Do French people celebrate Thanksgiving?

Is Thanksgiving a holiday in France?

No. It is not a public holiday, it is not on the school calendar, and nothing closes. France has eleven public holidays and two of them fall in November: the 1st, when families visit the cemetery, and the 11th, which marks the end of the First World War. The fourth Thursday of the month is just a Thursday.

Most French people know roughly what Thanksgiving is. They have seen the turkey carried to the table in enough American films to recognise it. What they tend not to know is the date, the reason, or that anyone takes it seriously.

Why do the French not have a Thanksgiving?

Because the story belongs to somebody else. Thanksgiving goes back to a harvest meal in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621, and it became a national holiday in the United States in the nineteenth century. It is an American origin story, and France has plenty of its own.

There is a second reason, and I think it is the real one. The thing Thanksgiving provides, a long meal with the whole family at one table, is something France already does on Sundays. I wrote about that in explaining Thanksgiving to a Frenchman. You do not need a national day for a meal you already have most weeks.

What happens in France in late November instead?

Wine. On the third Thursday of November, a week before Thanksgiving, the year’s Beaujolais Nouveau is released, and bars and wine shops put up signs to say it has arrived. In 2026 that is 19 November. It is the closest thing France has to a national Thursday in November, and it involves no cooking at all.

Then, the following week, the Black Friday posters go up. France took the sales and left the turkey, which is a fair summary of how American culture is usually imported: the commerce arrives first and the meaning stays home.

How do Americans in France celebrate Thanksgiving?

On Saturday, mostly. Thursday is a working day, so the dinner moves to the weekend, and French friends are invited and told to come hungry.

The logistics are the hard part. A whole turkey has to be ordered from a butcher in advance, because French turkeys are raised for Christmas and are not in the shops yet. The bird that arrives is usually smaller than an American one, which is just as well, because so is the oven. Fresh cranberries are hard to find. Canned pumpkin lives in the international aisle of a few big supermarkets, if it lives anywhere. Americans in France become very good at substitution, and at carrying things back in suitcases.

Is Canadian Thanksgiving the same thing in French?

It is a different holiday on a different date. In Canada, Thanksgiving is the second Monday of October, and in French it is l’Action de grâce. Quebec marks it more quietly than the rest of Canada does.

In France itself, nobody translates the American holiday. It is simply called Thanksgiving, pronounced the French way. If you want the full vocabulary, I have put it in how to say happy Thanksgiving in French.

What should you bring if a French person invites you in late November?

Nothing American, unless asked. A French host in November is not having Thanksgiving and will be puzzled by a pumpkin pie. Bring wine or flowers, as you would any other week.

The other way round is more fun. If you are the one hosting a French guest at Thanksgiving, there is a French take on the Thanksgiving menu that will make them feel at home without taking the turkey away from you.

Late November, two countries

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