All the non-traditional dishes served that day reflect the region or cultural background of those who come together for the meal. One of my friend's family have huge pies. This remind me of the story I heard from Kevin when I visited restaurant Gunshow with the class about how he create his traditional flavor of banana pudding. His big family also have a big bowl of banana pudding on Thanksgiving day.
For Thanksgiving, people tend to eat a lot, and for a long time. Also a number of people drink more with their family on Thanksgiving than any other holiday. (People still drink more on new year's day, 4th of July, Saint Patrick's Day etc, but those are celebrated with romantic partners or friends).
--Oven Roast Turkey (photo from Wikipedia)--
Easter
Compared to Thanksgiving, Easter is a far more religious holiday and is almost exclusively a way to celebrate and honor the Resurrection of Christ after he was crucified on Friday. It is told that on Easter Sunday the body of Jesus was no longer in his tomb, and instead was a spirit who could speak to people. This signifies that there is life after death for believers in Christ, and his death was the "ultimate sacrifice" which he made to forgive us of our sins.
The story is quite religious and is not at all celebrated by all Americans. For many Americans it is somewhat a holiday to signify Spring. Also, younger Americans associate Easter with the Easter Bunny and candy eggs. A number of elementary schools, churches and neighborhoods will have Easter egg hunts where little kids search for candy and money. Although the tradition is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans (Wikipedia). On the day of Easter, American families do their Easter baskets and an Easter egg hunt. Religious family goes to church in the morning.
The traditional Easter food - Easter eggs are generally colorful eggs, most of which are made of chocolate these days. The egg is a symbol for rebirth(like Jesus).
Easter eggs decorated with straw (photo from Wikipedia)
Easter eggs in a basket (photo from Wikipedia)