Thanksgiving Outside the U.S., Part II

Part of the challenge for Americans living abroad is explaining to your new neighbors the historical significance of thanksgiving and why, exactly, we commemorate this secular holiday by gorging ourselves and watching football. My first year in London, a British colleague asked me if Americans sat around on Thanksgiving making fun of the British for having lost that particular patch of empire. I didn't have the heart to tell her that, outside of Austin powers movies, Americans spend very little time thinking about the British, period.

James Ledbetter for Chow magazine, Holiday 2004 issue