9 Of The Biggest Differences Between Canadian & American Thanksgiving

Why is American Thanksgiving in November and Canadian Thanksgiving in October?

The short (and kind of obvious) answer is that it gets cold here sooner. The Canadian harvest ends a lot sooner because Canada is further north.

But as the Canadian Encyclopedia notes, Thanksgiving in Canada happened all over autumn for years, sometimes even overlapping with the U.S. event, until it was finally fixed to the second Monday of October by Parliament on January 31, 1957. In the U.S., the event has generally been in late November.

Thanksgiving is a big f*cking deal in the U.S.

Generalizations have their flaws and you may be a Canadian who absolutely loves Thanksgiving, but the hype of the U.S. holiday is indisputably orders of magnitude larger. There are Hallmark (and other) movies, seasonal decorative junk in stores, weird school plays about the pilgrims — and American Thanksgiving is the biggest travel period of the entire year, with U.S. airports at their most packed and miserable. U.S. airports are jammed because going home for U.S. Thanksgiving is a thing.

Thanksgiving is kind of optional in Canada

If you don’t come home for Thanksgiving your mother won't have a heart attack. You could maybe find decorations if you hunt for them, and there are exactly zero notable movies about Canadian Thanksgiving. Some travel for it, but airports see bigger travel days in the summer and around the Christmas season.

Canadian Thanksgiving isn't equated with family dysfunction

In spite of American Thanksgiving’s obligatory status, it can seem like nobody actually wants to be there. The internet is stacked with articles from U.S. publications offering tips on how to navigate family feuds, handle stress, stop grandparents from criticizing grandkids, avoid tricky dinner table topics and generally “survive” the holiday.

Canadian Thanksgiving tends to swing towards a more laid-back celebration. While the emphasis is still on family and gratitude, there's less societal pressure, and thus, fewer proverbial eggshells to tread on. The dinner table north of the border often sees lively conversations and storytelling rather than tense debates and unsolicited advice. While every family has its quirks, Canadians often view their Thanksgiving as a simple, unpretentious time to enjoy good food and company without the high-stakes drama that sometimes permeates the American experience.

Summer love dies on Canadian Thanksgiving

​You’re a Canadian university student who found romance while back home for the summer, and before heading back to school in different cities, you and your partner vow that your love is an unbreakable bond. It takes about a month to realize that long-distance relationships are the worst, making Canadian Thanksgiving the perfect time to break up.

American Thanksgiving cleverly creates a four-day weekend

As far as public holiday design goes, U.S. Thanksgiving is a standout, falling deliberately and permanently on a Thursday, which of course means everyone lucky enough to be on the weekday 9-to-5 schedule takes Friday off, too.

There is no monumental retail event immediately after Canadian Thanksgiving

​Canadians don’t go from being thankful to battling each other in stores for door-crasher deals and deep discounts in a span of 24 hours. Of course, if there was a Black Friday equivalent in Canada in October, they surely would.

Is the food the same for Canadian and U.S. Thanksgiving?

​​Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie are fairly standard in both countries. Although the data isn’t uniform, Americans seem to eat a lot more ham. A 2019 Washington Post story cites an expert who says around 15% of U.S. households include ham on Thanksgiving. A 2022 Maru Public Opinion survey found only 3% of Canadians considered ham a quintessential Thanksgiving dish.

While ham preference might vary, nothing raises eyebrows in Canada quite like U.S. fondness for marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes. The peculiar blend has its roots in the early 20th century and can be traced back to marketing efforts by American marshmallow manufacturers to find innovative ways to sell their product. What started as a sales pitch transformed into an American holiday classic. The confluence of sugary fluff on tubers creates an earthy caramelized sweetness. The result is a textural and flavourful seesaw. Canadians might enjoy salty-sweet combinations (think maple bacon or even Montreal poutine), but a dessert-ish side dish on the Thanksgiving table? That's distinctly American territory.

The weird hypocritical Indigenous-Colonial gathering iconography is more muted in Canada

The American Thanksgiving story is more rooted in a specific historical narrative involving the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and their interactions with the Wampanoag Native Americans. The story has been widely taught in American schools and is deeply embedded in popular culture, which is why it often gets associated with pilgrims and their first harvest feast.

Canadian Thanksgiving, on the other hand, does not have such a specific and singular origin story. While there were similar interactions between Europeans and Indigenous peoples in Canada, the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday does not emphasize this narrative in the same way. Its origins are more varied, and they include influences from European harvest festivals and gratitude for safe journeys or significant events. As a result, the holiday in Canada tends to focus more on the general theme of gratitude and the harvest, rather than a specific historical event.

However, it's important to note that Canada, like the U.S., is grappling with the broader implications of its colonial history, especially in its treatment of Indigenous peoples. This includes acknowledging past wrongs, striving for reconciliation, and correcting historical accounts. The difference in Thanksgiving lore is just a small part of this larger picture.

Did Canada or the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving first?

Since many of the traditions tied to Thanksgiving in either country are borrowed from harvest festivals celebrated for millennia by pagans, Romans, Greeks and others, this question is a bit silly — but let’s indulge it in the spirit of meaningless competition.

The Canadian Encyclopedia says that Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew ate a meal to celebrate their safe arrival in what is now Nunavut in 1578, and that Samuel de Champlain began rotating feasts in 1606 called the Ordre de Bon Temps, which “ was 17 years before what is often recognized as the first American Thanksgiving — the Pilgrims’ celebration of their first harvest in Massachusetts in 1621.”