British Ex-Pat Explains How He Thought Thanksgiving Was Christmas Until He Moved to the United States

British ex-pat Laurence Brown of Lost in the Pond quite bluntly explained that Thanksgiving in the United States was the same as Christmas in Britain. Brown had only heard of this holiday through the classic John Hughes movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, which his dad bought for him while on business in London.

I put it on and sure enough my dad was right it was funny ….but after several watches there was one question that kept popping into my head, “What on Earth is Thanksgiving?”

Brown had thought that Thanksgiving was the same as Christmas due to his experience with snow, the lighting of candles, and the main course of turkey. After he moved to the US, he realized it was a completely different holiday altogether.

20 years later after moving to the United States I found out firsthand and it wasn’t what I was expecting  The first surprise is that Thanksgiving wasn’t simply another word for Christmas and I know to Americans that might sound weird because Thanksgiving isn’t Christmas, but the film gave me more than one reason to believe that.

He has since learned that this is not the case. That Thanksgiving is in November, specifically the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and that it is vastly different than Christmas.

During my first Thanksgiving party which happened about 2 weeks after I moved to the United States, it became clear at that point that this was in addition to Christmas and so I was quickly onto the business of eating, but also asking these friends and family members at the table “what’s all this about?”. 

He finally realized what the holiday is about. Time off and no presents.

What we never got to see in “Planes Trains and Automobiles” is the actual event the sitting around the table because Thanksgiving is a joyous occasion and I don’t know that that’s just because people feel extra thankful that day or if it’s this it’s a holiday with very little pressure…but unlike Christmas you don’t have to buy presents for anybody, so that’s nice and because it falls on a Thursday, some employers might even give their employees the Friday off.