Holiday tunes already fill the airwaves and shopping centers all around are twinkling in decorative anticipation for your dollars. It would seem that Thanksgiving is but a speed bump to more consumerist celebrations.

But hark, dear readers! If this most American of holidays has got you snoozing (blame the turkey) read on for a delicious treat (layers of meat!). Jayplay knows what goes into a great Turkey Day (bourbon and brandy) and how to best share it with the family (give less stress than you receive.) And if dinnertime conversation turns foul, we’ve supplied you with a history lesson to share as an educational treat. Because, whatever the season, knowledge is the best gift of all.

1. Eat turducken

Turducken: a traditional Cajun meat-gasm that unites turkey, duck and chicken into one delicious foul. The three-in-one bird is migrating from its southern Louisiana roots and could someday replace the traditional uni-meat turkey dinner on a Thanksgiving table near you. Carnivores of the world, give thanks!

The aptly named turducken is breaking out of regional confinement with the help of businesses like Hebert’s Specialty Meats. Hebert’s, pronounced “A-bears,” is a purveyor of Cajun meat products that sells a variety of stuffed animals (including rabbit, crab and quail) from stores in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma.

Kim Dunlap, who manages the butcher-chain’s restaurant and shipping center in Tulsa, Okla., says the business was the first to commercialize turducken and sells thousands of the birds each year.

“It tastes like a turkey, a duck and a chicken,” she says, adding that it drips with moisture.

Making a turducken is a labor of layering. A turkey, duck and chicken are de-boned, spread open and layered one on top of the other. Various stuffings and seasonings are sandwiched between the meat layers and any meatless nooks and crannies. Then the turkey layer, bursting with flesh and flavor, is sewn together at the skin to form a delicious frankenpoultry.

“It looks like a big ol’ fat turkey,” Dunlap says. “Except it has no cavity.”

If you’d like to learn how to stuff and assemble your own turducken, visit www.fabulousfoods.com/features/turducken/stuffing_turducken.html. Otherwise, buy your own from Hebert’s at www.hebertsmeats.com.

2. History moment

In the autumn of 1621, a village of half-dead, super-prudish Puritans dined with some nearby Native Americans. We know the gist of the story as given by kindergarten actors across the nation, but what really happened at the first Thanksgiving?

Peggy Baker, director and historian at Pilgrim Hall Museum, works in Plymouth, Mass., the town where the famous feast occurred. Baker gave a quick lesson on the historic event, beginning with the fact that the first Thanksgiving was not a thanksgiving at all.

“A day of thanksgiving would have been purely religious,” she says. The celebration in question was more of a harvest celebration.

That’s not to say that the pilgrims didn’t have anything to be thankful for. They were alive. Well, 53 of them were. Of the 102 original pilgrims who arrived fresh off the Mayflower from England, exactly half of them died during the first New England winter. Their number then benefited from a later addition of two pilgrim babies, Baker says.

So, happy to be alive and having reaped their first American harvest, the pilgrims had a party. Baker says it lasted about a week, and that about 90 dudes from the nearby Wampanoag tribe were in attendance. No one knows why they were there. Baker says they might have been invited. Perhaps they were there for turducken.

“That’s a technique that was used in seventeenth-century England, stuffing things into other things,” Baker says.

Baker says the food at the first Thanksgiving was different from what is traditionally served today. Though historians do not have an exact menu, they probably had foods including geese, ducks, turkey, pigeon, partridge, cod, bass, cornmeal, nuts, and maybe pies. What is known is that the Wampanoag brought five deer. The pilgrims did not have sugar, so cranberry sauce was impossible to make, and pumpkins, if eaten, were likely spiced and stewed instead of baked.

Though the first Thanksgiving was very different from those we host today, Baker says there is at least one similarity among them.

“The real story, which is of these two very different cultures coming together—that’s absolutely there.”

3. The joy of family: a cornucopia of loathing

The families of seasonal Thanksgiving commercials, set down to the perfect meal, smiling and laughing in simple, iconic 1950s glee, are as authentic as a turkey made with Spam.

In real life, the stuffing is bland, your parents hate your girlfriend, Uncle Joe just came out of the closet, Mom lost her job and the snarl on Grandpa’s face can only mean that he’s thanking God that Grandma isn’t alive to see how much of a disappointment the family is.

The holidays, family forced together with expectations of perfection, can be stressful, says psychologist Harriet Lerner, author of bestseller The Dance of Anger and an expert on difficult relationships.

“It’s a perfectly legitimate goal just to survive and not do your usual thing,” she says about traditional familial quarreling.

But there are some things you can do to make the holidays more enjoyable. Lerner suggests anticipating what arguments might arise and having a plan to stay calm and constructively deal with difficulties. She says it’s important to be non-reactive when people push your buttons and to not be an instigator of anxiety toward others. Also, you shouldn’t choose your turkey dinner to air grievances or drop the unexpected life-altering bombshell.

“One thing to avoid is any kind of agenda,” Lerner says. “It’s just not the time.”

So, prep for stress, pass on less anxiety than you receive and keep your lips zipped about that fresh credit card debt you’ve accrued. Enjoy your time together and save headache-mongering for a less savory occasion.