Waitrose and Thanksgiving

I agree! Ridiculous!

Perhaps they are catering for the American ex-pats over here.

Ridiculous. I have bought two frozen turkeys, one for. Daughter and one for me BOTH for Christmas.

It's to spread the cost of Christmas.

We've been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday with friends

Feel free to ignore Thanksgiving if you wish, nobody is forcing you! That said, there are enough expats and Americophiles for Waitrose to want a share of the market, bet nonu will be celebrating!

Er.... do they realise Thanksgiving celebrates the Revolutionary Wars and American Independence from Britain?

Or perhaps we should celebrate it

Whatever, we can choose to be swayed by the marketing hype, or we can choose to ignore it.

Years ago I used to buy my frozen turkey for Christmas in late September. What was I celebrating?

Canny shopping flicketyB??

Yes, I'm sure most of it is shopping for Christmas. We did 'do' Thanksgiving when DS1 and our American DIL were living in UK and enjoyed it, though sweet potato, mashed and covered with marshmallows and grilled was a bit too sweet for us.
It was interesting last year to be in California for Thanksgiving with her family. The house was full to bursting with relatives and food. In the night a bear got into the bin and went off with the turkey carcasses.

janea, it seems that Thanksgiving was celebrated long before Independence. It is reputed to have been celebrated, originally, to give thanks for a good harvest by settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. Of course, my source for this is the omniscient Wiki.
Do you think the President could 'pardon' a frozen turkey?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving#In_the_United_States

Well, I have managed to ignore all the Christmas 'bits' as I am not ready to deal with it just yet so ignoring the thanksgiving 'bits' won't be difficult.

Oops Anno

The Revolutionary War and Independence celebration would be on Independence Day (July 4th).

Thanksgiving Day is the celebration of the first harvest of the pilgrims (from England).

Yes, it was celebrated to give thanks by the 53 remaining Pilgrim Fathers. However, it says in this link that it was an English custom:

www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/ap_first_thanksgiving.htm

I suppose like our Harvest Festivals now. Perhaps we should be putting a frozen turkey amongst the fruit and vegetables and harvest festival sheaf loaf!

Well of course they could be catering for the American Ex Pats that live in Britain. It doesn't mean to say we have to embrace the tradition. When you live away from home it's comforting to be able to celebrate occasions that are dear to you. I was a Middle East Expat for 34 years and would have hated the thought that I couldn't get a Christmas tree etc. We even managed to buy one in Jeddah Saudi Arabia! We could get everything to make our Christmas's special in Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

We are surrounded by Americans here in East Angular. For them it's an excuse to meet up with family and even more important than Christmas. I don't begrudge it to them. I can see that the supermarkets are out to wring every last penny/cent out of each and every one of us, but I'm not fussed about the Independence part and nor are they! Life's too short and many have settled here - even one of my Tesco delivery men is a retired American who loved it here and stayed, and married an English woman.

Jane I didn't think there were any angles in your area.(East Angular) It's pretty flat isn't it?

Americans who are living here will, I expect, want to celebrate Thanksgiving and I think that's perfectly natural.

I do hope, though, that this isn't going to be yet another American custom that is imported here.

When I lived in New York we loved the Thanksgiving Day celebrations, many of our friends there would invite us to join them. I was brought up in Canada in the 1940's and 50s and we did not celebrate Thanksgiving then. As has been said on this thread it stems from the Pilgrim Fathers' first harvest. However, it was adopted later by the Canadians and I thought it very strange.
To have it here is a retailing ploy. For example the advent of Fathers' Day was brought in by the greetings card people , not a nice gesture for fathers. Not that I object to that one.
Incidentally, at a Thanksgiving dinner in New York, a well meaning guest said how much I must miss my family at that time of year. A similar question was asked on a July 4th party as to whether we had fireworks on July 4th too. Typical case of Americans not knowing their own history.

I think Thanksgiving in the US is something to be admired - it's inclusive and non-denominational - we could do with it here!

I have spent a couple of Thanksgiving days in USA - I think it is a lovely celebration in that it is like Christmas BUT no presents and all about family and being thankful. The children at school make Pilgrim Fathers out of toilet roll middles etc and know many of the facts. For many people it is the Thanksgiving weekend when their families get together - many of them live many miles apart and several days are needed for all the travelling etc.
The Americans tend to celebrate the passing seasons far more than we do.

For me,it is the one American tradition that I have always wished we would adopt.They can keep their Trick or Treating and their High School Proms but I've always felt that Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for families and counting your blessings.
It compares with our Harvest Festival tradition,giving thanks for our food.Of course,this is mainly a Christian celebration but how wonderful if we had Thanksgiving for people of all faiths or none.It does not need to be about Turkeys and all the trimmings-just a lovely family get together with a simple meal and gratitude.I think many people,especially the young,forget to just stop and think how lucky they are,how much they appreciate the things they take for granted.
Thanksgiving-I'm all for it!

As a grandmother of American origin (I'm now Belgian), I do feel that it's a mistake for the UK to copy something that has nothing to do with the Brits ... it's a celebration of the first year of survival of the Pilgrim Fathers who had left England because of religious persecution there!

Similarly, Halloween as now celebrated in the UK and even in Belgium was a big deal in the US decades before ...

As I have given up US nationality, this is not a question of my loyalty to the US, but rather dismay that countries around the world feel it desirable to follow along behind America (often for purely commercial reasons) ... is the US really doing such a great job as "leader of the free world"

Very true Brusselsgran, and a good post.