How will 3D Printing change the future of Thanksgiving? Here’s 10 ways future Turkey Day will be even better.

Turkey Day is nearly upon us. While we may still have the same turkey, stuffing and pie, the Thanksgiving of the future will be very different. How will the innovations of 3D Printing change the holiday for the better? Let’s find out…

1. Give sciency-types something to do

When it’s time to get cooking, everyone seems to run far away from the actual work. Do away with the slew of excuses (“I don’t want to burn your house down”) or being generally lame and lazy (“I bought this baguette on my way here”). For sciency or DIY-types, fiddling and designing on the 3D Printer finally means you can be useful. Or at least you could help polish the print-bed, right?

2. Pumpkin Pie in the shape of Charlie Brown wearing a pilgrim hat drinking a pumpkin spice latte

With 3D printing, anything is possible. Forget printing goop in the realistic shape of a chicken leg. When you have the power, why not use the old imagination and print a real turkey? Basically, Thanksgiving will be a food-art extravaganza!? Why not?

3. Be thankful not wasteful

Depending on where your festivities take place, you might end up swimming in a sea of Dixie plates and cups. 3D Printing doesn’t just mean specialized plates with pilgrims faces printed on them (oh, great idea!), it means being able to fully reuse and recycle that mountain of plastic.

4. Deal with all the allergies and restrictions

Don’t eat gluten? Nuts? Meat? Whether it’s a self-imposed dietary restriction or a life-threatening one, you don’t have to explain your needs to everyone, ever again. While you might need the special Barilla-TNO pasta printer to 3D print pasta these days, fancy future printers may be able to jump from one food to another. White pasta. Whole pasta. Pasta made from algae. Pasta in the shape of bread. Welcome to the era of BYODR (Bring-your-own-dietary-requirement) dining.

5. Not so black Black Friday

The dreaded holiday. Either you are a “run for the malls!!” or a “do not leave the house on Black Friday” kind of person. While 3D printing is not yet a daily household activity, that future seems unavoidable. There will come a day when you don’t need to run to the malls on Black Friday to get the best deal. They’ll all be available on your printer (unless you need printing filaments; you may have to go buy that).

6. Better Thanksgiving accessories

When holidays approach, you have two options: attach yourself to Pinterest and become a DIY guru, or wait until the last minute, buy a couple orange candles, and create the laziest centerpiece imaginable. Thanks to not only 3D printing, but the entire printing community, you can create centerpieces, name card holders, coasters, anything, in a snap. Best of, they can be recycled later.

7. The BEST leftovers

Honestly…Thanksgiving day is only have the fun. Turkey sandwiches with cranberry, strange stuffing concoctions—everyone gets creative with their leftovers. Unfortunately, it hardly ever looks nice. A hunk of meat bits laying on a half eaten slice of bread? Mother would not be proud. With the help of a 3D printer like Bocusini, recycling leftovers into a new, more presentable dish is easy.

8. To additive or not to additive?

Much like dealing with serious allergies and needs, futuristic magical 3D printers may be able to deal with even more refined issues. With more and more printers integrating more and more cartridges and capabilities, one day it may be even be possible to print your food exactly how you like it. More salt, less spice, you name it.

9. Entertain the kids

Not every child is a perfect angel that likes to read and do flashcards. There is nothing more exhausting than preparing a huge meal — especially when everyone has kids. Ever try cooking with five youngsters darting about like crazy people? Send them and their weird uncle over to the printer and give them something to do. Print some pilgrim hat finger puppets, or some hats.

10. It will bring the Green Bean Casserole

No more herds of guests showing up with the same green bean casserole at your door. You can now make it together. Or, if five smiling couples still show up with casserole, just break it down and reprint it into something better!