Alright, y’all, American Thanksgiving is almost upon us, which means it’s time to talk about FOOD! Halloween is my favorite holiday, but Thanksgiving is a close second because I love almost all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods. I feel like Joey in the Thanksgiving episode of Friends when Rachel puts beef in the trifle and he starts listing all of the ingredients he likes. Turkey? Good. Green bean casserole? Good. Mashed potatoes? Goooood.
There is one traditional Turkey Day food that I don’t like and will always skip over: Cranberry sauce. Apparently, I’m not alone in this distaste because for the third year in a row, cranberry sauce has been voted as the most disliked Thanksgiving food dish. In an anonymous survey done by The Vacationer, out of the 1,013 American adults polled, 31.49% of them said they didn’t like cranberry sauce. Sweet potatoes or yams finished in second place and green bean casserole took third. Here’s the full list of options and where they fell in the list:
Which of these traditional Thanksgiving foods do you dislike?
Cranberry Sauce — 31.49% Sweet Potatoes or Yams — 29.22% Green Bean Casserole — 28.04% Turkey — 27.74% Stuffing/Dressing. — 26.75% Ham — 25.57% Coleslaw — 25.57% Pumpkin Pie. — 24.28% Mashed Potatoes. — 18.66% Macaroni and Cheese. — 17.47% Carrots. — 16.98% Apple Pie. — 16.29% Corn. — 15.50% None of these. I like them all. — 13.82%
I am scandalized by some of these results! The only item on this list that I can take or leave is stuffing/dressing. I’m surprised to see corn finish last because I really do not like corn, either. There is not enough butter in the world to get me to willingly eat corn. Speaking of butter, how can someone not like sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes? They’re both so yummy! Mashed potatoes go with *everything.* And how is pumpkin pie more disliked than apple pie?! Is this really a thing? Looking at this list has made me very, very hungry. I’m dreaming of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and a smorgasbord of different types of pie.
Photos credit: Jed Owen, Kraken Images and Diliara Garifullina on Unsplash, Cottonbro Studio and Karolina Grabowska on Pexels
IMO, the cranberry is necessary to have a bit of acid/tart between bites of rich, savory dishes. I need that bit of cranberry. Wierdly (maybe), I like all my thanksgiving food to be of very high quality, but the cranberry sauce has got to be OceanSpray jelly from a can, sliced.
Agreed. Canned cranberry only and it has to be the smooth kind! Please no orange fancy whole berry nonsense.
Exactly! I hate all the inventive cranberry sauce recipes with too much sugar and orange peel and Madeira and cinnamon and what have you. Ocean Spray jelly sliced along the ridges from the can – and we have a special rectangular dish that fits the slices in an overlapping formation and a special silver serving “spatula” that’s round in the exact size of the slices.
With the ridges from the can on either end! So pretty!
OceanSpray cranberry sauce is the only one that counts, lol.
Unless you have like an ancient family recipe for making some traditional cranberry thing, which imo is the only acceptable deviation- if you don’t slice the (oceanspray) jelly straight from the can, ridges and all, you are an American Thanksgiving heathen.
“American Thanksgiving heathen” made me chuckle. LOL
@plums, well, I guess I am an American Thanksgiving heathen! I will accept Ocean Spray cranberry sauce but no ridges! FGS, break it up a bit! But then, growing up, my family never had ham, green bean casserole, yams, coleslaw, carrots, macaroni & cheese (NOT a side dish!), corn or sweet potatoes on the Thanksgiving table. I was an adult before I tried sweet potatoes and yam, once, in a pie. I still have not and refused to even think about trying green bean casserole, especially the stuff with the crunchy bits on top! Yup, I’m a heathen!
I am offended by the headline. I absolutely love cranberry sauce. In fact, I buy quite a number of bags so I can freeze it and have cranberry sauce year round. It s so good as a condiment with Turkey or tuna salad sandwiches. Try it with cottage cheese. Maybe I’m just a cranberry addict. No, I will not look for help.
I don’t even understand who it is that they polled …
I mean, who are these people??
What? You can pry Trader Joe’s cranberry orange sauce from my cold dead hands! That stuff is delicious.
I make my own. Simple syrup, cranberries, orange zest, a sqeeze of lemon and a cinnamon stick. Cranberry sauce in any form should not be the most disliked.
Dying at the mention of coleslaw. I need to be clued into the coleslaw being a choice at Thanksgiving. It actually made me lol. I’m not familiar with Thanksgiving coleslaw.
I love cranberry sauce! There is something I really like about a fruit-meat combo, plus it is such a nice bright flavor among all the more savory things.
I like sweet potatoes a lot HOWEVER, I hate sweet potato pie/candied yams/etc. Stop putting sugar on sweet potatoes! They are perfect as is!
I actually do add a sweet glaze to my sweet potatoes, but I mix it with some spicy. I mix maple syrup and sriracha, coat large sweet potato chunks, and roast them. The sweet/spicy combo kind of cuts through all the heavy, rich stuff, and it’s a nice balance.
I won’t touch candied sweet potatoes, but I love sweet potatoes prepared with savory things.
We actually bake stuffing muffins with some cranberry sauce in the middle. It’s yummy.
I have the best sweet potato casserole recipe from Southern Living magazine. Boil, peel and slice sweet potatoes and cover with sauce made from orange juice, butter, corn starch, small amount of brown sugar. After sauce is thickened, stir in 1/2 cup of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry and about 1 cup of walnut pieces. This is a favorite amongst everyone who has had it. No marshmallow, overly sweetened glop on my table.
I love sweet potatoes. Dislike the marshmallowed, brown sugared ones/casseroles.
This recipe was a huge hit at a number of Thanksgivings. A bit mad that there were no leftovers. Like spicy/savory.
https://alexandracooks.com/2015/11/12/sweet-potatoes-with-chilies-lime-cilantro/
I think that’s what it is
It’s not so much the foodstuff that’s at issue as the way it’s prepared.
I make mine with butter and pineapple 🍍 and everyone eats them right up
OK I can’t resist another Thanksgiving post…it’s so much fun to argue about. Nibbles with Champagne are from the local gourmet store, the Barefoot Contessa tells me that store bought is fine so if it’s good enough for her it’s good enough for me…
Turkey or roast game bird, gravy made IN ADVANCE because the faffing about after the bird is out of the oven isn’t worth the miniscule flavour you get from using the drippings.
The mandatory part is stuffing made both inside and outside the bird, it’s my family’s favourite and mine too! I loathe sweet potatoes, same for cranberry sauce; I’ll buy it and put it out and it never ever gets eaten, period. Corn/green bean casserole are Southern American staples so we never had them where I’m from. I do a squash puree, some Brussels sprouts tossed in lots of butter and onions for the green veg, Parker House rolls because MORE BUTTER PLEASE and to mop everything up on your plate. Leftovers on the Parker House rolls with lots of gravy and stuffing for the next day, mmm….
I don’t care about dessert, never did so I ask my guests to bring something they like, I make big bowls of Chantilly creme and serve with Irish coffees. Everyone’s happy!
And remember cooks, use the flipping method: cook the bird breast side down for the first half, then flip and cook breast side up for the rest of your cooking time. Easy peasy 🙂
Is stuffing “inside the bird” and dressing “outside the bird”? We always need both. What’s so interesting to me is how different cultures interpret Thanksgiving. Greeks will put a meat stuffing in the bird, but my mother learned stuffing from a Pepperidge Farm commercial, so we always have that – onions, celery, lots of butter and lemon juice to perk it up. The turkey is just a vessel for the stuffing.
Yes, it’s stuffing inside and dressing outside. The turkey as “just a vessel for the stuffing” haha, I certainly felt that way when I was a kid. My mom was a Pepperidge Farm loyalist so she did just the onions, celery, butter and cubes sauteed in a pan for a bit before stuffing the bird (which she got up at 0500 to do so we’d eat in the early afternoon, the smell filled the house so beautifully….).
Now I like everything on the Thanksgiving table. I’ve tried lots of stuffing variations over the years but always come back to the good old Pepperidge Farm formula, probably because of all the memories and because who doesn’t love sage and butter and onions and celery and bread? It pleases everyone, unlike some of the fancier recipes I’ve tried
This is such a personal thing. I LOVE cranberry sauce and loathe sweet potatoes. Our stuffing is made on the stovetop, but it’s a rice-based stuffing so it’s all weird anyway.
It all works, as long as everyone there loves it.
I also don’t flip the turkey, but I use the tent and bacon method – the turkey gets covered in bacon, then tented in foil for the first 3.5 hours. Then take off the foil and the bacon keeps the turkey moist plus it turns into a crispy perfection. Yum.
I “stuff” my bird with apple and onion slices. It steams the inside of the bird, cooks it faster and the GRAVY from the drippings is FABULOUS.
Cranberry sauce is actually my FAVORITE T-day dish. I make it from scratch. The key is to add a lot of sugar with lemon juice and a dish of citrus zest. (Orange is good but grapefruit is better.) The citruz zing plus sweetness is SO good.
Same. I make it from scratch every year, and I love it so much. Whole cranberries, mandarin oranges, and a touch of ginger. Miss me with that disgusting gelatinous muck from a can.
Same! I like it very tart, just a bit of orange juice, cinnamon sticks, and sugar. I cannot understand why Americans don’t appreciate actual cranberries more, they are so delicious. And we have to skim them off bogs to harvest them!
Yes, making it from scratch is the game changer. My ex is a chef and his is amazing – a bit of orange zest, lemon zest, and sugar, soooo yummy! My mother used to use that horrible canned gelatinous shit 🤣
Yup, this how my husband makes it! Reduce it on the stovetop, and… voila, beautiful. You just need a little tiny bit, but it elevates every bite!
I always bring the cranberry sauce because I’m not known for my cooking skills. But I try make it count! From scratch, with apple cider vinegar, sugar, ginger, cinnamon and a dash of clove. The warm spices with the tart berries are amazing.
Same. The meal needs a bit of sweet tartness and we make it ourselves adding a little jelatin in it to firm it up and give it a little jiggle.
Thanksgiving is my favorite food meal of the year and I love almost all Thanksgiving foods and I usually cook a big Tgiving dinner for me and my brother. However, this year I’m too busy/overwhelmed so I’m keeping it simple and easy; just meatloaf and green bean casserole, garlic bread, and a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting.
Christmas will be similar; small beef roast, sauteed brussel sprouts w/bacon, and Texas sheet cake.
Easy, breezy, no muss, no fuss.
Your meal sounds wonderful just as is – I also prefer pumpkin cake w/ cc frosting to the pie.
If you are craving turkey I make a turkey breast in the crockpot and it’s delicious. Only one person (FIL) really wants turkey so that works well, and I always make beef tenderloin for T-day. It’s a once-a-year treat for us. I get a lot of hate for not doing the bird which I find hilarious because literally I would have one person eating it.
That sounds like a lovely meal. We’ve been busy and ordering out again. Smoked turkey and most of the works. Making my own mashed potatoes. It’s like the 3 bears. Mine are just right. Not too salty or dry. Creamy yet not oozy.
Green bean casserole done right is great comfort food. One year I made the Pioneer Woman’s green been homeade casserole. It was good. The original is best with french style sliced green beans.imo
Love food wars! We’re adding some steamed crab to Thanksgiving this year. Popovers is another thing we do. Still scratching my head at Thanksgiving coleslaw.
I love cranberry sauce from the can sliced. It is my favorite part. I also make nice turkey sandwiches with stuffing and a bit of the sauce so yummy.
I love it, too. Canned forever.
I will not have cranberry sauce disrespected for Thanksgiving. Noooo…
I follow Dean Sheremet on IG and he always has quick tips and recipes and he has on for a quick homemade cranberry sauce that I think Imma try this year.
That poll just hurts my soul. They probably that sames ones that think Candy Corn is a real candy.
I’m not into Cranberry Sauce either, but I put dried cranberries in my dressing so I feel like I’m still getting the traditional flavor.
Mashed potatoes are in my top 5 favorite foods ever! I love sweet potatoes but roast them with spices… I’m not a fan of the overly sweet casseroles with marshmallows, etc.
No to ham and green bean casserole and coleslaw, but I would say that any time of the year.
Is coleslaw a Southern thing at Thanksgiving?
Yes. At least, we do not do coleslaw at Thanksgiving on Long Island. But when we do office parties or it down here in NC in general, coleslaw is always an option. I love coleslaw, so I’ve always welcomed it, even if it does feel out of place for this NY transplant.
I hate green bean casserole with the dried onions (gag) but love cranberry sauce in any form. I also like mashed sweet potatoes with butter and sour cream, but I can take them or leave them.
Everyone knows that I’m just there for the pies anyway!
(whispering) And I really don’t care for turkey anymore. Even it’s well prepared. It’s just so blah. And I’ve had it from the oven, smoked and deep fried, stuffed or not stuffed. Slinks off.
samesies on turkey! It’s whatever to me, too, I never eat it unless it’s literally the only option and even then, I may just wait. I’ll have a few bites this week bc we got a popeye’s turkey, but I’ll probably eat more rolls and potatoes than anything else
I feel like so many people don’t like turkey. Just posted above that I only do a breast in the crockpot because one of 12 people at my table will even eat turkey.
I’ve literally never heard of anyone having cole slaw at Thanksgiving. I love it, but I think of it more as summery picnic dish. I this a regional thing?
Never in my 47 years have I seen coleslaw at a Thanksgiving meal.
My mother used to make it with cabbage and grapes and miracle whip for the holidays. So gross.
We don’t have coleslaw but my mom always makes sauerkraut. She and my dad have pork and sauerkraut for dinner the Wednesday before and then the leftover sauerkraut for thanksgiving. I hate it so I’m always like bleh.
Are you in the Baltimore area? That’s such a thing here. I’m a transplant (as is my husband though he has extended family in the area), and during one of my first Thanksgivings locally, his cousin made sauerkraut. She doesn’t even eat it but insisted it was a tradition. I was like NOPE, but I would have kept making it if anyone ate it. Even Mr. TMcQ, who likes it with brats, didn’t touch it. So that was the one and only time we had it, and it still blows my mind when my friends who grew up here talk about their sauerkraut recipes when the holidays come up.
I’ve never heard of coleslaw being a thing at Thanksgiving anywhere from people we know all over the states.
@TigerMcQueen, I’m in Wisconsin, land of brats & sauerkraut(not just cheese & cheese curds), and no one I know has sauerkraut at Thanksgiving. Personally, don’t like sauerkraut. Love sauteed cabbage with garlic, onions and pepper.
Whatever dolt doesn’t like the sweet potatoes, just pass them all to me, please!
Lol both of my kids hate sweet potatoes in any form. Even covered in brown sugar or marshmallows. 🤷♀️
Cranberry sauce is the GOAT, especially if I’m invited to a Christmas dinner with an extra dry turkey.
I agree 100% with this but live by the “to each their own” attitude when it comes to food. I’m someone who will try pretty much anything. I do remember my mom opening a can of cranberry sauce and it seemed just gross to me every year!
Cole slaw at Thanksgiving? Never heard of it! My husband is now inspired to get some. I am all about adding new stuff to the table!
We bought a popeyes cajun turkey because all of us want to try it. My MIL makes a good turkey, so we’ll have both, in case we don’t like it, which is doubtful. It was a spur of the moment decision, mainly because we’d all been talking about it for years
Also, I’m really blah on pies, they’re just not what I want for dessert, so I am making some dolly parton pecan pie brownies! The recipe is on the box, and I am so excited to try them
Love them both!
I LOVE cranberry sauce. I make my own and it’s super easy, by far the quickest thing in the whole meal. I sweeten it with maple syrup and a bit of brown sugar and add a touch of cinnamon. Everyone in the family likes it and it looks so pretty on the table. It’s a no-brainer for me. I would make two kinds, but everyone just wants the classic.
I can’t resist making gravy with the drippings. I usually do two birds, and the one I do earlier in the day is used for the gravy. That way it is more or less ready to go and I just warm it up and adjust seasonings before the meal.
As for sweet potatoes? Am I the only one who grew up having the ones topped with marshmallows that we browned/ melted at the last minute? I don’t like marshmallows except on sweet potatoes and s’mores. It’s true they don’t need a lot of extra sweetening at all, so I just add some orange juice for acidity (they are quite earthy on their own) and maybe some pumpkin pie spice. But I have to have those marshmallows, lol.
My mother used to make a delicious salad with lots of veggies to go with the other sides. We always had canned cranberry sauce too, I loved it.
Turkey and dressing I can take or leave. I’ve swapped the turkey out for honey baked ham the last 5 years and I don’t make it for Christmas anymore either, I do prime rib instead. Plain corn? Never seen this on a thanksgiving table-corn casserole=yummy. Cranberry sauce is mandatory. It is the perfect little bite between other foods. Fun fact: I made that pie pictured above last year and it rocked. It is a caramel pumpkin pie and I happen to have a set of little leaf cutters I use to decorate my beef wellington. This is the recipe: https://www.thekitchenmccabe.com/2018/11/11/pumpkin-caramel-pie/
I’ve seen corn casserole from time to time, or succotash. It’s very American.
If you’re from the South!
I love cranberry sauce, but it must be the canned version. Give me that jelly!
We always had cranberry sauce made from scratch with variations- sometimes with orange zest and juice, sometimes with red wine and cinnamon, etc. I love dressing and lots of gravy on my mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie once a year is enough for me. Somewhere along the line, we discovered that everyone in the family liked turkey well enough, but could take it or leave it. So now occasionally we will have turkey at Thanksgiving but never at Christmas any more. Our favorites in rotation are Crown Roast of Park, Prime Rib, or Rack of Lamb.
I love homemade cranberry sauce, but I really dislike sweet potatoes, especially the pie. It’s stringy and heavy. As for that gross marshmallow sweet potato thing, the marshmallows are there to disguise the taste and texture of the sweet potato. Stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving but I do like a well seasoned Turkey.
Cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes are great. It’s green bean casserole that is disgusting.
Exactly!
I have cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes all throughout the year (not together… the cranberry sauce goes with chicken or on a cheese plate)
The cranberry sauce is whole berry, from a can most of the time but homemade on Thanksgiving(oneof my sisters always brings it) I don’t mind if there is also the jellied on the table, because some people like that more.
And the sweet potatoes, I prefer plain, no sugar goo needed. They are so delicious with a little salt, pepper and butter!
— 100% endorse your taste in food.
Lol the top dishes are the only ones we serve at our Thanksgivings.
If I am being super honest, the turkey is my least favorite thing, but I don’t blame the turkey for that, I blame my family for not knowing how to properly cook a turkey so that it has any sort of juiciness or flavor, lol.
🙂 My mom always cooked the heck out of turkey, chicken, and pork chops to make sure she didn’t poison us.
Lol this was our house, my father always insisted that everything be (over)cooked so that “there is no risk from bacteria.” Which, okay, maybe in the 70s but it’s not the same nowadays. My husband jokes that he’s never seen me cook a pork tenderloin to whiteness AND IT’S TRUE. It’s just fine cooked to pink if it’s quality organic meat and you use a meat thermometer, it’s not that hard! Good quality roasted chicken near the bone should be pink, that means it’s free range and the blood has reached the muscles, again as long as you use a meat thermometer properly you’re fine. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life…and it’s tasting good
I love sweet potatoes— but only eat gravy on Thanksgiving. I do like dark meat turkey. I will never understand why turkeys were bred to have more breast meat — when thighs and legs have much more flavor and better texture. I don’t live cranberry sauce, but I think it does cut the richness of the rest of the meal, and I’d totally miss it if it weren’t part of the meal.
Loathed sweet potato casserole growing up, just the smell alone put me off. I figured adult me would never have to pretend to like it again. Then one day I was recipe surfing and ran across one that actually looked…good. It was savory rather than sweet – with olive oil, butter, garlic, Parmesan cheese and dried herbs most people already have in their cupboard. It ticked all the other boxes too – easy to make, tastes better if you assemble it ahead of time, and it looks gorgeous coming out of the oven. Now it’s a favorite of mine, and everyone else I’ve made it for. It’s become a Christmas dinner tradition, perfect alongside roast beef or ham.
That recipe sounds amazing – I will definitely try it!
I used this one as a jumping off point.
https://www.eatwell101.com/garlic-parmesan-roasted-sweet-potato-recipe?crlt.pid=camp.5mIng7qVJJqr
The recipe is pretty forgiving, I basically mix my own herb blend on the fly from whatever I have on hand. I get everything into the bag in the morning, then toss it into the fridge until I’m ready to put it in the oven.
My absolute favorite cranberry recipe is Grand Marnier cranberry sauce:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/grand-marnier-cranberry-sauce-497
It’s absolutely delicious and just 4 ingredients and you can control the amount of sugar you add. Hate green bean casserole but love candied sweet potatoes. Use Steen’s cane syrup in the candied sweet potatoes.
I can get behind cranberry with Grand Marnier.
We have never had Turkey at our Thanksgiving. Ever. We always made duck. Now we go out for Thanksgiving and have for the last six years or so (minus lockdown – where we still ordered in). No one seems to like Turkey and yet everyone makes it lol. Personally we like cranberry sauce in our house – but only the canned kind. LOL. I made homemade cranberry sauce one year and it was…fine. It felt like a lot of work for little return.
@Ameerah M, do you have a great duck recipe? Asking because one of my siblings was recently expressing how she has not found or made a juicy duck recipe. It comes into play because her spouse and sons are duck hunters and she put a STOP sign to Thanksgiving Duck.
I’ve never had a green bean casserole that I liked, and that was not something my mother served growing up. Ditto for what most people do to sweet potatoes, adding maple syrup & tiny marshmallows; they’re sweet enough! Give me sweet potato fries any day. Never saw the point in cranberry sauce, but I do remember it makes a nice turkey sandwich for the days after (helps with the dry turkey problem).
But–I don’t eat meat any more, nor do I eat giant dinners any more, and truth be told, I’m not all that social any more.
I love cranberry anything. And while I will eat and enjoy canned cranberry sauce I prefer my mom’s recipe for homemade sauce made from three simple ingredients: cranberries, sugar, and water.
Unmm NO not fair!!! Sweet potatoes are my favorite Thanksgiving side, hands down.
Thanksgiving is too much yum on one day, love it. I can’t choose a fave but you can definitely count this American Glutton in w the traditional Ocean Spray cranberry sauce fans. Slice it up!
For years, I had to just take side dishes to a massive family Thanksgiving at my brother’s … since COVID-19, I’ve been making the whole meal for my little family of four.
The family favorite is a dish I think I made up — I jokingly call it Elvis Broccoli, because I take fresh broccoli, break it into tiny trees, steam it lightly and then put it in a casserole dish.
I then slather it with olive oil and chopped garlic. And then Ritz crackers (the Elvis-y element), crushed and mixed with more olive oil, and shredded cheddar, and baked at 350 degrees until the cheese is thoroughly melted. The garlic makes the house smell divine and it’s delicious.
Our favorite appetizer is also a cinch: Pillsbury crescent roll dough, arranged in a square on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Add a wheel of Brie and some raspberry or fig jam … cover with the remaining square of dough and bake until the jam and Brie are bubbling through the baked crust. Serve with sturdy wheat crackers or water crackers.
Omg guys, these recipes are making me even hungrier!
Cranberry Sauce — Ocean Spray cranberry sauce – only the smooth jelly kind! Anyone who brings cranberry sauce with whole berries can just stay home, lol.
Sweet Potatoes or Yams — must have the marshmallows.
Green Bean Casserole — tied with mashed potatoes for my favorite dish.
Turkey — not a fan, but will eat a small piece if that’s the only meat option.
Stuffing/Dressing. — NO FRUIT, please! My grandma would make hers with apples and cranberries. No thank you.
Ham — same as turkey
Coleslaw — ???? Never ever heard of that as a Thanksgiving dish, and I hate it anyway.
Pumpkin Pie. — not a fan
Mashed Potatoes. — tied with green bean casserole for my favorite dish
Macaroni and Cheese. — ???? Never heard of that as a Thanksgiving dish either, and I don’t like it anyway.
Carrots. — I like them.
Apple Pie. — prefer over pumpkin, but cherry is the best.
Corn. — Never had it served as a side dish, but I would eat it if it were.
Cranberry sauce is my favorite. Green Bean casserole makes me gag. I hate it. I don’t like sweet potatoes.
As an Australian I have so many questions 🙂
– Do Americans eat similar meals again in 5 weeks time for Christmas Day/night? We eat turkey, baked ham, etc. on Christmas Day.
– How is Halloween a holiday? Does everyone actually get time off/leave from work for Halloween? How does one even celebrate Halloween other than children dressing up and going trick or treat’ing?
–yes Americans tend to eat similar meals in 5 weeks on Christmas, but it’s often varied with roast beef (prime rib, Wellington, whatever) or ham (honey baked, roasted, etc….) as the main “star” protein instead of turkey/wild game bird. It may be a bit fancier or more elaborate on Christmas because of the different origins of each holiday
–Halloween American style for non-religious folks is basically dress-up for the kids in exchange for candy at the door, hopefully in a brightly lit and decorated house with carved pumpkins and sheet ghosts and other fun things. Note the key word “exchange”…it’s not called Trick or Treat for no reason. I don’t understand the newfangled systems where you pool your candies for kids to eat at some kind of party all together? Thus depriving the person at the door who wants to see costumes? The candy’s not for free y’all. Show up in your adorable costumes or I won’t answer the door LOL
–And no, there’s not much else to it other than most adults using it as an excuse to buy candy “for the kids” when nowadays there’s decreasing numbers of kids showing up at your door, sadly
Some families have turkey and/or ham for both. Mine has prime rib for Christmas because turkey is nobody’s favorite, but it’s very traditional for Thanksgiving, so we only do it then.
Halloween is a “holiday” like Valentine’s Day, lol. No time off (it’s not a federal holiday) and many adults will have parties to “celebrate.” I think of it as primarily a kid’s holiday because the kiddos love to dress up and trick or treat, but some adults are VERY serious about Halloween.
Our family usually had three very different meals for each of the big food holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Different main courses, different sides depending upon what was in season, and different desserts. Turkey for Thanksgiving, Prime rib, Duck or ham (but only a few times because few people like ham in our family!) for Christmas, and Lamb or the dreaded Ham for Easter. The sides were all different, as I said, driven by the season. And, we usually had multiple, different pies for each holiday meal, with sometimes a cake as well at Christmas, usually a buche de noel. At Easter my mother would make one lemon meringue pie and one chocolate cream pie and then she would make another dessert that she either wanted to try or that the kids would want. If I remember correctly, at Thanksgiving we always had a pumpkin pie usually with an apple or pecan pie. My mother would then usually make another dessert. She liked to experiment with her baking! At Christmas we would usually have pecan pie as well along with other desserts. Mind you, my mother and relatives would go all out for the food holidays so her meal plans may not be typical!
Eh, I never liked the canned jelly stuff when I younger. Then I tried homade cranberry sauce and I’m sold.
And who doesn’t like sweet potatoes?