Thanksgiving in the UK

^^^^Sorry about the vitriol.  This topic always gets me all riled up, lol. I'm not usually this horrid.

My family isn't American so we didn't really celebrate Thanksgiving while living in the US. But my UK husband is very keen to do it here - mainly because he loves turkey. Me? I don't really care for it. And so far I've managed to avoid Thanksgiving - not deliberately, but I always seem to be away on holiday or otherwise occupied at that time, so it just hasn't been feasible to do a Thanksgiving meal. However, this year I think I might have to. 

I understand that if it's part of your heritage, it's a big deal, but I don't really care for all that food. The meal is too similar to Christmas and too close to Christmas ... and Christmas RULES! 

I understand that if it's part of your heritage, it's a big deal, but I don't really care for all that food. The meal is too similar to Christmas and too close to Christmas ... and Christmas RULES! 

This!
Seems a lot of money and effort to spend on doing a big meal, when I'm just going to do it again the following month.

Yes I'm sure it's a lovely novelty for her [and btw, those of us with T-Day birthdays hate everyone comparing us to X-mas babies, because we get just as many 'Birthday and Christmas' gifts as they do, only everyone feels sorry for them and make a big deal about them and they completely forget about us].  I'm sure her mother didn't completely forget her eleventh birthday because there was a problem with the turkey and we were expecting 20 people.  And I bet all of her friends weren't out of town [as children AND as adults] on one or both of the weekends surrounding  her birthday, so she could never have a party.  Almost everyone just plain forgets my birthday. Never intentionally and they are always super apologetic about it, but the do. It sucks. I will be happy to claim the last weekend in November as MINE, in the future.

I used to feel this way, a bit, when I was a child, because my birthday always fell around Labour Day... my friends always seemed to be away/busy for their last holiday before school re-starting, and the local bakery was always shut for the first 2 weeks of September for their own holiday, so I never got a fancy bakery birthday cake... which i wanted really badly, rather than my mom's home-made effort.
Then I grew up and realised that as an adult, it doesn't really matter.

But yeah... Thanksgiving Day?  For me, it's too much hassle.

Oh well - I suppose that for every holiday, there is someone who hates or dislikes it for one reason or another, lol!  

I know a number of people who really dislike Christmas - for its excess, commercialism, stress, overspending on presents, or because their family/tradition doesn't celebrate it & it can seem like it's the only holiday going like that as opposed to Chanukkah or Eid al-Fitr or Kwanzaa or Yule or Diwali or...

My birthday is right by the 4th of July. When I was a kid, on one hand, I felt particularly hard done by because other children were not often around to come to my birthday party - they were off celebrating the 4th with their families or away on holiday. How dare they?!   And unlike other children, I wasn't able to take cupcakes to school (during the school year) for everyone there to recognise my birthday & sing happy birthday to me. On the other hand, I decided that all the fireworks, BBQs & picnics, homemade ice cream & all of the celebrations to do with the 4th of July were really for me. Ha!  

A lot of my friends & I love Thanksgiving because it just doesn't have the same hype & stress & spending associated with Christmas. Just a day to get together with friends & family, enjoy food (no presents required!) & spend a little time to appreciate what you already have.

Plus, in this country, dang it's a long stretch between August bank holiday & Christmas. We are desperate for a holiday by the time Christmas rolls around! I love that (in the US) there are more 'in between' celebrations to sort of ring in the changing seasons from the end of summer to Yuletide (Halloween being more observed, Thanksgiving).

My birthday is right by the 4th of July. When I was a kid, on one hand, I felt particularly hard done by because other children were not often around to come to my birthday party - they were off celebrating the 4th with their families or away on holiday. How dare they?!   And unlike other children, I wasn't able to take cupcakes to school (during the school year) for everyone there to recognise my birthday & sing happy birthday to me.

I'm with you on this, Mrs Robinson.  With my birthday at the very end of June, everyone had left for summer break just in time for my birthday.  Most years I didn't have a party, but one year I tried.  Huge failure.  ONE person came.  Of course, she was awesome and it made us closer friends, but imagine being 2nd grade and you invite your friends to your birthday party and only one of them shows.    

I'm with you on this, Mrs Robinson.  With my birthday at the very end of June, everyone had left for summer break just in time for my birthday.  Most years I didn't have a party, but one year I tried.  Huge failure.  ONE person came.  Of course, she was awesome and it made us closer friends, but imagine being 2nd grade and you invite your friends to your birthday party and only one of them shows.    

Yeah, if I had a party at all (other than a family observance), I was very lucky to have one or two kids at best show up!  

That said, I don't remember children's birthday parties back then being the big production that they seem to be now - or maybe I just didn't get invited, lol! Most kids had a little party at school in the classroom with cake their mother would send. I did get invited one time that I remember to another girl's party - she lived out in the country & took us riding around her farm on a three-wheeler motorbike. I was seven & we all thought that was great fun! When I came home & told my parents what I'd been up to, I think they both got a few more grey hairs that day. Maybe that was the end of my going to other children's birthday parties? Lol! My parents were very strict. 

I know a number of people who really dislike Christmas - for its excess, commercialism, stress, overspending on presents,

Those are the best parts of Christmas! 

Yeah, I tried to get everybody to go for 4th of July at ours instead (out in the garden), because that would mean we could have more people - but everyone wants Thanksgiving, lol! There are easily about 20-30 people & more I would love to have here, if we only had the space. The joke used to be - the house next door sat vacant for several years - that we should bust through the wall & take over that house as well, giving room for twice as many. But we had to cut numbers back when it started wrecking our house & there was no room to move.    That's why I encourage others to throw Thanksgiving so that everyone has a place to go! 

Now that could have been a thought as the houses either side (we are in a terrace) were both empty for a while!
We do a BBQ for July 4th, well on a Saturday close to, and everyone loves it. Last year when the adjoining house was empty and our gate opens into their yard, that became the smoking area! American theme, DW HAS to do pulled pork otherwise there'd be complaints! Philadelphia's WMMR streaming on the internet - even got a request played last time!

A lot of my friends & I love Thanksgiving because it just doesn't have the same hype & stress & spending associated with Christmas. Just a day to get together with friends & family, enjoy food (no presents required!) & spend a little time to appreciate what you already have.

Exactly that, thats why I like it....it's like Christmas without all the rubbish around it. Though last year I was getting very annoyed when it was decided to start playing Xmas songs...I said I'd just I'd take my SiL's dog for a walk to work off the dinner!

^^^^Sorry about the vitriol.  This topic always gets me all riled up, lol. I'm not usually this horrid.

Errr...thanks for the explanation after! Maybe this is bubbling under for DW, I'll ask if she ever felt left out as a kid.
I always felt I missed out because my birthday is in August so always in school holidays.

A lot of my friends & I love Thanksgiving because it just doesn't have the same hype & stress & spending associated with Christmas. Just a day to get together with friends & family, enjoy food (no presents required!) & spend a little time to appreciate what you already have.

Exactly that, thats why I like it....it's like Christmas without all the rubbish around it. Though last year I was getting very annoyed when it was decided to start playing Xmas songs...I said I'd just I'd take my SiL's dog for a walk to work off the dinner!

^^^^Sorry about the vitriol.  This topic always gets me all riled up, lol. I'm not usually this horrid.

Errr...thanks for the explanation after! Maybe this is bubbling under for DW, I'll ask if she ever felt left out as a kid.
I always felt I missed out because my birthday is in August so always in school holidays.

Thanksgiving is one of my favourite days of the year. Its not the same for us here...bit depressing actually. But, this year we should be home(New Hampshire) for Thanksgiving...and every Thanksgiving thereafter as we are awaiting Glyn's interview for his next visa to the USA. I can't wait!

I was never really interested in Thanksgiving, and in my almost 20 years I never even thought about going back to the states for it. But the last few years an American friend has been doing a big Thanksgiving at her house and it's been great fun, my parents also have been coming over the last few Thanksgivings so this seems to have turned into a big family thing.  This year Thanksgiving and the Jewish holiday Chanukah are on the same dates,  so it should be lots of fun for my kids!

As a child Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday-no disappointment and plenty of tasty food. 
When our oldest daughter was born based on her medical condition we thought it best not to be around massive quantities of food so we used to come to England to visit MrRed5's family. 
However, since moving over in 2005 I understand that Thanksgiving does not have to be the 'eat til you can't move' fest that it was when I was a child.  So we do celebrate Thanksgiving now, but on a much smaller scale. 
I've never been a fan of Christmas.  We put up a tree for the girls. 

As a child I always preferred Christmas to Thanksgiving (obviously), but now as an adult I prefer Thanksgiving. I hate the stress and excess involved in the gift-giving. Now that I have a son I may start to enjoy it again since it will be exciting for him. When we were in the UK, we'd have Thanksgiving with some other American friends on the weekend following the day. My UK work friends wished me 'Happy Thanksgiving' on the day and I thought that was really nice and thoughtful.

When we were in Ireland we happened to be in the US one year for Thanksgiving and the other year DH took the day off work and I cooked it for the two of us. Our flat was so small that we couldn't invited other people around (there was barely enough room at the table for the two of us!), which really bummed me out. I would have liked to have cooked for my American friends.