Do you observe Thanksgiving?

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

I celebrate Thanksgiving as Abraham Lincoln intended, in honor of the defeat of those traitorous Confederate rebels at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and the fall of Atlanta and the capture of Mobile Bay. [/S]

And for gravy. I like gravy.

 

[payn]

GIven that you all have Christmas dinner on Thanksgiving, what do you have for dinner on Christmas day, if not Christmas dinner? I can't imagine Christmas day without the full turkey and all trimmings. It just wouldn't be Christmas!

We do prime rib or leg 'o' lamb. Sometimes we will just do a ham.

 

[Kaodi]

Thanks to this important clarification I voted that I observed Thanksgiving as a non-American. But obviously as a Canadian it was our October Thanksgiving that I observe. I feel like from the current tally most of my fellow Canadians must have just voted no though.

 

[GreyLord]

I should note...

It's easy to observe, just watch someone talking about it on Youtube...etc.

There's a difference between observe and celebrate.

 

[Richards]

My family celebrates Thanksgiving, but not always on Thanksgiving Day. That started back when I was a missileer (1987-1991); since I had small children then, I would usually volunteer to pull alert on both Thanksgiving Day and either New Year's Eve or New Year's Day if I could have both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. (The single missileers often volunteered to pull Christmas Eve/Day alerts of they could get New Year's Eve/Day off; it was more important to them that they be able to drink in the new year, and they tried to cover Christmas for those of us with families at hand.) So we'd have our Thanksgiving later, usually on the Saturday following the actual holiday.

Nowadays, it's because my wife is a bit older, and she likes to prepare a fancy Thanksgiving breakfast, which usually takes enough out of her that she's not up to doing the full Thanksgiving feast on the same day. So the holiday's always been pretty flexible for us, as far as what day the actual meal falls on.

Johnathan

 

[Clint_L]

We celebrate it in October, with the rest of Canada. Not sure if that counts or not...

Canadian Thanksgiving has a lot less cultural baggage than American Thanksgiving. It’s basically a family gathering time. There’s nothing about the pilgrims (obviously) or the nations founding, there’s no Black Friday, there isn’t chaos at airports, there isn’t even football, or at least not anything like how the Americans do it.

Typically it’s just a nice dinner.

 

[Gradine]

Canadian Thanksgiving has a lot less cultural baggage than American Thanksgiving. It’s basically a family gathering time. There’s nothing about the pilgrims (obviously) or the nations founding, there’s no Black Friday, there isn’t chaos at airports, there isn’t even football, or at least not anything like how the Americans do it.

Typically it’s just a nice dinner.

As someone who works at an American university, the Canadians absolutely have timed it much better. Fall semester here the students get the full week off; except instead of being in the middle of the semester like Spring Break, they have to wait a full month plus to get any kind of break. Which they barely get to enjoy because finals are coming up!

It's probably my least favorite holiday, all told; it's poorly timed, I don't really like turkey, and of course the historical baggage is there. But then, that's a fairly high bar, and any excuse to enjoy the company of loved ones and good food is a good one

 

[MGibster]

It's easy to observe, just watch someone talking about it on Youtube...etc.

At least here in the United States, to observe a holiday means you participate in it.