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.
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.
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%).