Most Americans plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year

Washington, DC, November 15, 2021 — A recent Ipsos survey conducted on behalf of Butterball Turkey shows that nine in ten Americans are planning on celebrating Thanksgiving this year and most are looking forward to having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Among those celebrating, nearly all say they will celebrate Thanksgiving with a meal. Just under half of Americans are planning to host a Thanksgiving meal.

Detailed Findings

Sixty-one percent of Americans want to make Thanksgiving really special this year to make up for the pandemic year of 2020.

• Nearly all Americans who are planning on celebrating Thanksgiving intend to do so with a meal (99%).
• Half of Americans are looking for inspiration for different ways to serve traditional recipes to make the meal more festive this year (50%).
• About four in five Americans are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with a group they have typically celebrated with in the past (79%).

Forty-five percent are planning on hosting a meal, and 36% say they will attend the event at someone else’s house. About 5% of Americans say they will be celebrating at a restaurant this year. 

• Sixty-one percent of Americans say they enjoyed having a smaller scale Thanksgiving last year.
• Thirty percent of Americans are planning on having more guests than last year, and 10% are planning on having more guests than they would typically have in years past.
• About one in five Americans plan to do their shopping the week of Thanksgiving (22%), while 29% expect they will do the shopping a week before, and 25% say they will get it done two weeks before.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between September 9-10, 2021 on behalf of Butterball Turkey. For the survey a sample of 1,003 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error. For more information on this news release, please contact:

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs

[email protected]

Kate Silverstein
Media Relations, US
Public Affairs
+1 718 755-8829
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos is the world’s third-largest Insights and Analytics company, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people.

Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts, and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions, and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers, or employees. We serve more than 5,000 clients across the world with 75 business solutions.

Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is listed on the Euronext Paris since July 1st, 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and the Mid-60 index and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD).

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