Thanksgiving in the UK

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.

I'm with you about Christmas as far as the gift giving, but I LOVE to do up the house and bake lots of goodies, and go see christmas lights and other seasonal activities.  In fact, besides a few handmade and/or second hand things we get for our kids, I don't participate in the whole 'gift giving' thing AT ALL except those who I'm close to get a tin of their favorite variety of 'Mrs. Calvert's Gluten-Free Cookies', as I'm a baker. lol suppose I'll have to change that to 'biscuits' when we move over, eh?

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.

As for Thanksgiving, I DO like getting together with my family, and I didn't mean to sound like a brat about not getting my birthday noticed.  I guess it's just that here I can't even really go out and do anything on my own, because the weekend before the holiday is madness [I once could not find the ingredients to make my cupcakes], and the weekend after is the biggest shopping day of the year.  Even if I went to a spa, the traffic to and from would render it pointless :/

 I don't like those crazy big birthdays either, and my kids just get a small do with only their close friends and almost no gifts.  But I decorate the house with birthday streamers in the dead of night, so they wake up with their day being acknowledged, and they choose in advance all the meals and snacks for the day--whatever they want within reason. But even my immediate family is more interested in the holiday than acknowledging my birthday.

I am looking forward to my first Thanksgiving in the UK, DH is definitely looking forward to it as he has heard about all the food, but never got to have any! 
I only hosted my own Thanksgiving for the first time last year! I ended up surprising myself, because I actually enjoyed looking up different recipes and doing all the cooking 

Thanksgiving is nice treat for me, as for the past 20 years I was usually working, so it was rare thing for me to be around on the day to enjoy family and turkey. We always got turkey and everything brought into us at work, but it just wasn't the same 

Oh and my birthday is in December, so I am stuck in the middle between Thanksgiving and Christmas, not close enough to one or the other, but close enough that a big deal isn't made of it, so now I give myself a whole birthday week to be all about me haha!
Nope sorry, not doing the dishes, because its My Birthday Week, No laundry, because its My Birthday Week, no cooking, because its My Birthday Week, ...... heeee heeee, I enjoy getting out of doing chores more than getting a cake and gifts!
Not that it lasts the whole week, more like a day or two, but still! 

I give myself a whole birthday week

I get a birthmonth. You should try it. 

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.

I am with you! I find it's a lot of money for a big meal and after almost 16 yrs living here the whole meaning has finally been lost. I can be thankful every other day of my life I don't need an added expense on top of what Christmas is going to cost me.

I'm another one that likes Thanksgiving better than Christmas, because there's none of the commercial 'BUY STUFF SO YOUR FAMILY KNOWS YOU LOVE THEM' nonsense.

I did it for all 3 Thanksgivings that I spent in the UK, but only 1 year did I take most  of the thing on myself.

I came over as a student, so many of the people in my course were American or Canadian and the rest were enthusiastically curious UK/EU citizens. So we put one on together the weekend following Thanksgiving.

The second year, there were less of us and it was a bit of an afterthought, but we bought some roast chickens at the Tesco and made some veg and tatties and sat round a coffee table eating.  

My last year, I had a HUGE kitchen so I invited my friends round and pulled out all the stops.

I loved each year, and I think if it's something that's important to you, you should find a way to do it even if it's a little something.

A funny thing about Thanksgiving is that I have to have the same menu every year. I don't like to try new things. But, that's one thing I like about Christmas. I don't make turkey and I can try new and different side dishes. I actually think I eat more at Christmas because of the appetizers and all of the different desserts.

I get a birthmonth. You should try it. 

I'm going to try it! I do the Birthday Eve, Birthday and Birthday Boxing Day. A month sounds like so much more fun.

After three years in the UK with hubby's family doing what they could to make the day special without letting me participate other than eating, it was fun to be around my family for Thanksgiving last year. This year, with us both being new at our jobs, we are expecting to both have to work. With a nearly two hour drive each way we can't really just pop down for an hour or two, especially with hubby working nights and sleeping during the day. We'll go visit near the day, and probably get involved in some yummy leftovers.  I also intend to do something here near the day and invite Chris over.

I get a birthmonth. You should try it. 

  I've got two birthdays. 

I was born in the afternoon in Washington State.  By the time I popped out, it was already past midnight in the UK, so it was 29 June when I was born in Washington but it was already 30 June in the UK.    I make DH celebrate my US birthday and my UK birthday.       This year was perfect- the 29th and 30th were Saturday and Sunday so I had a proper birthday weekend. 

Maybe that makes up for having a summer birthday and not having many parties as a kid.   

I get a birthmonth. You should try it. 

I shall!   

This has me wondering if any expats:

1] Never go home for Turkey day, but do a Big Thanksgiving dinner/party at their home every year.

or

2] Are super happy to be rid of the holiday [full disclosure, I'm in this category, as I was born on Thanksgiving and it has never failed to ruin my birthday].

I've only been back in the US twice since living here, so my husband and I do a US-UK Turkey Day at home with our housemates and friends. I tend to make the Southern classics, he makes the meat (I'm vegetarian) and Yorkshire pud. It's been going strong for a few years now!

Sorry about the birthday being ruined, I have a friend whose birthday is on Christmas, I think she shares your pain!

I've only been back in the US twice since living here, so my husband and I do a US-UK Turkey Day at home with our housemates and friends. I tend to make the Southern classics, he makes the meat (I'm vegetarian) and Yorkshire pud. It's been going strong for a few years now!

Sorry about the birthday being ruined, I have a friend whose birthday is on Christmas, I think she shares your pain!

What sort of southern things do you do? I am from the south and  you can't have Turkey day without Biscuit and cornbread stuffing!  Since I started up my gluten-free bakery, I've learned how to make it without wheat [my buttermilk biscuits are to die for, and I've even learned to make them vegan], and last year they were flying off the shelves [or, I should say, out of the freezer].  My favorite is a variation with hot jimmy dean sausage.  But you can do this at christmas, too.

I do baked mac and cheese (which my husband and Mother-in-law both judged at first, before realising that it is awesome), homemade cornbread stuffing (I love making cornbread, it's become a house favourite), cavolo nero cabbage as a stand-in for collards, roasted sweet potatoes, sweet potato pie and sometimes mulled cider.

The trouble with Thanksgiving is DH insists on doing it all over again at Christmas.  Turkey once a year is enough for me.  He refuses to consider beef or anything else for Christmas.  One year, to differentiate the two meals, I did Thanksgiving as I would in the US and then did Christmas following all the UK recipes with bread sauce, Brussels, the pudding and so on. Made sherry trifle (no jelly). Thing is he doesn't really like that stuff. 

The trouble with Thanksgiving is DH insists on doing it all over again at Christmas.  Turkey once a year is enough for me.  He refuses to consider beef or anything else for Christmas.  One year, to differentiate the two meals, I did Thanksgiving as I would in the US and then did Christmas following all the UK recipes with bread sauce, Brussels, the pudding and so on. Made sherry trifle (no jelly). Thing is he doesn't really like that stuff. 

LOL, BD, I could leave the Turkey all together, personally.  I told the hubs that if he wants to continue to celebrate thanskgiving once we move 'to teach our kids their US heritage', I'd be fine with that as long as he did all the cooking [I'm happy to bake pies, as that's my profession], and to teach them that the Europeans came over and practically killed off all my people [I'm almost half Native American. My Dad is half Hopi and 1/4 Navajo, Mama is 1/4 Cherokee].  Also, one turkey a year is more than enough.  If we have it at Thanksgiving, we HAVE to have another meat at Christmas [I bribed him last year by saying Beef AND Ham if no Turkey ]

I could eat turkey all year, because I love it. Hubby hates it, so we have some turkey and some chicken for the little one with just him and me. Mom always does turkey but will have some ham for hubby. My family has always had ham for Christmas, so we don't have turkey overload for those (not me) who would suffer.

Because of having Thanksgiving for me, hubby's family gave up having turkey at Christmas the three years I was there. I wasn't sure why, because they would buy a crown, only eat the one meal from it and either send the leftover turkey with me, or give it to the cats. At Christmas they did the same, bought a crown and ate one meal from it. It wasn't like buying a 20 pounder and having to come up with creative ideas for a week, then freeze the rest.