The only thing your family should be fighting about over Thanksgiving dinner is pumpkin or pecan pie — not gun-control laws.
Avoid these common conversational land mines with distant relatives by defusing the situations before they come to blows. Then, give thanks for making it through the entire meal without any polarizing conversation topics getting broached. Here’s how.
Donald Trump
Can he win? Is he racist? Don’t bother with any of that and instead steer the conversation toward a topic everyone can agree on: He just wears those baseball hats so his hair won’t be photographed in the wind.
The election
If the 2016 race comes up, that’s your cue to steer the talk a few hundred miles north to Canada and its new prime minister, Justin Trudeau. Your great-aunt might be interested to know his mother once showed up at Studio 54 without panties.
Gay marriage
Pivot to marriage in general — specifically, celebrity marriages. Confuse anyone over 60 at the table by asking, “Hey, you know who’s not married anymore? That girl from No Doubt and that guitar guy.”
Syrian refugees
“Speaking of immigrants, did you know that singer Amy Winehouse was once denied entry into the US because of a pot arrest in Norway?” Danger zone avoided.