Whats bigger in the US Thanksgiving or Christmas and what are the key differences in both occasions?
October 19, 2025
From a curious European:)
27 comments
More people celebrate Thanksgiving than Christmas. People who celebrate Christmas, on average, make a bigger deal about it than Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is Christmas’s pre-game dinner.
Christmas by far. The key reason is that it’s a big religious holiday and that it’s super commercial.
Christmas is far bigger because there is a huge consumer/marketing/advertising portion of it.
I’ve lived there with an american family. (Im from Brazil) thanksgiving we all visited grandmother’s house. Xmas it was a small gathering of the inner family.
So i would say thanksgiving
Christmas is way bigger. It’s the only day of the year(anymore) everything is closed down, Christmas stuff starts popping up in some stores in September and Christmas music starts popping up on radio after Halloween.
Thanksgiving is bigger when it comes to family gathering, more people travel long distance then to be together
Depends on the family. My family does not observe Christmas, so Thanksgiving is bigger by default.
Christmas. Both with the commercialization of it with everyone buying presents and all the sales, and things like music, movies, TV specials. I don’t know a single thanksgiving song, and even the day after thanksgiving, Black Friday, is the day when stores have big sales for Christmas presents.
Also, Christmas kind of gets bundled with new years and some people have off from dec 24-Jan 1. Which also happens to be when schools have winter break, so depending on how the days line up you can have almost 2 weeks off around Christmas. Thanksgiving you normally only get off Thursday (Thanksgiving) and Friday (Black Friday).
Almost equal in my opinion. However, Thanksgiving is more food/football driven, where Christmas is for gifts.
Regardless, November starts the holiday season with shopping, parties, decorations, etc. All wrapping up with New Year’s Eve.
Christmas is way bigger, assuming you celebrate it. Since both holidays are pretty close together lots of people have to choose whether they are going home for one or the other, I know lots of people who skip flying home for thanksgiving, I don’t know anyone who would skip Christmas unless they absolutely had to.
Beyond that Christmas is really a month long event, with people decorating and doing lots of other winter activities well before the actual day. Thanksgiving is more of a “one day and it’s over” event. People will go out and buy food for the dinner a few days early maybe, but the main event is pretty short.
Thanksgiving is one day. Christmas/”the holiday season” is basically all of December with gift buying, work and friend parties, etc. leading up to actual Christmas Day on December 25th and then New Year’s Day.
If you go by number of people who celebrate then probably Thanksgiving.
If you go the amount of money, decorations and build up then Christmas.
Christmas is way bigger because it’s basically a month long celebration with more things to do.
Thanksgiving is “you go to your family’s house and eat a big turkey meal with all the fixins.”
There are like 5 thanksgiving songs and a million Christmas songs of every genre.
Thanksgiving is about food and football. GO LIONS!!
Christmas is about family, baking, singing and great movies. It goes from the day after Thanksgiving ( black Friday) to the epiphany.
Among families who celebrate both (*some* immigrants only celebrate Christmas and *some* nonChristians/nonMuslims only celebrate Thanksgiving), Christmas is bigger and more important. It can APPEAR less important however because it’s a bit more common to celebrate Thanksgiving with extended family, but immediate family do make a bigger deal out of Christmas.
Overall I would say Christmas.
Christmas is a whole season, while Thanksgiving is pretty much one day.
Thanksgiving is much more food focused than Christmas. The day itself can be bigger in some families. Some just have people over for dinner, while others have people over for the whole day. The thanksgiving football games are pretty big, much bigger than the Christmas football games. The Macy’s Thanksgiving parade is a big thanksgiving tradition.
But Christmas is pretty much shoved down your throat the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Day. I’m not complaining, I love the Christmas season. The lights, the music, etc. It’s very dark where I live (Northern US) so the Christmas season is kind of a necessity to not go crazy.
You have Christmas parties, which don’t have to be on Christmas, secret Santa. A lot of businesses will throw company Christmas parties. Commercially, Christmas is way bigger.
Edit – I would also add that you are more likely to travel farther and/or take time off Christmas beyond just Christmas.
For those who celebrate it, most would say Christmas. Thanksgiving is more widely celebrated because it’s non-denominational. But Christmas is a monster of a holiday that is decorated for in public and private, has its music played everywhere, has countless songs, specials, and movies about it, and overshadows several other faiths mid winter holidays.
Sadly, Christmas is much MUCH bigger than Thanksgiving.
I say sadly because Thanksgiving is, at it’s heart, about a feast with family (and/or friends). It is about getting together, breaking bread (well, turkey, usually), and enjoying time together.
Christmas is about who gets the right gift to the right person, etc, etc. I’m not against gift-giving, but that’s become the main point. Gotta give the gifts, do this thing, then that. It’s hectic and about the spectacle.
To be a little trite, Thanksgiving is about your presence, while Christmas is about the presents.
Just about every American eats a Thanksgiving meal
Christmas is religious, Thanksgiving isn’t explicitly so. But the biggest religious holiday is actually Easter, though it’s commercially the smallest of these three.
I vastly prefer Thanksgiving as an atheist and stuffing enthusiast. Xmas gets annoying, fast.
Thanksgiving is all about the dinner. You get together with friends and family, usually watch football or the parade or both, and that’s pretty much it. Decor is usually autumn themed, unless you put up the Christmas stuff already (I don’t). The dinner itself has specific expectations, with a few variations by region or family. A typical spread includes turkey with gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, and pumpkin pie for dessert.
Christmas is much bigger, especially for families with children. There’s more decorating, more events, and a lot of seasonal music. The day itself involves not just dinner and family but gifts and sometimes a church service as well. Dinner is a lot more flexible. Some families do something similar to Thanksgiving, with turkey and/or ham; some do prime rib; some do tamales. As long as it’s festive, almost anything goes.
The advantage of having two major holidays next to each other is that if you have family in two different places, you can spend Thanksgiving with one and Christmas with the other, thus avoiding the drama of leaving out one side. It also helps with even division of hosting duties. Personally, as a good cook with no strong religious feelings, I focus most of my attention on Thanksgiving and spend Christmas relaxing with my in-laws.
Thanksgiving
It’s celebrated by all. Christmas is celebrated my some
National holiday over religious
Christmas is bigger, but Thanksgiving is better.
Christmas is way bigger. The key difference is that Christmas is a religious holiday and thanksgiving is a national holiday. That means that typically you won’t see a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu etc American celebrating Christmas, but they might celebrate Thanksgiving. Most of the traditional food options are different. There are some ethnic groups that will have distinct traditions around Christmas (Italian Americans with the 7 fishes and such) but that’s less common with Thanksgiving, where things seem a lot more uniform.
Bigger OVERALL? Christmas.
I say this because it’s both a religious and commercial holiday.
For my personal life? Thanksgiving.
Is it because I only saw some family on Christmas and others Thanksgiving? No.
Is it purely because my birthday is overshadowed by Christmas? Also no.
In general, I think that both are meant to feel like a uniting holiday, one spent with both family and friends. However, Christmas has that extra religious edge and I’d prefer to not have a religious holiday also be commercial, thanks.
The ACTUAL biggest? July 4th, even though that’s not the correct day anyway.
27 comments
More people celebrate Thanksgiving than Christmas. People who celebrate Christmas, on average, make a bigger deal about it than Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is Christmas’s pre-game dinner.
Christmas by far. The key reason is that it’s a big religious holiday and that it’s super commercial.
Christmas is far bigger because there is a huge consumer/marketing/advertising portion of it.
I’ve lived there with an american family. (Im from Brazil) thanksgiving we all visited grandmother’s house. Xmas it was a small gathering of the inner family.
So i would say thanksgiving
Christmas is way bigger. It’s the only day of the year(anymore) everything is closed down, Christmas stuff starts popping up in some stores in September and Christmas music starts popping up on radio after Halloween.
Thanksgiving is bigger when it comes to family gathering, more people travel long distance then to be together
Depends on the family. My family does not observe Christmas, so Thanksgiving is bigger by default.
Christmas. Both with the commercialization of it with everyone buying presents and all the sales, and things like music, movies, TV specials. I don’t know a single thanksgiving song, and even the day after thanksgiving, Black Friday, is the day when stores have big sales for Christmas presents.
Also, Christmas kind of gets bundled with new years and some people have off from dec 24-Jan 1. Which also happens to be when schools have winter break, so depending on how the days line up you can have almost 2 weeks off around Christmas. Thanksgiving you normally only get off Thursday (Thanksgiving) and Friday (Black Friday).
Almost equal in my opinion. However, Thanksgiving is more food/football driven, where Christmas is for gifts.
Regardless, November starts the holiday season with shopping, parties, decorations, etc. All wrapping up with New Year’s Eve.
Christmas is way bigger, assuming you celebrate it. Since both holidays are pretty close together lots of people have to choose whether they are going home for one or the other, I know lots of people who skip flying home for thanksgiving, I don’t know anyone who would skip Christmas unless they absolutely had to.
Beyond that Christmas is really a month long event, with people decorating and doing lots of other winter activities well before the actual day. Thanksgiving is more of a “one day and it’s over” event. People will go out and buy food for the dinner a few days early maybe, but the main event is pretty short.
Thanksgiving is one day. Christmas/”the holiday season” is basically all of December with gift buying, work and friend parties, etc. leading up to actual Christmas Day on December 25th and then New Year’s Day.
If you go by number of people who celebrate then probably Thanksgiving.
If you go the amount of money, decorations and build up then Christmas.
Christmas is way bigger because it’s basically a month long celebration with more things to do.
Thanksgiving is “you go to your family’s house and eat a big turkey meal with all the fixins.”
There are like 5 thanksgiving songs and a million Christmas songs of every genre.
Thanksgiving is about food and football. GO LIONS!!
Christmas is about family, baking, singing and great movies. It goes from the day after Thanksgiving ( black Friday) to the epiphany.
Among families who celebrate both (*some* immigrants only celebrate Christmas and *some* nonChristians/nonMuslims only celebrate Thanksgiving), Christmas is bigger and more important. It can APPEAR less important however because it’s a bit more common to celebrate Thanksgiving with extended family, but immediate family do make a bigger deal out of Christmas.
Overall I would say Christmas.
Christmas is a whole season, while Thanksgiving is pretty much one day.
Thanksgiving is much more food focused than Christmas. The day itself can be bigger in some families. Some just have people over for dinner, while others have people over for the whole day. The thanksgiving football games are pretty big, much bigger than the Christmas football games. The Macy’s Thanksgiving parade is a big thanksgiving tradition.
But Christmas is pretty much shoved down your throat the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Day. I’m not complaining, I love the Christmas season. The lights, the music, etc. It’s very dark where I live (Northern US) so the Christmas season is kind of a necessity to not go crazy.
You have Christmas parties, which don’t have to be on Christmas, secret Santa. A lot of businesses will throw company Christmas parties. Commercially, Christmas is way bigger.
Edit – I would also add that you are more likely to travel farther and/or take time off Christmas beyond just Christmas.
For those who celebrate it, most would say Christmas. Thanksgiving is more widely celebrated because it’s non-denominational. But Christmas is a monster of a holiday that is decorated for in public and private, has its music played everywhere, has countless songs, specials, and movies about it, and overshadows several other faiths mid winter holidays.
Sadly, Christmas is much MUCH bigger than Thanksgiving.
I say sadly because Thanksgiving is, at it’s heart, about a feast with family (and/or friends). It is about getting together, breaking bread (well, turkey, usually), and enjoying time together.
Christmas is about who gets the right gift to the right person, etc, etc. I’m not against gift-giving, but that’s become the main point. Gotta give the gifts, do this thing, then that. It’s hectic and about the spectacle.
To be a little trite, Thanksgiving is about your presence, while Christmas is about the presents.
Just about every American eats a Thanksgiving meal
Christmas is religious, Thanksgiving isn’t explicitly so. But the biggest religious holiday is actually Easter, though it’s commercially the smallest of these three.
I vastly prefer Thanksgiving as an atheist and stuffing enthusiast. Xmas gets annoying, fast.
Thanksgiving is all about the dinner. You get together with friends and family, usually watch football or the parade or both, and that’s pretty much it. Decor is usually autumn themed, unless you put up the Christmas stuff already (I don’t). The dinner itself has specific expectations, with a few variations by region or family. A typical spread includes turkey with gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, and pumpkin pie for dessert.
Christmas is much bigger, especially for families with children. There’s more decorating, more events, and a lot of seasonal music. The day itself involves not just dinner and family but gifts and sometimes a church service as well. Dinner is a lot more flexible. Some families do something similar to Thanksgiving, with turkey and/or ham; some do prime rib; some do tamales. As long as it’s festive, almost anything goes.
The advantage of having two major holidays next to each other is that if you have family in two different places, you can spend Thanksgiving with one and Christmas with the other, thus avoiding the drama of leaving out one side. It also helps with even division of hosting duties. Personally, as a good cook with no strong religious feelings, I focus most of my attention on Thanksgiving and spend Christmas relaxing with my in-laws.
Thanksgiving
It’s celebrated by all. Christmas is celebrated my some
National holiday over religious
Christmas is bigger, but Thanksgiving is better.
Christmas is way bigger. The key difference is that Christmas is a religious holiday and thanksgiving is a national holiday. That means that typically you won’t see a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu etc American celebrating Christmas, but they might celebrate Thanksgiving. Most of the traditional food options are different. There are some ethnic groups that will have distinct traditions around Christmas (Italian Americans with the 7 fishes and such) but that’s less common with Thanksgiving, where things seem a lot more uniform.
Bigger OVERALL? Christmas.
I say this because it’s both a religious and commercial holiday.
For my personal life? Thanksgiving.
Is it because I only saw some family on Christmas and others Thanksgiving? No.
Is it purely because my birthday is overshadowed by Christmas? Also no.
In general, I think that both are meant to feel like a uniting holiday, one spent with both family and friends. However, Christmas has that extra religious edge and I’d prefer to not have a religious holiday also be commercial, thanks.
The ACTUAL biggest? July 4th, even though that’s not the correct day anyway.