Why Thanksgiving Is Secretly the Most Portal-Fantasy Holiday of the Year

Hey friends,

Thanksgiving has always felt a little bit magical to me—like the one day the veil between worlds thins just enough for ordinary life to slip into something softer, quieter, and (if we’re honest) a little enchanted.

Think about it.

You wake up to the smell of turkey and cinnamon, the house already warmer than usual. Relatives appear through the front door like they’ve stepped out of another realm—some you haven’t seen in a year, some who feel like they belong to a slightly different timeline altogether. The table is crowded with food that only exists this one day. Outside, the light has that golden, late-autumn haze, the kind that makes every tree look like it’s guarding a secret path.

And then, after the plates are cleared and the dishes are abandoned “for later,” something truly portal-fantasy happens:

Everyone disappears into their own little pocket of quiet.

Some nap on the couch. Some watch football in a distant room. Some sneak off with a second slice of pie and a book.

That, right there, is the portal opening.

Work is gone. School is gone. The usual noise of the world is muffled by tryptophan and gratitude. For one long weekend, millions of us are handed the rare gift of unstructured time—and the first thing most of us reach for is escape.

A good book.

A cozy one, preferably. Something with soft magic, kind heroes, and a world that feels like curling up under the same blanket your grandma made twenty years ago.

It’s no coincidence that Thanksgiving weekend is one of the biggest reading weekends of the year. We’re home. We’re full. We’re surrounded by people we love (and sometimes people we tolerate for love’s sake), and the gentle pull of a story is exactly what we need to breathe.

Christmas does something similar, of course—twinkly lights, snow outside, the promise of a few slow mornings—but Thanksgiving feels purer. Less commercial. More hearth-centered. The magic is in the pause itself.

This year, as I’m prepping my own quiet corner with tea and a blanket fortress, I’ve been thinking about the cozy fantasies that feel like they were written for exactly this moment. The ones that open a door, let you step through, and close the ordinary world behind you for a few hundred pages.

A few that always make my Thanksgiving list:

- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – pure found-family warmth that makes you believe magic can fix even the messiest holidays.

- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree – because nothing says Thanksgiving like a book about opening a coffee shop in a fantasy world and choosing kindness over conflict.

- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett – scholarly, wintry, and quietly romantic. Perfect for reading while the pie cools.

- The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna – a hug in book form.

And, if I can be a little self-indulgent for a second, my own Evelyn Speckleplum series (starting with The Fey Realm) has been called “the literary equivalent of hot cider and a crackling fire” by more than one reader this month. There’s something about Evelyn’s gentle journey — a humble heroine finding quiet courage in a realm of ancient forests and hidden magic — that feels like the perfect escape when the dishes are done and the house finally goes quiet.

The sequel, The Monarch’s Inferno, lands January 20, but a lot of early readers have already grabbed Book 1 over this long weekend and slipped through the portal with Evelyn. (If you’re looking for that same doorway, the ebook is wide and the paperback ships fast.)

Order here: https://amzn.to/49aABxT

Thanksgiving reminds me every year that the best stories aren’t about grand battles or world-ending stakes. Sometimes they’re about a quiet girl finding her courage, a forgotten realm that still believes in wonder, and the kind of hope that survives even when everything feels heavy.

So wherever you are this weekend—whether you’re hiding in the guest room with a paperback, sneaking chapters on your phone between football quarters, or finally starting the cozy fantasy you’ve been saving—know that you’re not alone.

The portal is open.

Step through. Stay as long as you need.

The real world will still be here when you’re ready… but the Fey Realm (or Cerulean Sea, or orc-run coffee shop) will be waiting whenever you want to come home again.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends. May your pie be sweet and your TBR pile endless.

What cozy book are you curling up with this weekend? Tell me in the comments—I’m always looking for new doors to open.

With gratitude and a little leftover pie,

D. Golden Conlin