Couch Potato Pickings

If you know any Americans, then you’ll know that they tend to assume that the rest of the world celebrates Thanksgiving like they do.

But then again, I’m sure many of us Brits are like that with Bonfire Night and Boxing Day…

If it weren’t for the thousands of US movies featuring family dramas kicking off around the Thanksgiving turkey, I think I’d be totally oblivious to the annual passing of this festival, in the same way that I am with Labor Day or Washington’s Birthday or any of those other American holidays I’m vaguely aware of.

But, since I’ve chosen to write about Thanksgiving today (yes, it is today), I’ve decided to find out a bit more about it. Apparently, it always takes place in the US on the 4th Thursday of November and is celebrated by Americans to give thanks for the harvest, following in the footsteps of the first Thanksgiving harvest meal shared by English colonists and Native Americans in the 17th Century.

If I were at home today I’d be on the sofa  with a duvet watching An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving. This period drama, starring Jacqueline Bisset and based on a short story by Little Women writer Louisa May Alcott, is (guess what) a movie about family dramas kicking off around the Thanksgiving turkey!

An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving is showing today, 26th November, on Five at 3.05pm