Americans Take Thanksgiving Rites Abroad

“Mom’s American, Dad’s American and I’m half and half--half British, half American,” 8-year-old Christina Cone announced in a crisp British accent. “But I don’t know much about the States,” she quickly said to an adult visitor during a discussion of Thanksgiving.

She was born in Britain of American parents and has never celebrated the holiday in the States, but with the annual Thanksgiving party that her parents throw for their British friends, a book about the Pilgrim Fathers from her grandmother, and an occasional mention in her history lesson at the British private school she attends, her notion of Thanksgiving probably isn’t much more fractured than an 8-year-old born on American soil.

“It’s when you give thanks to God,” Christina said confidently. “Pilgrims were peasants?” she said quizzically. “Oh, the Pilgrim Fathers . They went to America when James I reigned. They met Indians. They went to an Indian place where Indians were gathering the corn, and one Indian was brave enough to come out and shoot arrows at them.”

She veered off course a few seconds commenting on cornfields, tents and arrows, but concluded her story with: “They made friends with some Indians. The Indians gave corn to the Pilgrim Fathers and that’s what Thanksgiving is about.”

Mardi Cone agreed with daughter Christina’s assessment that she and her 6-year-old brother are “half and half.”

“We’re giving them as much of America as we can,” said Cone, whose husband, Lance, is a real-estate developer. “This must be how the immigrant families that went to America felt when the next generation grew up knowing nothing about all the customs in the old country,” she said. “Here we’ve just done it in reverse. We’re trying to keep it (American traditions) up.”

No Holiday in Britain

The absence of relatives, some difficulty getting the traditional foods and the fact that Thanksgiving is just another workday in Britain have forced the 22,000 Americans living in London to alter their way of celebrating the family holiday.

For instance, getting the day off is not always possible even if, as in many cases, an expatriate is working for an U.S. company based in Britain.

Lisa K. Winkler and her husband, Matthew, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, will have their Thanksgiving feast on Saturday as they have for the past two years.

“It’s traditionally a longer meal. This way we can relax and not have to worry about going to work the next day,” she said.

“It’s always very mixed between English and Americans. The first year we had two Texans, two New Englanders, two New Yorkers and two Britons. Each couple brought their specialty from their geographical area. We try to make foods we had at our family table when we were growing up,” Winkler said.

Oddly enough a British guest brought wild rice, a native North American food, which American friends in Minnesota had sent to her.

Cone said she likes to invite 10 to 12 people to a Thanksgiving dinner party, and the emphasis is on introducing the U.S. custom to the British.

“I’ve always invited only English people round and given them things like pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes. Everyone knows why we celebrate Thanksgiving, but they are rather intrigued by these funny foods we eat.

“They come really afraid to eat the food and they’re really surprised. Sweet potatoes sound a bit funny to them--a sweet potato. Turkey is easy; they’re used to that.

“Everyone has a wonderful time, and they all end up liking the foods. But pumpkin pie is a bit iffy; some like it, some don’t. I usually give them pecan pie as alternative and that no one hates.”

A mixed dozen or so of Britons and Americans is Alice Smith’s way of celebrating Thanksgiving abroad. Smith, a commercial manager of a computer company, insists on having her dinner on Thursday, which means negotiating a day off.

Christmas was never a significant holiday in her childhood she said because her mother was Catholic and her father Jewish, so “Thanksgiving became the important tradition in my family.”

Importance of Heritage

“I always celebrate,” she said. “It’s what I associate with being American; all of us have a heritage. It’s important especially if you are rootless in a foreign country. You bring in your friends, people you care about.”

Elizabeth Brown, a photo researcher, put on a fowl feast her first Thanksgiving here. Intrigued by the array of game fowl in butcher shops, where the naked birds are often displayed with tall, colorful tail feathers, she chose grouse and pheasant instead of traditional turkey for her guests who included Americans, Canadians and Britons.

“I hadn’t a clue what to do with these things,” she said, but one of her British guests rescued her. Nevertheless, “I’d rather go back to turkey,” she said. “The game birds are very strong, plus turkey is more nostalgic. Our first year here we were so wide open trying things British.”

Since Thanksgiving started as a celebration of a bountiful harvest and over the centuries has been manifested through feasting, sometimes bordering on gluttony, most Americans abroad seem determined to set a groaning board of traditional fare. They keep a sharp eye out for such foods as sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and cranberries and pass the word about stores that stock them.

“Sweet potatoes are more common now,” Winkler said. “I used to have to go to the West Indian shops to buy them, but this year I found them at Safeway. And one year my mother had to bring cranberries from Connecticut.” Now fresh cranberries are available at Harrods and in some neighborhood markets.

Harrods and butchers in areas where Americans reside report a marked increase in orders for turkeys Thanksgiving week, with most Americans requesting a big bird.

The Rev. Ron Allison, minister of the American Church in London and a former Los Angeles resident, diplomatically describes most British turkeys as “different” and recommends a store that sells real self-basting birds.

For those Americans who want to attend a Thanksgiving church service, the American Church and the U.S. Embassy host a noon service at St. Paul’s Cathedral (site of the royal wedding a few years ago). It’s a mixture of patriotism and religion with Ambassador Charles Price II being escorted in by the Marine color guard and delivering President Reagan’s Thanksgiving message, a short sermon from a Hawaiian minister and, of course, traditional songs of Thanksgiving.

Religious Service

The noon hour service usually is attended by about 3,000 people, including busloads from U.S. military bases in England, according to Allison.

“People miss home, the traditions, especially the first year you’re here. Nothing is the same, including the turkey,” he said.

If one’s tastes run more toward the literary the English-Speaking Union, a group promoting Anglo-American cultural exchange, is celebrating Thanksgiving with readings from Charles Dickens followed by a supper of Thanksgiving foods and English meat pies. Why Dickens? “Well, some of the readings will be from Dickens’ tour of the United States,” said the British cultural affairs director.

Thanksgiving activities at the American School in London, a private school that observes U.S. holidays and safeguards customs such as American spelling and senior proms, are very traditional with the kindergartners through fourth-graders donning handmade Pilgrim hats and Indian headdresses to eat their turkey-with-trimmings lunch on Thanksgiving eve.

In the last few years some up-market London hotels favored by traveling Americans such as the Hyde Park, the Churchill and the Dorchester, have begun offering Thanksgiving Day dinners. Hotel restaurant managers say the tourist clientele created a demand that is growing in popularity.

But feasting is not enough for some Americans. Their spirits as well as their palates need to be sated. Barbara and Michael Kirkland, both bankers here, are spending their fourth Thanksgiving in London. Both usually work, so Thanksgiving will be a quiet affair for just the two of them.

“Yes, we’ll have turkey. But I consider it a family holiday, even more so than Christmas,” she said. “We were used to having grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins around and talking about Thanksgiving past. I miss the family atmosphere. It isn’t the same anymore. Over here you’re out of touch. There’s no Thanksgiving Day parade or big preparation.”

She, too, recalls the frustration of trying to find the foods she wanted her first year here. But last year’s dinner was the best yet she said. An American stewardess friend was staying overnight in London and brought along her co-workers for dinner with the Kirklands.

Like the Kirklands, free-lance writer John Wright said trying to observe Thanksgiving abroad is difficult without the extended family or that palpable holiday mood that prevades preparations in the States. He and his wife and two children, who attend British private schools, are “well integrated” into the British community, he said.

“It’s a hard one to catch over here; we’re at work and the children are at school. We try to eat turkey and cranberries on Thanksgiving. We try to keep the food even though we haven’t got the family. It’s missed.” Also much missed, he said, is Thanksgiving Day football.