An American woman residing in Britain has opened up the challenges of hosting a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Brittany, who has lived away from her homeland for 12 years, shared her Birmingham-based holiday preparations on TikTok. “Some of the ingredients were easy to find,” she began in a video filmed in a supermarket.
“There’s everything you need for stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, mac and cheese and pecan pie – they’re all readily available.” Nevertheless, certain traditional American dishes proved far more difficult to source domestically.
Brittany confessed she battled to locate a whole turkey during mid-November, advising her audience that in Britain you typically “only find them in-store around Christmas”. She continued: “My local supermarket didn’t have any this early, so we did fried chicken instead.”
Regarding green bean casserole, meanwhile, Brittany acknowledged her concerns about obtaining crispy fried onions, though was delighted to discover some in her local Sainsbury’s American aisle. “This section also has marshmallows for sweet potato casserole,” she enthused, brandishing a substantial packet of ‘American Style Giant Toastin’ Marshmallows’.
Brittany shared: “In previous years I have seen pumpkin puree here though not this year, but thankfully it’s easy to find online… it’s a little pricier than I would like.”
She also reported that she had managed to succesfully source her creamed corn and Jiffy Mix online too, much to her delight. In Concluding, Brittany stated: “Having Thanksgiving in the UK is definitely possible – and I think we did a pretty damn good job.”
Writing in response, several TikTok users offered her some shopping tips. “Waitrose sells pumpkin puree year round, it’s in the baking aisle near the condensed milk,” one person suggested.
A second informed Brittany: “There’s creamed corn in Asian supermarkets, I get mine for less than a quid.” Whilst a third Brit pointed out: “American sweet stores in the UK usually do Jiffy Mix. I made my own as it was easier.”
Meanwhile, another American TikTok user expressed: “The hardest part for me is fitting everything into the small kitchen. My UK kitchen is 80% smaller than my US kitchen.”
Falling on the fourth Thursday of every November, Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States where friends and family come together to give thanks and recognise the sacrifices and blessings of the past year.
It’s origin dates back to 1620 when 102 people left England and arrived in the States in search of a place to freely practice their faith. After arriving, these colonists who became known as the pilgrims were helped by local Native Americans to grow and harvest food.
It’s said that a Native American man named Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to catch and produce local food, which led to first successful corn harvest. In November 1621, both the pilgrims and Native Americans came together for a feast to enjoy the food they had grown – and this marked the first ever Thanksgiving.
