What Do You Do If The Power Goes Out On Thanksgiving?

Picture this: you’ve done all of your Thanksgiving food shopping. You’ve done the preparations so that come Thanksgiving morning, preparing the big meal will be as easy as possible. You’re excited to host your loved ones and spend the holiday together.

And then the power goes out. 

You’re left in the dark, fretting about all that food in the fridge that will go bad if the power is off too long, you can’t cook anything, and it feels like Thanksgiving is ruined.

If this worst case scenario happens, there are a few things that you can do to save the holiday. We’ll also share something that you can do so that even if the power goes out on Thanksgiving, you can still have your holiday feast. Let’s get into it.

Order In

Maybe you can’t cook your Thanksgiving dinner, but depending on the cause and locality of the power outage, you may still be able to place an order at a take out place and go pick it up or have it delivered. Some families even make a tradition out of having Chinese food or pizza on Thanksgiving instead of the traditional meal. You can share a new experience with your loved ones and still have the chance to bond over what you’re grateful for with nice, hot food.

Utilize Flashlights And Candles

Just because the lights have gone out doesn’t mean you have to be left in the dark. You can fetch the flashlights and light your candles in order to create a cozy ambience for the holidays. Using softer lighting like this may even inspire people to share stories that they otherwise wouldn’t, and can be quite fun for any children. 

Keep Your Fridge And Freezer Closed

Who knows how long the power will be out for, but for food safety, you want to maintain cold temperatures in your fridge and freezer for as long as possible. The more you open and close your fridge and freezer, the more cold air escapes, which can make your perishables go bad faster. As long as you keep them closed as much as possible, they can keep your food safe for up to 4 hours.

If the power is out for over 4 hours, then you’ll need to get rid of your perishable items, because the last thing you want is for people to get sick from eating food that’s gone off. 

What About If The Power Goes Out While You Were Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner?

What a nightmare that would be… And yet, it certainly can and does happen. The biggest food safety concern here is with meat, dairy products, cooked vegetables, and cut melon. You’ll want to keep track of when the power outage started. If food is under safe conditions before it starts, a couple of hours without power shouldn’t hurt.

If you’re using gas or fuel, you’ll want to stop using this equipment if the hood stops working in order to prevent a buildup of toxic fumes. If food was in the process of being cooked but hasn’t reached its final temperature, it will, unfortunately, need to be tossed out. You won’t want to put hot food in your fridge or freezer. 

How To Keep Your Thanksgiving On Track Even If There’s A Power Outage

A whole home generator is your ticket to keeping the holiday on schedule, regardless of whether or not the power goes out. This is because when the power goes out, your whole home generator will turn on, keeping your lights on, your fridge and freezer working, and enabling you to proceed with your Thanksgiving preparations as if nothing had happened.

Generator Supercenter of Northern Utah provides a variety of whole home generators from Generac for homeowners throughout Northern Utah. To learn more about our generators, please don’t hesitate to either contact us or swing by our showroom in Riverdale, and we’ll be happy to help you out.