Petition the Prime Minister for a British Thanksgiving holiday!

December 8th, 2008 by Caroline

It’s time for us to stand up and be counted!

A week or so ago I blogged about how you and your children could make a turkey out of Lego (or indeed, other animals, dinosaurs or monsters) to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s a fun, creative way to spend the cold rainy days at the end of November.

At the same time I grumbled about Britain not celebrating Thanksgiving like our American and Canadian cousins, and maybe we should petition Gordon Brown to call for a British holiday in the same vein.

Well, guess what? Fabiola & Sing Sing has started an official petition to that effect on the 10 Downing Street website.

If you agree that it would be a good thing to have a national holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, and it would help break up the drag of dark nights before Bonfire night and Christmas, sign the petition! This cause needs your support.

To get you in the mood, here is what I wrote on the Downing Street website to give my (very convincing) case for a British Thanksgiving holiday:

The American people celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November, at the end of the harvest season.

It is a national holiday to express thanks for one’s material and spiritual possessions. It’s also a great excuse for a party with friends and family, in a month which is notoriously dreary, gloomy and dark.

Seeing as you’ve changed the clocks to make it dark earlier in the evening – couldn’t we do with something to look forward to in that long gap between Bonfire Night and Christmas Day?

Come on Gordon! Make a stand! Give us a special Thanksgiving day on the same day as the USA, and we can cement our “special friendship” with our American cousins by joining them in a non-religious celebration of all the good things in life and Turkey sandwiches.

And don’t worry that it seems like ages until next Thanksgiving – this petition is open until December 2009.