The Holidays Are Still All About Tradition and Gathering Together

Tradition is the biggest influencer in food decisions on these holidays.

Thanksgiving and Christmas 2017 are now behind us, and according to our consumer panel, this year tradition and gathering together with family and friends played a big part in how people celebrated both of these holidays.  

For Thanksgiving, almost half (47%) of our panel said they would be attending a gathering, and for Christmas 33% said the same thing. For Christmas, just a little more (35%) said they would be eating at home, and 21% said for Thanksgiving they would stay home. And 20% on Thanksgiving and 15% on Christmas said they would be hosting a gathering. 

The restaurants may have been quiet this year for the holidays, as only three percent for Thanksgiving and five percent for Christmas said they would be dining out. And for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, 10% said they were not celebrating at all. 

We also discovered from our survey that our consumer panel celebrates both of these holidays with a larger group with 37% on Christmas  and 23% on Thanksgiving saying they would dine with more than 11 people. And 31% on Thanksgiving and 19% on Christmas said they would dine with 7-10 people. Also, 25% on Christmas and 18% on Thanksgiving said they would dine with 3-6 people. 

In our last question, we asked which factors influence the foods they choose to eat on these holidays. And when it comes to the food, we found that tradition wins with healthfulness in second place for both of these holidays.  

Tradition
Thanksgiving: 72%  
Christmas: 71%

Healthfulness
Thanksgiving: 44%
Christmas: 43%

Indulgence
Thanksgiving: 28%
Christmas: 21%

Cost
Thanksgiving: 10%
Christmas: 6%

What we learned from these results is that these holidays are still very important to people when it comes to being with others and practicing traditions, with little concern for cost. Supermarkets can take from this survey that helping support shoppers with food, recipes, and prepared dishes that serve big families and take into account healthfulness is a way to win with holiday food shoppers.