> > If an American was out of the country on the day, would he still want to celebrate with a typical Thanksgiving, no matter where he was?
>
> About eleven years ago, an Australian family came to live next door to us for the year (the dad was an exchange teacher). They told us they knew an American in Australia, and every year he made a Thanksgiving dinner for himself. That family had Thanksgiving with us that year, and they took pictures of the *turkey* and the *turkey cooking*. Uh...

That seems reasonable enough. While I wouldn't go so far as to take photos of a turkey cooking, I can't say I have ever *seen* a whole turkey cooking, or Americans making a Thanksgiving dinner.

If people have a huge traditional northern-hemisphere-style Christmas dinner (which many people don't do anyway, as the last thing you want in midsummer is a steaming hot 10-course roast dinner), they're more likely to buy a ham. Turkey isn't a festive food here, so I assume it isn't in Australia either.

I'm not saying it's unknown or even uncommon to eat turkey, but certainly nobody ever goes out and buys a whole one. I doubt you could even find someplace that sells them that way.