There is only one correct time to eat Thanksgiving dinner

LifeHack via MSN ^ | 11/22/2017 | Melissa Kirsch

[T-Bird45]

The right time to eat Thanksgiving dinner is 4pm.

This gives the host enough time to prepare all the things they left until the last minute like the tossed salad no one wants and the cranberry sauce no one eats. It gives them enough time to decide at the last minute to make a green bean casserole because they’ve had a panic that there’s not going to be enough food.

[T-Bird45]

Obviously, the writer is coming from a more urban perspective because anybody raised rural/country knows the noontime meal is dinner and the evening meal is supper. As to 4pm being perfect, I'd have no problem with that time if it were best for the host and the group invited to join the meal.

My family goes with the noontime meal choice because of tradition more than anything else. There was a time the men spent the morning in the field quail hunting so they were ready to eat at noon. Time for the meal and the fellowship so those who wanted to could go back out hunting. Others hung around to watch whatever football game was on TV.

[grania]

I have a different perspective. The Thanksgivings I spent in Vermont ski country, 4PM was very nice. The hostess was quite happy to do everything with no “help” while everyone was on the slopes. But except for that, 2PM (or so) is very nice. It gives those who are so inclined time to take a walk after over-eating.

[freedumb2003]

Now you have more flexibility without that football to get in the way.

[Raycpa]

My Vermont raised wife says dinner is after the hunters return home.

[trebb]

We generally eat Thanksgiving dinner around 2 PM - gives time for some appetite-whetting snacking and then time to allow the pressure to relieve for a nice dessert later on...Got two turkeys in the oven as I type.

[Lopeover]

We are eating later than my family usually ate traditionally which was about 3pm. My son works in retail and the store closes at 4 pm Thanksgiving Day.

[FrankR]

This terminology is regional preference. I grew up in the South, and the “noon meal” IS “dinner”, and we eat “Supper” in the evening.

Somehow, “Thanksgiving LUNCH” just doesn’t sound right.

So, I looked it up:

dinner

n. The chief meal of the day, eaten in the evening or at midday.

n. A banquet or formal meal in honor of a person or event.

n.The food prepared for either of these meals.

[foreverfree]

Well, the DAL game today will be well into the second half for Left Coasters come 4pm PT. Some in Morro Bay, Klamath Falls, and Bellingham may have a late late breakfast with kickoff of the DET game.

A blessed Thanksgiving to all from the Right Coast. God Bless the USA.

ff

[Hambone 1934]

Noon is best...Going with a group of 13 family and friends to a casino thanksgiving buffet...No hassles,no dishes,just food and good times...Then I can gamble...

[Larry Lucido]

I’m good with dropping in on some folks at noon and different folks at 4. I’m not particular.

[Teacher317]

Anyone who feels a need to declare that “there is only one correct” answer to an opinion question is an utter moron. The correct time is: when it suits those cooking and eating it. Everything else is irrelevant, and sanctimonious fools who feel a certain need to be the arbiter of “The Only Correct One” can go stuff themselves, along with the turkey.

[Neoliberalnot]

Good points. I will add, it is far healthier to eat the main meal at noon. Eating late in the day is a good way to pack on the fat and toss around in bed trying to sleep at night. Growing up, we always had the main meal at noon and the leftovers around 6 pm. In the summer when work was waiting, we often went back out and worked till dark doing those jobs that “Americans won’t do.” Happy Thanksgiving. I just returned from Kings Bay, if you know where that is.

[Larry Lucido]

I’m good with dropping in on some folks at noon and different folks at 4. I’m not particular.

And I'll always remember to bring Pepsi and Ding Dongs.

Or cinnamon bobka.

Or marble rye.

[Neoliberalnot]

Please, can’t we keep it cordial on this blessed day?

[txhurl]

In agrarian America - until say 1960 - lunch was the main meal and dinner more of a midnight snack at 8p if you had to be back up at 4am to milk the cows.

[heylady]

Here in Colorado we will be breaking out the appetizers around 10:30 while my SIL watches the Lion’s game. Dinner will be “around” 2pm. It is supposed to be a beautiful day here in Colorado so after dinner we will go for a walk and take the kids to the playground. Apple and pumpkin pies, if anyone is still hungry, will be served after our trip to the park.

I am from RI so my daughter and I do eat the home made cranberry sauce. If I could only get people to eat mince pie.

[Sirius Lee]

This terminology is regional preference. I grew up in the South, and the “noon meal” IS “dinner”, and we eat “Supper” in the evening.

Same for us Swamp Yankees. And because it usually took a couple of hours for our big city relatives to drive - literally drive over the river and through the woods (and up the hills) to our locale, we would have Thanksgiving Dinner around 2pm.

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday, and I have much for which I am thankful. May God bestow blessings on all of us.

[mac_truck]

...and the cranberry sauce no one eats.

I love cranberry sauce...especially on the leftovers!

Try making it with horseradish for some extra flavor.

[Flick Lives]

I love cranberry sauce...especially on the leftovers!

---

Me too! Especially the tangier whole-cranberry sauce or cranberry sauce with added orange rind zest. It’s like the Thanksgiving Dinner version of wasabi.

[Cecily]

I love cranberry sauce AND tossed salad (actually, any kind of salad), so the author of the article would probably find me weird. If someone served salad at Thanksgiving, I would eat it and skip some of the carbs/starches like rice and bread rolls.