With all the build-up that comes before a major holiday, it’s easy to lose steam by the time you reach the big day. That’s what seems to have happened this year for Martha Stewart as she spent November planning and prepping for this year’s Thanksgiving feast. This week, the lifestyle mogul announced that she’s officially throwing in the towel on this year’s Turkey Day.
While appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Stewart revealed that—despite weeks of advising fans on her Thanksgiving preferences and the best way to prep your family meal—she herself will not be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner this year.
“Oh, I gave up Thanksgiving,” Stewart told Clarkson when she inquired about her holiday plans.
“I canceled,” she added, before clarifying why. “Nine guests canceled because somebody got sick…I called up my chef friend and I said, ‘We’re not doing Thanksgiving.'”
It wasn’t just that Stewart’s guest list got thrown off track—the entrepreneur confessed that all her media appearances showing people how to cook turkey have left her “all turkeyed out.”
“I’ve also cooked 14 turkeys already for my TV show, and I still have to [cook] one more turkey on the Today show,” Stewart told Clarkson, referencing yesterday’s appearance where she showed off her Roasted Turkey in Parchment with Gravy recipe. “So forget it.”
So, what will Stewart be up to next Thursday? While we’d totally understand if she wanted to stay in with a bottle of wine and start putting up Christmas decorations, Stewart will still be taking part in holiday festivities—just not at her own house. Instead, she’s taken friends up on their invitations to join their Thanksgiving dinners. That’s right, multiple friends: Stewart is planning on turkey-hopping between a few different homes to sample the best of each of their spreads.
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“Friends, of course, invited me to their home,” Stewart explained. ‘So I’m going to about five different homes to taste different courses.”
Clarkson was quick to point out that these friends must be exceptionally nervous about their meal prep now, surely assuming that domestic goddess Stewart would turn them down and host her own meal—now, instead, they have to prepare a Martha Stewart-worthy holiday meal in their own homes.
“If you were coming to my house, I would for sure lie and say I cooked it and have somebody else do it,” Clarkson confessed, noting that Stewart’s friends must be “so stressed out.”
“Oh, I hope so,” Stewart chuckled in reply, not bothering to deny it. If things aren’t quite up to Stewart’s standards, Clarkson has another idea of how she could spend the big day: Taco Thursday, a blissfully turkey-free day for the turkeyed-out queen of Thanksgiving.
The big takeaway from Stewart’s shocking announcement? It’s always okay to throw your hands up and cancel if the holiday is bringing you more stress than joy. If you choose to do that this year, you know you’ll be in excellent company.
Louisa Ballhaus
Louisa is a culture writer and author from New York City covering entertainment, celebrity, and lifestyle content for outlets like Cosmopolitan and Bustle. Read more about Louisa
