A survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Sabra has found that Americans prefer spending time with friends than family. The study of 2000 Americans between 18-38 found that 68% chose to spend Thanksgiving with their friends.
Why Americans prefer Friendsgiving
About 62% of the participants did not like hosting or celebrating traditional Thanksgiving events. Another 58% felt uncomfortable having a conventional Thanksgiving as personal questions would bombard them.
Approximately 2 in 5 would rather spend Friendsgiving with their friends as they could be more relaxed and open. Another 38% were glad they didn’t have to fear offending their relatives, while 2 in 5 didn’t have to worry about holding back their opinions.
Friendsgiving is a new tradition in the U.S where people have dinner with their friends instead of family. Most participants have this dinner a few days after or before Thanksgiving.
About 28% of the participants would host Friendsgiving this year. Although hosting a traditional Thanksgiving dinner was tedious for most participants, nearly 67% were excited to host Friendsgiving.
While Friendsgiving is a pretty new tradition, about 44% incorporate traditional holiday meals. However, more than 25% would develop new practices such as eating hummus and guacamole.
Americans had trouble preparing Friendsgiving meals
Despite the differences between Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving, people still faced the same difficulties. For example, 4 in 5 respondents didn’t know what to bring to the dinners. Another 53% stayed that cooking turkey gave them anxiety, while 44% said they felt stressed about cooking any traditional Thanksgiving meal.
The Friendsgiving hosts also admitted to feeling stressed about cooking for their friends. For example, some were nervous about making a cherry pie (38%), Apple pie (39%), and pumpkin pie (52%).
Many Friendsgiving hosts would sometimes forget to add essential parts of the meal. These include failing to make dips (42%), sides (46%), salads (51%), and desserts (56%). Only 1 in 3 participants would host a Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving dinner without alcoholic drinks.
The dishes most of the respondents enjoyed on Thanksgiving included pecan pie (26%), cherry pie (35%), sweet potato pie (47%), pumpkin pie (48%), and apple pie (53%).
