This is my 11th British Thanksgiving.
As the first member of my family since the Mayflower to make the reverse migration, each year I spend the middle of November wracked with a vague guilt vis-a-vis my Puritan ancestors. For they, of course, fled the cruel, prejudiced shores of England to set up a cruel and prejudiced little outpost of their own in a country that at least benefits from the occasional spot of sun in the winter months.
1. Leave your cynicism at the door
Thanksgiving would never work in Britain, because it is the day that self-deprecation forgot. Is it a holiday commemorating the Anglo-Saxon invasion of a country that already belonged to someone else? Yes. And what must have been an incredibly awkward dinner party between invader and invadee? Right again.
But rather like the way Americans say, “Have a nice day” and mean it, Thanksgiving brings out the earnest in the most sincere of peoples. We don’t all get out our gratitude journals (give it time; soon we will), but people do sometimes soberly list what they’re grateful for. And it’s nice.
2. Thanksgiving is not 'the American Christmas'
Thanksgiving is the most democratic of holidays: a non-denominational, multicultural celebration of coexistence in the same country.
Pagan roots and an old guy in a red suit notwithstanding, Christmas bears more than subtle ties to Christianity, making it distinctly exclusive. Apples and oranges.
Come December, American Christians don’t abandon Christmas because they just ate turkey the month before. The have ham, beef, or nutloaf, and make merry.
3. Thanksgiving is not commercial
If you ignore the Macy’s parade – which most people do – Thanksgiving is blissfully free of commercialism. There’s nothing that you need to buy.
Moreover, Thanksgiving acts as a buffer, containing the hullabaloo of Christmas shopping to one neat month. Not so in Britain, where the people have eschewed the happy day of food and family, and elected to appropriate Black Friday as their own.
Minus its role as the official opener to the Christmas shopping season, this is a catastrophic succumbing to the advertising industry. UK own goal.
4. Pies are sweet
Pies are happier being sweet. Who wants to have a centimetre-thick shell of “jelly” that everyone squidges around their plate or through gaps in their teeth? Not a pie.
Of course, I can understand that this may be hard to fathom in a country that insists on putting beef into its sweet Christmas pies.
5. Marshmallow fluff
And while we’re on the subject of sweet, not everyone eats sweet potatoes with marshmallows. In fact, I do not know anyone who does - because that would be disgusting. Yams are already sweet enough.
There’s no excuse for that. There is also no excuse for frog’s eye salad, which involves no reptiles, but lots of tins, and is, allegedly, popular in the Midwest.
6. Regional charm
But this brings us to my final point: America is vast. Food is regional. My New England-based family serves “cranberry bread” - a lovely loaf with cranberries and walnuts – with the main meal. We have done so for centuries and will not stop now, even when my British husband reminds me each year that our English guests find it unsettling to be served cake with turkey.
It is impossible to agree on Thanksgiving recipes. It is equally impossible for a Briton to abandon self-deprecation in favour of a gratitude journal. Old dogs, new tricks.
But it is a fact that this was the best turkey pardon ever.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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