Most Americans plan to celebrate Thanksgiving with some turkey this year, and few of them are expecting political arguments to disrupt the big meal, a new Economist / YouGov Poll finds.
Overall 81% of Americans say they will celebrate Thanksgiving this year, and 67% of Americans say they'll be eating turkey at Thanksgiving. Other dishes that at least half of Americans expect to eat at Thanksgiving are mashed potatoes, bread or rolls, pie, stuffing, and gravy.
While turkey is a popular Thanksgiving dish everywhere, there are some regional variations in Thanksgiving cuisine: Midwestern tables are more likely to feature mashed potatoes, breads, and pie, Southerners are more likely to serve ham and macaroni and cheese, and people from the Northeast are more likely to have cranberry sauce. (Brussel sprouts, alas, aren't particularly popular anywhere.)
Democrats (83%) and Republicans (84%) are equally likely to say they'll celebrate Thanksgiving. Adults under 30 are less likely to — 29% say they won't celebrate Thanksgiving, compared to 19% of all U.S. adult citizens.
Money is a constraint for some planned celebrations: 37% of Americans say their Thanksgiving plans are being affected by price increases, while 36% say they aren't. These numbers are similar to what Americans said in 2023.
Just 18% of Americans who are celebrating Thanksgiving expect politics to mar their Thanksgiving dinners, while 76% say they don't expect political arguments.
This is especially true for Americans celebrating Thanksgiving who expect almost all of their guests to have voted for Kamala Harris or for Donald Trump: 84% of each group don't expect any political arguments.
Americans who expect their Thanksgiving guests won't have primarily supported one candidate are more likely to anticipate arguments. More than one-quarter each of those expecting guests who supported both candidates equally, or where a majority but not almost all supported each candidate, say they expect political arguments. In all of these groups, though, majorities expect that there won't be political arguments at Thanksgiving.
In response to an open-ended question, many Americans say they are thankful for their family, for their health, and for their jobs. Some say they are most thankful for Trump's election win.
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs from the Economist/YouGov poll conducted on November 17 - 19, 2024 among 1,595 U.S. adult citizens.
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,595 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3.5%.
Image: Getty (Maren Caruso)
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