To be annoyed by Thanksgiving in the UK?

[talomon]

Is it me or Thanksgiving is becoming quite widespread in the UK?

I studied in the states and live in central London, so maybe I am exposed to American people more than most, but I still feel many of my Brit and French friends and acquittances have started hosting Thanksgiving and treating it like a major holiday. Ten years ago it was quite obscure.

I mean I get that it's a nice occasion, and the food spread looks nice especially for social media, but still I am not sure I like it.

YANBU = Our culture is becoming to Americanized
YABU = It's a great holiday to celebrate

Several years ago I noticed M&S had a meal deal for Burns Night and a local pub (no Scottish connection afaik) had an event. I’m nowhere near Scotland and I didn’t see any of it in subsequent years, so their testing the waters clearly failed. I find these festivals and holidays stripped of their cultural context rather sad. Celebrating with friends from the US, Scotland, wherever - sounds great. Otherwise, no, and doubly so if being used to flog stuff.

I saw a friend of mine hosted a thanksgiving style meal, but they weren’t celebrating thanksgiving as such, and it was the day after. The only other people I know to do it in the U.K. are American. Don’t know why people who aren’t American would celebrate an American holiday

The only place I see or hear it mentioned is on the US podcasts I listen to. No one I know celebrates or even mentions it. Why on earth would someone from the UK, living in the UK do Thanksgiving?

@newnamethanks I have had it over in the States. I have a sweet tooth and was quite excited but it was just yuck, I didn't think the sweet potato (or yams) went with the marshmallow. I just put some on the side of my mains, as it was out on the table with everything else.

I don't know anyone who celebrates it nowadays. We did have thanksgiving (or the harvest festival) when I was a child 40 years ago though although it wasn't on the same date as the American one. Not everything is an American tradition. They probably got it from us.

Harvest Festival was still a big thing here when I was a child - a celebration (and thanksgiving in the religious sense) - we used to bring food items into school for a display at morning assembly, and many churches did similar. I still remember the harvest festival hymns - ‘We plough the fields and scatter…’ etc.

Getting the harvest in was of major importance for centuries - a poor one was a disaster.
So for the early settlers in America - no shops to buy anything - it was a huge thing - without a good harvest you’d all starve during the winter. As I believe many of the very early ones did.

The op didn't mention expats. No one has a problem with people from the US, living in the UK doing Thanksgiving. The op says Brits are doing it. Not sure they are though and not in high enough numbers to be noticeable.

I probably would find it annoying so YANBU but I don’t know of a single person who is so I’m not convinced it’s becoming widespread at all.

I think it's just pictures on SM
I don't know anybody who is cooking the whole shebang twice. not me.

My DD's nursery did a thanksgiving themed dinner on Thursday. I don't have a problem with that. They also do special menus for Chinese new year, Diwali etc. It helps the children learn about other countries and cultures.

Even Americans celebrating it gives me a bad taste in my mouth. They're basically celebrating stealing a nation from its indigenous people. Surely in this day and age when you can't even cook a foreign dish without being accused of "cultural appropriation", Thanksgiving ought to be hugely problematic. And yet.

I agree with pp- this thread is just another excuse for America bashing

My son was based in the US for a few years. He found Christmas there a bit of a let down - too close to Thanksgiving.

I hai Iredell because neither scenarios are applicable.

I don’t know a single person who celebrated and have heard no mention of it at all.

I have a group of friends who host a big traditional thanksgiving style meal each year. They all love cooking and making the traditional American dishes, it started when a few of them lived together after uni and just did it to try a new menu but it’s become tradition now, I’ve attended a few times and it’s nice to get together and enjoy a feast with friends before everyone’s too busy with Christmas activities to meet up. This group of friends also regularly have other dinner parties too, several of them love cooking and want to try their hand at cooking food from all over the world so Thanksgiving is really just a nice excuse to be able to host and get together.

We do it at church. It's nice to have a meal together and we can be thankful for friends.
We talked about doing a Christmas meal together but no one really wanted that as they get enough Christmas meals and it's busy close to Christmas.

I don't think we have any Americans in the congregation.

I wish friends from the US a Happy Thanksgiving, and genuinely want them to have a lovely bonding day with their families, but privately I agree with you. Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for Indigenous Americans, people who still today experience racism.

And so what if a few Brits are doing it? It hardly means you're being 'Americanized', it's a ridiculous overreaction.

Nope never heard anyone celebrating it. I'd be quite bemused if anyone not American was.

It would be no fun having it here as it's a normal working/school day. Never met anyone who celebrates it.

The only people I know that celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK are Americans that are living here.

As far as I can tell from my circle of friends the only thing linked to Thanksgiving that's made its way here is Black Friday!

I agree and so do a lot of Americans. In my part of the US it's definitely evolving into more of a harvest festival day, when I was a kid there was still all the pilgrims stuff but not at all anymore. People do know that folktale origin story is deeply problematic.

Actually I'm curious if people here know that the settlers in that story were English.

I don't know anyone over here who celebrates, who isn't American.

I don’t know anyone who celebrates Thanksgiving here in the north east.

if A cafe put up Diwali decorations, or A school that was c of e had a celebration for Hanukkah would you complain?

there’s lots of Americans in this country and it’s bigger than Christmas for them, so as a “multicultural” society (which most people here like to say they support) why would you have an issue with people having a little celebration of thanksgiving. Even if they are ‘not American’? (Not that you know anything of these people’s family set up or backgrounds)

why can’t people just be nice and allow people to celebrate if they want to?

If you lived somewhere they didn’t celebrate Christmas, seeing someone pop up a Christmas tree would make you feel happy. It makes Americans/second gen Americans here feel welcome and part of the country when they see thanksgiving being celebrated. Stop with the anti American it’s boring.

don’t see you bitching about Eid.