Nearly all Americans make time in their lives for Thanksgiving celebrations, but that doesn’t mean they share a sense of how the holiday should go.
A new survey from Pew Research Center found that Americans disagree on what to do on Thanksgiving when you’re not eating — and when to serve the highly anticipated meal.
Most Americans do agree that Thanksgiving is a holiday meant to be spent with others. Pew found that just 5% of U.S. adults plan to have Thanksgiving dinner alone.
Here are three takeaways from Pew’s survey, which was conducted from Nov. 12-17 among 9,609 U.S. adults.
Most Americans pray on Thanksgiving.
Around two-thirds of Americans (65%) say their Thanksgiving meal includes a prayer or blessing.
A slightly higher share of U.S. adults (69%) say part of the Thanksgiving conversation will focus on what diners are thankful for.
Unsurprisingly, Christian respondents are particularly like to say they pray on Thanksgiving.
“Prayer is much less common among those who say their religion is ‘nothing in particular’ (45%), agnostics (39%), atheists (22%) and Jewish adults (22%),” Pew reported.
Americans don’t agree on what time to eat.
Although nearly all Americans agree that Thanksgiving is worth celebrating, there’s no consensus on the right time to eat.
Pew found that 36% of U.S. adults would prefer to have Thanksgiving dinner between 12 and 3 p.m., while 38% want the food to be served between 3 and 6 p.m.
Eleven percent would prefer to wait to eat until after 6 p.m.
Americans do agree that serving Thanksgiving dinner before noon is a party foul. Just 1% of U.S. adults told Pew they’d prefer to eat that early.
Americans are more likely to watch sports on Thanksgiving than a parade.
In addition to its food, Thanksgiving is known for its NFL games and its parades, but that doesn’t mean Americans plan to watch both activities.
While 35% of U.S. adults said its “extremely or very likely” that they’ll watch sports on Thanksgiving, just 19% expressed the same level of confidence about watching a parade, Pew reported.
“Getting some exercise on Thanksgiving is a less popular idea: Only 4% of adults say it’s extremely or very likely that they’ll play sports, while 3% expect to participate in a community walk or run, like a turkey trot,” researchers wrote.
