You can set up large tables and chairs and everyone can eat, chat, and enjoy the breeze. Many Florida homes even have fully-functioning outdoor kitchens so you can cook out there too! If your home doesn’t have one of these yet, you should certainly considering adding one before the next big Holiday gathering.

If you need any area of your home updated or added too, like an outdoor kitchen, Beattie Development is the company to call. Give us a call at (239) 257-3295, stop by our showroom, or email us at office@beattiedev.com and one of our remodeling and design specialists will be in touch soon. Living the Florida lifestyle has never been easier when you design your outdoor options with Beattie Development!