On average what percent of the US prepares a special feast for Thanksgiving?

Factual Questions
21

My wife and I ate an ordinary home-cooked dinner on Thu. But that’s because we’re doing the feast with visiting family thing today, Fri, due to work schedules.

Not turkey this year, but definitely a festive event with an elaborate meal. The “visiting family” are folks who live in the area who we see every week or two, so hardly the classic “4 generations from across the nation meet for the annual joyous reunion at the big ancestral home” Normal Rockwell stereotype. Still, we’re not ignoring the holiday as the OP seems to have.

I’d WAG that some manner of extra special meal is had sometime over the weekend by 70+ percent of the eligible folks.

I say “eligible” because there’s some fraction of Americans who are dirt poor, crazy, homeless, deployed, incarcerated, hospitalized, etc., who don’t really have the opportunity. Seems inaccurate to include them in the stats as non-participants. I extend it to the entire weekend because with the ever-increasing encroachment of retailing into the holiday, many people are forced to work some or all of Thanksgiving day and so have their feast when they can. As do the many people in 24/7 industries such as myself. See http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=811801 for more on this.
On occasion over the years I/we have skipped a holiday completely through indifference or just inadequate planning. Like the OP, we discovered just how bleak that can feel after the fact. So we don’t do that any more. If you’re not going to participate yourself by feasting with family or friends it’s worth a bit of extra effort to plan ahead for a meal out. They are available. One choice that’s almost always available is hotels. Any real hotel, e.g. Marriott or Hilton downtown, not Motel 6 by the interstate, will take good care of you on a holiday.

OTOH one of my more interesting bleak-turned-good Christmas dinners was on a work trip where the hotel let us down completely.

Our 3-man crew arrived at La Guardia on Christmas day (or was it eve? this was decades ago). Anyway, we get to the hotel around 8pm in a mild snowfall with a couple days-worth of snow already on the ground. Their restaurant had closed at 5 after serving turkey, etc., all day. We’re hungry, we just worked all day, it’s the holiday, we’re away from family, it’s cold, it’s snowing, and there’s no food. Waaah!!! :frowning:

Off we trudge into the snow in search of calories; any calories. The hotel is in a mostly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood about 5 blocks from the main drag with all the shops and restaurants. A couple blocks down the drag we find a kosher Chinese joint open and doing a brisk business. They didn’t much like the looks of us, lacking as we did beards and distinctive headgear, so we got the table by the kitchen. But it was an excellent meal in a festive environment and all the better for the feeling of reprieve versus what we’d expected earlier from the hotel: a stale snickers bar from a vending machine.
Sometimes it takes some adventure to make an event of it.

22

This year, my wife and I celebrated together, at home. Just the two of us. We’re in our late 50s, no kids. Nearest family is about a 4 hour drive (and we feel that’s close; we used to live in Texas where a 4 hour drive wouldn’t even get you out of the state).

We don’t do a Turkey. That’s just too much for the two of us, even a small one. A few years ago, we did a pair of Cornish Game Hens, instead. It turned out so well, that is our “Go-To” for Thanksgiving when it’s just the two of us. This year, we brined them a few hours, then 3 hours or so on the Smoker. Delicious. While I was outside smoking the birds, she made green bean casserole, stewed corn, crescent rolls (pop can) and a homemade buttermilk pie to finish. It wasn’t the most elaborate feast, but I sure felt like a King, with a whole bird all to myself and both of us were stuffed. We both fell asleep during the football game.

I have to admit it was one of the best Thanksgivings I’ve had in a long time. No family drama. No medical emergencies. Plus, no leftovers. No grouchy Gus because they didn’t like one of the dishes. Plus, we still have the rest of a four-day weekend to enjoy with each other and no long car trip to have to deal with.

I think we should have two Thanksgivings every year. Best Holiday Ever!

23

Sounds like a delicious meal excavating (for a mind).

I should have planned better this year. Lesson learned.

The food industry should have rough marketing statistics on how many people might go to restaurants for Thanksgiving. I know a hypothetical is hard to quantify. What’s the potential market if we do…

24

aceplace57, remember that relative of yours who always hosted the big Thanksgiving feast, who invited everyone over every year? The relative who, now that they’re dead, doesn’t do it any more? For someone in your situation, that relative is now you. The reason you didn’t have a Thanksgiving feast isn’t because your parents are dead. It’s because you didn’t host one and invite everyone over.

25

I can see my wife and I hosting the family Thanksgiving meal in a few years. Our daughters will finish college and hopefully live a reasonable driving distance away. It’ll be great coming together again for Thanksgiving.

They’ll both be flying into LR after taking their exams. I’m looking forward to being together for a a long Christmas holiday.

26

@Chronos:

True. Although that gets harder nowadays with smaller families more dispersed. The average kid in the 1950s had a bigger extended family living within an afternoon’s driving range than does a kid today.

My very aged MIL tells of T-days in her pre-Depression youth when there were a couple dozen uncles & aunts and many dozen cousins living in the same smallish town.

She laments the loss of that and I have to remind her that she forgot to have the last 6 of her 8 kids. But for that the family parties she hosted after her Mom was gone would’ve been bigger.

Fast forwarding to now, if we hadn’t moved her to be near us then her and her entire surviving extended family including cousins, nieces & nephews, etc., would be about 10 people, each living in a different state or country.

Truly we don’t live in our parents’, or our grandparents’, world. Much to their disorientation.
@aceplace: Make the effort in years ahead even if the distances don’t work out so conveniently. Inability to travel can set in earlier than one might expect. We can’t get back the years when we, as the middle-aged kids, didn’t go back to our aging parents. If they can’t come to you, go to them.

27

I agree it takes effort and commitment to keep a family together these days.

It’s worth it to have a big family gathering. You’re making lasting memories.

28

It always took effort and commitment.

29

How do you know they don’t? A lot of those employees might indeed want to spend the holidays with family, but have to be open for people who don’t want to be bothered doing all the work.

Hey, you don’t want to do the work, but still want to celebrate? Why not volunteer at a homeless shelter or something on Thanksgiving?

30

Not true, or certainly not universally true. My wife manages an event center, and they decided to close on Thanksgiving rather than be open, despite several inquiries from people. I know someone who owns a restaurant, and they made the same decision. In both cases, it was so employees could be with their families on the holiday.

Frankly, I find the OP’s confusion a bit puzzling. Yes, hospitals, fire departments and a few other places have to be open and have employees come in. But, there is no reason for a restaurant or store to be open and require employees to come in on Thanksgiving. Don’t want to cook the entire Thanksgiving meal? Do a chicken… or steaks or anything else at home. Or get invited somewhere. But it just seems a bit selfish to expect restaurants to be open. Then again, Thanksgiving has always been a big family holiday for me. It’s actually my favorite holiday, or at least a tie with Independence Day, and I can’t imagine going out to eat on either of those holidays.

31

Actually, you can have a perfectly nice ‘traditional’ Thanksgiving meal at home with very little effort … and even mostly avoid the dreaded leftovers.

The local grocery (Stop & Shop, though I bet most chains do the equivalent) sells rotisseried turkey breasts this time of year, along with the usual chickens. They also sell mashed potatoes and gravy from the deli cases, and rolls and pies from the bakery, and cranberry sauce and prepped frozen veggies are available all year. None of those require any ‘cooking’ from you beyond turning on the oven and bunging the containers inside.

Just how lazy are you?

32

Thanksgiving is a big meal, but we don’t view it as all that arduous. Sometimes is just the wife and I, and sometimes we invite friends that don’t have other plans. But we don’t view it as difficult.

-Turkey, goes in the oven with little fanfare.
-Boil Potatoes
-Toss green beans in a dish with soup and onion rings
-Open a can of cranberry sauce
-A pie

You can always buy a pie, open a can of gravy, buy a breast or buy a pre-cooked one at the supermarket to make it easier.

And we like leftovers, so this small amount of work (to us) leaves us another meal or two!

Additionally, we think that people should have Thanksgiving day off, so we don’t want to contribute to others having to work, so we avoid supporting restaurants on Thanksgiving.

Anecdotally, I don’t see a huge slowdown on Thanksgiving celebrations.

33

Well, we were in the Philly suburbs for Thanksgiving and decided to have our (small) family dinner out. Planned ahead, about 3 weeks before logged into OpenTable and saw dozens of restaurants open for Thanksgiving, many with traditional turkey dinner available in addition to their regular menu. Ended up at a Sullivan’s Steakhouse with our group of five, with lots of large (8 or more) groups in the restaurant.

No cooking, no dishes - but no days and days of leftover turkey. We will be cooking one when we get back to Arizona.

34

This reminds me … We had Thanksgiving in. But I made a ginormous pork loin, so no leftover turkey. So I bought a big turkey yesterday on super sale which I’ll roast tomorrow. It’s just not a holiday without smelling roasting birds. Enjoy yours when you get home.

I’ve never understood this aversion to leftovers from feasts. Not that you’re expressing that, but many people have. Unless these folks are being silly and making 25 lbs each of three kinds of mashed potatoes to feed 4 people.

We distributed a couple meals’-worth of stuff to everybody before they left. Then we finished our share of the leftover veggies, starches, and salad at lunch the very next day. Now I’ve got about 4 sets of lunch/dinner for two of pork loin left. Some of which I’ll heat and eat in a few minutes. So I’ll be down to three meal sets.

35

My understanding is there are too many volunteers on Christmas and Thanksgiving - ones that don’t show up any other time and aren’t that useful to have on that day. It’s also work, generally, so not a way of avoiding work.

Yes, there is. Demand is a reason. Not a necessity, but a reason. People forget ingredients and want to go out and get them. People want to eat out. If you can make a profit, that’s a reason to be open. Yes, some employees want to be with their families on the holidays. Other want to go to Church or Temple or celebrate other holidays, but (US) businesses are still open on Sunday and Saturday and Chinese New Year and Saint Patrick’s Day. If people abstain from going out on those days, then businesses will stay closed on those days.

And people celebrate different ways - I’m not a Thanksgiving-day shopper. But for some, that’s how they celebrate. But I’ve never heard them complaining when a store chooses to remain shut and not facilitate their method enjoying the holiday. And football players (at least a few) work on Thanksgiving day. Maybe some of them would like to have that day off. But there’s demand.

36

I believe the supermarkets will sell the whole meal as a kit with turkey, stuffing, sides and pie. Usually you have to place the order well in advance so they know how many meals to prepare, and then you pick it up the day before or the morning of Thanksgiving.

By the way, I don’t know whether the OP wanted to know only about the percentage of households that actually prepare the holiday meal, or wanted to include those who get it catered like this from supermarkets and the like.

37

This can be true in some cases. I worked for Toys R Us for a few years (a long time ago). They tested being open on Thanksgiving one year to see how many customers they would bring in. The decision to continue to be open on that holiday in the future would be based entirely on the profitability of it, how employees felt was no concern. Large corporations with easily-replaceable, low-skilled workers will usually take this tactic, and many chain restaurants fall under this description.

A cynical person might also say that providing a day off to make employees happy is also a business decision, as that cultivates an environment that maintains better employees who won’t leave for a business with a better culture. It depends on your perspective.

38

We have routinely been eating out on Thanksgiving for over a decade, and have never had any difficulty finding somewhere that was open and serving the traditional meal. Here, anyway, Cracker Barrel is always open on Thanksgiving, as well as over forty local restaurants according to the list in the local paper. This year, we hit Weber Grill; in previous years we’ve done Maggiano’s, J. Gilbert’s, and others. Maggiano’s does a very nice job, and they even serve the turkey, dressing, etc family style and you get to take home your leftovers.
We do cook a Thanksgiving dinner at home, but we shift it to Friday or Saturday. It doesn’t feel as hectic that way. We got started doing this when our daughter was in high school - her high school did a HUGE traditional sports rivalry event on Thanksgiving every year, and there was no time to get her to and from and cook as well. (St. Louis locals will know exactly which high school I’m referring to, probably)

39

The restaurant part is tricky. Given a large enough population, a restaurant opening will make sense. But, if they are seen as doing really well, the next year more restaurants are likely to try and they’ll all lose money.

40

Q.E.D. Adjacent posts no less. Corporate chains all.