As 2024 starts to draw to a close, it’s time for the holiday season to get into full swing. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and that can only mean three things: family, food, and football. Sitting down with your loved ones to watch the big game is one of the highlights of the holiday for countless households across America.
This year’s holiday line-up of football games is looking as exciting as ever:
- The Chicago Bears face off against the Detroit Lions at 12:30 PM ET on CBS.
- The New York Giants are set to challenge the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 PM ET on Fox.
- The Miami Dolphins clash with the Green Bay Packers at 8:30 PM ET on NBC
With the NFL being such an important part of Thanksgiving for so many of us, we were curious as to how Americans watch their games over the holiday season. With this in mind, we decided to see how the average person is planning to spend their special day this November, with a survey of 2,000 American adults. We asked about their habits, traditions, and plans for the season, as well as how the NFL affects their family gatherings.
Interested to see where your favorite franchise fits into our findings? Read on to see everything we learned about how you’ll be cheering your team on this year!
Over 1 in 10 will Prioritize Watching the NFL over Thanksgiving this Year
It might be the season to celebrate what we’re thankful for, but maybe you’re just thankful for your favorite team!
We asked our respondents whether they’d prioritize watching a football game over spending time with their family and friends on Thanksgiving; while more than a third said that their celebrations always come first, 10.9% of Americans said their primary focus would be the day’s big game!
31.5% also said they would try to balance time between doing both. By gender, men were also more likely to say that they would prioritize football than women.
35–44-year-olds were the most likely to put sports before anything else this holiday season, with 15% saying the game comes before anything else on Thanksgiving. On the flipside, over 65s were the least likely to prioritize football, with less than 5% saying they’d put their sport before the rest of their celebrations.
Over 53% of America will be Making a Bet this Thanksgiving
More than half of Americans will be looking to make a bet on a Thanksgiving football match, with 53% of our respondents saying they’ll be betting on a game this year.
But what if that big game doesn’t go to plan? Roughly 12% of those who answered our poll said they’ve let a misplaced bet ruin their festive mood in the past, but 41.7% said that it doesn’t affect their celebration when they lose money on an NFL game.
After all, there’s plenty of other ways to cheer yourself up over Thanksgiving!
Conversation Topics to Avoid this Thanksgiving
While Thanksgiving is a time to take in and appreciate everything, there’s nothing more unfortunate than an awkward conversation at the dinner table.
We all dread certain topics being brought up, but what’s the one thing that scares off the most Americans from talking to their guests every year?
This year, unsurprisingly, politics is the #1 point of discussion that Americans dread coming up at Thanksgiving the most, with 42.2% of people saying they want to avoid the topic. It’s followed closely by old grudges resurfacing, which 40.4% of respondents said was likely to ruin their celebration.
When it comes to sports, 8.9% of people said they were likely to argue over which game to watch, while 8.2% said that clashing over favorite sports teams could cause a scene at their table. Meanwhile, just under 7% of people said that frustration over a lost bet would affect their gathering.
Americans to Prioritize In-Laws Over Parents this Thanksgiving
We asked our respondents about who would be invited last to their family gatherings this Thanksgiving season, and some of the answers were quite a shock!
Predictably, ex-partners landed at #1 on the list, with 39.4% of Americans saying their ex would be bottom of their priority list, and women being less likely than men to invite their former partners. Bosses and colleagues were less popular among men, and took the #2 spot, with 28% saying they wouldn’t invite them. Siblings rounded out the top 3 with 21.7%.
The surprising part, though, is that more than one-in-five Americans said they would invite their parents last, while just 15.3% said their in-laws would be the lowest priority. Could this mean most Americans prefer their partner’s parents to their own?
Grandparents were the least likely to be picked last by families, with only 11% of people saying they’d be the final invites sent out.
Average Turkey Prices: Which States Are Willing to Spend More?
When you think of Thanksgiving, you naturally think of turkey. It’s an iconic symbol of the holiday and a delicious centerpiece to the dinner tables of many families this season – but just how much are Americans spending on their meal’s main event?
When looking at average prices across all 50 states, the mean price that households spend on a turkey is $26.55. Wyoming has the cheapest turkeys, with the average family here spending just $17.75, while Delaware spends a massive $36.75 on their typical turkey! Bet you’d hate to burn a roast that expensive.
The state with the closest spending to the national average was Virginia, which spends just 2 cents below the typical American turkey shop.
If you’re catching the NFL games this Thanksgiving season, and looking to put your money where your mouth is, you can browse all our NFL betting odds and picks to find the perfect parlay for you! Action Network offers great odds on all the biggest games and events, so don’t miss out on the chance to win big this festive season.
Our Methodology
Using 3Gem, Action Network conducted a survey of 2,000 Americans between November 11th-12th of 2024. Nationally representative, aged 21+.
