no kind of impossible to have evidence for it , since the statement is displaying that it is sort of unprovable . For myself i have anecdotal evidence , but im not going to share those stories . <| sep |> I believe skinny goateed Chandler is when Matthew Perry ' s substance abuse was at its worst . <| sep |> I ' m a Canadian expat . I moved to the US when I was 21 , and it ' s been about 14 years now , so I ' ve experienced plenty of both versions . They don ' t seem very different to me at all in the ways they were celebrated by my family on either side of the border . The main difference I can see is that since Thanksgiving is closer to Christmas in America , it gets wrapped up into the larger holiday season . Since it ' s a 4 day weekend some Americans seem to use this for their BIG family gathering instead of Christmas , as it ' s close enough . Canadians seem more likely to save that for actual Christmas when they ' ll probably have more days in a row . That ' s just my personal experience , though , and mainly from families I ' ve known personally vs . my own family . On both sides of the border most of my family members lived fairly close together , so the big family thing could happen on either Thanksgiving or Christmas or more likely both , and everyone would have time to drive home same day . I lived in Southern Ontario , BTW , I ' m sure this makes a difference as well . For one thing , in Ontario most people get Boxing Day the day after Christmas off or did when I still lived there , but I don ' t know what happens in other provinces . And I don ' t think Thanksgiving is celebrated as much in some other parts of Canada in general . Shopping is the other thing , but that ' s not technically Thanksgiving . Plus , Canada has Black Friday sales now as anyway , even though it doesn ' t make much sense . I wonder why Boxing Day hasn ' t taken off much in America ?