Poll: Americans spending less but giving more cheer this Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is nearly upon us and with so much social and political bickering from all sides it’s nice to enjoy a day or two off with family, friends and food.

Rasmussen Reports conducted some rather light polling on the topic this morning. In a positive glimpse the survey of 1,000 adults find that 53% are more thankful now than this time last year - just 11% claim to be less thankful and 35% about the same. These figures are fairly even amongst genders, those married compared to single and families with children at home or not. However a surprisingly staggering difference is between the races. 77% of African Americans claim to be more thankful for Thanksgiving 2009 than they were a year ago against just 46% of white’s who share in their increased sense of contentment.

Amongst other categories not involving family and friends the Rasmussen survey finds that 19% of adults are particularly thankful for their jobs, 15% of their country, 6% for their community and 14% for something else. The struggling economy meanwhile is affecting Americans’ shopping habits. Just 9% plan to spend more on this Thanksgiving dinner than they did a year ago with 42% spending less.

Additionally the Rasmussen survey finds that just as many adults will visit a relatives house for T-Day dinner (43%) than will be staying home or hosting (42%). Just 5% plan to have their meal over a friend’s home and 6% at a restaurant. With the exception of the jump in restaurant attendance being claimed by American adults, up from just 3% in 2008, those figures remain relatively consistent from 2008.

On the topic of food 84% plan to have or be served turkey as their main course this year. 5% say it will be ham, 7% something else and 4% are not sure. 46% also think they’ll end up eating too much against 43% who apparently figure they can pace themselves pretty well at the dinner table. Again these figures are largely consistent with other Ramussen surveys from recent years.

In addition to family, friends and turkey, one of the hallmarks of Thanksgiving is of course football. “Turkey Bowl” high school rivalries and playoff games are played out across the region as are professional contests always involving Dallas, Detroit and in more recent years a third evening contest. In Philadelphia last year the Eagles took part in one of these evening games blowing out the Arizona Cardinals 48-20 in what proved to be a poor forecast of the NFC Championship Game involving both teams.

According to an unscientific poll from

www.philly.com responders claimed to enjoy the Thanksgiving NFL games over local high school playoff contests by better than a two-to-one ratio. In South Jersey 53% of website visitors also claimed that the high school playoff games detract from the more standard rivalry contests.

Lastly I came across an interesting little poll conducted by Fox News six years ago. With many Americans at the time speculating the Democratic candidate for the 2004 election could be Senator Hillary Clinton Fox asked 900 registered voters who would they rather have Thanksgiving dinner with; her or sitting President George W. Bush. By a 45-35% margin it was President Bush who came out on top. Just perhaps we could view this as a notable precursor to his success the following fall when the likeability factor played a major role in Bush’s reelection over Democratic rival John Kerry.

Enjoy a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

PHOTO CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS / ALEX BRANDON