Thanksgiving vs Christmas in American Culture

often hear it said that thxgiving is a 'bigger deal' in the US than xmas

but there are shit-tonnes of christmas movies and very few thanksgiving ones (that i can think of)

cf S/D ||| Thanksgiving Movies.

so is this meme actually false or

the little lights aren't twinkling. I know Art and thanks for noticing.

Anecdotally, for my family, Thanksgiving is a bigger deal in that it is a larger gathering of people (35 at my mom's house this year) and is often the only time all year some relatives see each other. Christmas is a more intimate celebration, with the nuclear families having their own individual celebrations and then sometimes visiting on a small scale, but nothing like what happens on Thanksgiving. (I go home for Christmas, but have managed to avoid that Thanksgiving debacle for the last 15 years, thankfully.)

Also there's that stat that newscasters haul out every year about Thanksgiving being the one of the biggest travel days of the year for Americans.

in my family christmas is the bigger deal.

often hear it said that thxgiving is a 'bigger deal' in the US than xmas

Who says that? Americans may say they like Thxgiving better, but that's usually specifically because it's not as big a deal as Xmas (among Xtians, et al). Lower pressure = happier holiday.

Depends on how religious you are. I come from a cynical family where the religion and shopping become tiresome. Food and wine never gets old! We get sick of buying presents, which I think is hilarious. How many people have moms who think Christmas is rubbish! I am thankful my family doesn't force me to endure this sappy ritual.

not sure where i heard it tbh

but definitely have

xp

By religion I mean religious Christian - I don't mean to be slight non-Christian faiths. Not everyone in our family is Christian, my mom always reminds me that not everyone is Christian or celebrates Christmas, some of our neighbors are Jewish or some other religion, so what is the big deal.

Yeah, I was going to suggest that Thanksgiving might be a bigger deal because it's secular and so more people participate.

btw, my mom just emailed me and told me I'm going to have to "bite the bullet" and come home for Thanksgiving next year. Don't hold your breath, Ma.

thanksgiving probably overall a bigger deal due to nonchristians participating? but in the "cultural imagination" i.e. hollywood christmas is way bigger.

eric h. otm

Who says that? Americans may say they like Thxgiving better, but that's usually specifically because it's not as big a deal as Xmas (among Xtians, et al). Lower pressure = happier holiday.

― Miss Garrote (Eric H.), Tuesday, November 30, 2010 9:58 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

otm

religion is perhaps a part of it, but in a lot of american families, thanksgiving is THE big-deal superextended family holiday. not that it's more important or preferred, necessarily, but it's nonetheless the day on which the most people travel the greatest distance to be with the largest group of family members. this was certainly so in my family for a great deal of my childhood. i remember several massive thanksgiving gatherings involving hordes of relative strangers i almost never saw otherwise, either spread through large houses or crammed into smaller ones. thanksgiving was the holiday on which the men would pool in one room talking loudly about nothing while the women cooked (those that wanted to or felt obliged), and i would be forced into strange clothes and made to quietly ferry trays of drinks about like a tiny butler. i also had to polish silver and roll butter into balls between iced wooden paddles in preparation, odious chores i dreaded and enjoyed in equal measure. thanksgiving was the one day that required a special "children's table" due to overcrowding, a table i was clearly too important to be relegated to, but had to sit at anyway, among those who picked their noses.

i suspect that thanksgiving served this purpose not only because it was less sacred than christmas in a religious sense, but because christmas belonged so clearly to the nuclear family. local relatives would be present for christmas dinner and/or morning, at distant older relatives occasionally flew in from god knows where, but the point was always the tight-knit usness of brother sister mother father, hopefully grandma and grandpa too. you could only buy gifts for so many people, after all, and most everybody had their own usses to attend to, to make more special than anyone else.

thanksgiving is about the specialness of everyone, while christmas is reserved for the holy few. or so it was in my family.

xmas is a fairly secular holiday in america imo... i grew up in an atheist household and we still celebrated, it's very easy to excise all the jesus stuff... the build-up to xmas is just so massive too, its undoubtedly 'bigger'... who cares if more people travel on thanksgiving, xmas is king kong, thanksgiving is a gentle brontosaurus... or something..

(i completely hate christmas btw so its not like im stumping for my fav holiday)

That seems pretty right on, contenderizer, although I did keep reading "usses" as "asses" and rolling butter into balls between iced paddles is like an encapsulation of everything homemaking-related I have rebelled against in my adulthood.

no fucking way, xmas is exponentially bigger than thxgiving. christmas trees have been selling down the street since october

Because of the retailers pushing Christmas nonstop for about 50 days running up to December 25th, it has an enormous societal presence that Thanksgiving just can't begin to match. The tradition of putting up outdoor lights and decorations that remain for many weeks also adds to the general hoopla. Then you've got the carols, and the baking binges, and the many seasonal parties.

Whatever anyone says to the contrary notwithstanding, xmas is bigger in the USA than thanksgiving is. Even the hate for it is bigger.

Also contributing people's love-in for Thanksgiving may be that they want to rescue it from Christmas. Black Friday is more-and-more encroaching upon the holiday in a way that I think people are starting to really react against.

I wish you lot would shut up about your awesome double christmas. we only get one, have a heart

Holidays with family = dud dud dud x ∞
Holidays with friends = fun, stress-free, better food, not having to explain what you've "been up to" 500 times to every relative, etc.

Who has a Mom that's really into Christmas? Seems like a TV cliche. Mine isn't really any more bothered than I am - pretty normal day.

mom has boxes of xmas shit filling the garage which she makes a big fuss of unpacking every year and regularly throws a fit whenever no one wants to help her. here's why — IT'S GARBAGE!!

Double xmas? you don't get presents here on thanksgiving, fyi.

for most people past the age of 12 christmas is usually about things other than receiving presents

Holidays with family = dud dud dud x ∞
Holidays with friends = fun, stress-free, better food, not having to explain what you've "been up to" 500 times to every relative, etc.

Meh, I'm find spending most of my normal days with friends and yielding to family on holidays.

find fine

A woman in my water aerobics class last night said, "Thanksgiving is good, but Christmas is awesome!" I think we have all the evidence we need.

My mom adores Christmas and has tons of decorations she hangs, red ribbons tied on things, little ceramic birds that go in the greenery, etc.

When she "does" the house for the holiday, she handles each thing from her grandmother and her mother and thinks about them & their families coming from England or Holland or Tennessee and how they sacrificed for that item and loved it too, and feels connected & whole, and then she takes out the things we made her, or that she bought for us to commemorate things, and she remembers THOSE, and prays for all of her family, and jesus christ I mean it IS a Normam Rockwell painting but there's no smushy sentiment about it, it's pure love and BEING and I am damn glad she bothers.

I love thanksgiving because of the wall to wall football and thus the excuse to booze all day without having to worry about getting up for work the next day like you do on a typical NFL sunday. Plus there have been some killer college games on the friday after thanksgiving which is great. The whole "Black Friday" phenomenon really sucks however.

For me, Thanksgiving >>> Christmas.

Laurel, that's sweet. I think with my mother it's more about filling space.