Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Target. All opinions are 100% my own. Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Target.
Thanksgiving is my kind of holiday! It’s a day set aside to gather with as many of your relatives as possible, sit together around the same table, enjoying each other’s company and good food! That just doesn’t get to happen often enough in my family!
Of course, it is also a day to be thankful for the abundant blessings that we have. As I get older, the holidays hold even more meaning for me. I guess it’s because as I get older, I have that many more memories of holidays past! That virtual scrapbook in my mind is bursting at the binding!
And don’t you agree that our own unique family traditions are what makes our holidays special? Every family has Thanksgiving Day Dinner traditions and today I want to share mine with you.
Every. Single. Thanksgiving Dinner of my life, there was a relish dish. With these five things:
stuffed celery
rose radishes
black olives
green olives
sweet pickles
And to me, it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it! To be honest, I probably passed this tray off to the right without taking anything from it when I was little. But I definitely have memories of wanting to “help” my mom on Thanksgiving morning and helping her assemble the stuffed celery was my job for many years!
Have you ever heard of celery stuffed with cream cheese and nuts? It must be a western Pennsylvania thing. You know, like the Cookie Table! I now live in central Pennsylvania and no one here (that I have asked) knew about stuffed celery either. Except a co-worker who is originally from western Pennsylvania!
If you want to make stuffed celery, all you do is spread some softened cream cheese into cleaned, uniformly-cut pieces of celery. Then just press the stuffed side down into the chopped walnuts.
To make the radish roses, trim the stem end from cleaned radishes and make small cuts into the sides of the radish with a paring knife. Let the radishes soak in a bowl of ice water to open the “petals”.
This year, a new tradition begins. My daughter and her husband are hosting their very first Thanksgiving Dinner. I’m really excited about this and you better believe there will be a relish tray with stuffed celery on it.
I bought the tray that is in the photos from Target for my daughter so that the relish tray tradition can continue in style! Another generation will be passing around that lovely tray of stuffed celery and rose radishes for year to come!
I would love to hear from you. Does your family have a side dish, appetizer or dessert that is different or unique? Have you ever heard of cream cheese filled celery?
I’ve never heard of stuffed celery either, but it actually sounds good! I like celery with peanut butter and raisins… That tray is gorgeous.
Thanks Amy! And I love tray, too. It’s going to be hard to part with it when I give it to my daughter!
Oh love stuffed celery, brings back memories for me. My mom always made those as appetizers! Love the serving dishes from Target, so many great things!
Yay, another stuffed celery-making family!
Cream cheese filled celery is well known to me, but adding the nuts is a great idea that I hadn’t heard of before! I have the little Target cupcake stands you show in the picture. They add a nice touch at each place setting for dessert!
Maureen, you’ll have to try it with nuts!
well im all in for the olives and pickles but the celery and radishes ill pass what a great tradition and memory it makes enjoy your Thanksgiving love the silver serving piece might have to go pick one up
Anj, lol! I won’t make you eat the radishes and celery! Yes, I love that tray. I might have to go get another one to keep!
I have had stuffed celery, but never with nuts on it. Great idea. I am in love with all of the platters and with the table scape!
We always had pecan pie every Thanksgiving and still do!
Drooling over those serving dishes!
Our must have is celery stuffed with cheez whiz. I have never heard of your version, but I bet I would love it.
What a great Thanksgiving tradition. My kids love celery stuffed with or dipped into almost anything. I will have to try some cream cheese and nuts. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Adding the nuts to the celery is a great idea…I have never done that. My Mom used to make stuffed celery every holiday. You brought back some very good memories…thanks!
First for me on the stuffed celery too. Love the serving trays.
we do an olive and pickle tray too!!
Everything looks so good. I cannot believe Thanksgiving is approaching so rapidly.
We love stuffed celery. I think our signature would be the blt cheeseball. Yum
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for all of the reasons you stated above. I also enjoy spending the day before and Thanksgiving morning preparing delicious food and setting a lovely table. My mother in-law often snacks on celery filled with peanut butter but the cream cheese and nuts sounds much better than that. I’ve never tried either. All of those dishes look so pretty ~ I need to head on over to Target to grab one or two! Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanks Lori! Target has such pretty things! Happy Thanksgiving!
Love that gorgeous white platter! And the celery looks tasty too. 🙂
It is pretty! I might have to go back and get one!
I love all the great things you can find at Target. Those serving dishes are nice!
Gotta love Target!
This is a beautiful tradition that looks yummy too! We might have to start something like this for our Thanksgiving dinners too!
Thanks Jennifer! It is yummy and the best part is, those items aren’t too filling, leaving room for the actual dinner!
Yummm Stuffed Celery! I love making Radish roses also.
We don’t call it relish, but we usually have an antipasto platter for family dinners with olives, pickles and some cured meat and salami. It is nice and light start to a big dinner and you can snack on the leftovers the rest of the time.
I grew up eating tons of olives, radishes, and celery what a great idea to stuff them. I’ll have to try this at the holidays since we eat a lot of it. it’s great to have a slight different twist. thanks for sharing. 🙂
Your thanksgiving ideas sound wonderful and soo unique.. Loved the radish tip; always wanted to know how they make the roses… we don’t really have anything special; just love being together as a family
I love Thanksgiving because of the reasons you stated above.. it brings my family together… Now I didn’t know that Target had so many beautiful dishes.. I need a new Turkey Platter since last year my daughter dropped ours during clean up and it broke this one had been in my family for 40 years.. but its ok I told her its time to start with a new tray from our family… that will be passed down to my oldest..
A relish dish is definitely something we do too. Homemade pickles, cinnamon pickled watermelon rind and more all make an appearance each Thanksgiving.
I love Target and buy pretty much everything there!
Oh how lovely! My grandmother used to always bring the celery and cream cheese.. but I have to say we’ve never added nuts. What a fun idea.. I’m going to try that!
I’ve heard of it…I’m from Lancaster PA! our family’s tradition is PA Dutch apple and pumpkin pie! We all live in GA now though!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I liked the decorating ideas I found in your post.
I’m from PA, too! Central, though. No stuffed celery for us, but it looks good!
And I LOVE Target! I would definitely love to outfit my entire Thanksgiving spread there.
a plate full of healthy yuminess my kind of food!
We are all about the sweet potato casserole with the marshmallows on top. I’m pretty sure my husband would sit in a corner and cry if this wasn’t served at Thanksgiving.
I love those gold ear tipped dears! That would look nice on my tv stand.
I love all your decorations! So pretty!
That silver tray is perfect for veggies! We’ve always had celery stuffed with cream cheese or peanut butter. I’m not a nut fan, but I’m sure it’s a nice addition. 🙂 Great photos- made me want to eat that whole tray and then go buy all those pretty platters!
That try is gor-geous! Your display is really pretty!
Such pretty platters! I think I need to go out and get one!
We always have stuffed celery! As a matter of fact I was shocked to see a your pic of it and that’s how I came across your website! I thought we were the only ones that did stuffed celery. We do some with walnuts and some with chopped black olives (which is my fav). I’m in Kansas City, so I guess it’s not just Pennsylvannia. Happy Holidays.
I get the majority of my home and kitchen decor from Target. I could get in trouble in that store!
We always stuff celery with jarred pimento cheese or Old English cheese spread. We’re in Kansas!
OMG sweet pickles and olives! You have found your way into my heart. This tray looks yummy. I will have to do one for xmas. Thanks for sharing.