“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes.”
― Erma Bombeck
An admittedly American conundrum. (Among many, apparently.)
Jeff’s work Christmas party is scheduled for Thanksgiving evening and everyone is “highly encouraged” to attend. Spouses aren’t invited. I have thoughts on this, both as to the scheduling (Christmas parties in November violate my sense of order) and the no partners policy.*
I also have a reservation for dinner at The Mayflower – because that was the most on-the-nose Thanksgiving I could possibly have come up with and I thought it would be fun to eat in a pub that commemorates the group that kicked off the holiday to begin with. Very apropos, if not slightly meta.
So. Who can I befriend in less than a month that will go to a major holiday dinner with me and not find it weird? Or do I just ditch the reservation and spend take myself out to a fab day and night on the town and go utterly native by forgoing the only real American holiday? Which I’m not opposed to, but if left to my own devices I feel I should at least do something interesting, but what? Advise me, minions!
*Half of me understands the financial desire to keep numbers down, the other half of me gives this policy serious side eye.
Small Dog Syndrome 
That’s an easy one…call the American embassy STAT and tell ’em your predicament….charmingly. Better yet, drop by and say hello to anyone there who will chat. London is full of ex-pat Yanks and I am sure you will easily find someone to join you…or invite you to their holiday feast. Everyone loves to adopt a Thanksgiving orphan. Keep googling Thanksgiving in London, or expats in London or Americans in London. Be bold!
Psh, no spouses invited to the work party?! What kind of crap is that?! Just tell Jeff to ditch it and have your lovely Mayflower Thanksgiving dinner together. 🙂 Everything is better together.
Nah, he’s got to be there and after all, it’s not a holiday in this country, just another Thursday night.
Celebrate Thanksgiving a day late. Get your food from the Mayflower to go and review all the things for which you are grateful on Friday night. Leftovers are better anyway.
Excellent practical sense! Leftovers are better.
Thanksgiving in London is HARD! (This year I am solving the problem with a Hanukkah party, which is on the same night this year for the last time in 77,798 years, so that out won’t last for long…) I’d also think about ‘moving’ Thanksgiving so you guys can celebrate together on the Friday or Saturday night – and spend Thursday in with a holiday movie and a glass of wine? I did that a few years ago (doing it on Saturday) and it was really nice because it felt like more of a day off than dinner after work would have.
(Also, I’ve never had a work holiday party where our partners were invited! I didn’t realise that was a thing that happened outside TV and movies!)
When holidays coincide once every 80,000 years, you should throw a party! I think shifting the celebrations around sounds pretty good and very practical. Of course now this means I have to cook…drat!
Admittedly my view of holiday parties is a bit skewed growing up a government/military/diplomatic kid. Partners are not just invited but expected since they are seen and treated as part of the team that keeps the larger operation running. The business world is different. Probably more efficient but less fun, I think!