As Thanksgiving ends and December rolls around, many Americans begin to set up for Christmas, leaving Thanksgiving behind, with the only memory being the leftovers in their refrigerator. With stores beginning to reveal stock of ornaments and LED lights and homeowners beginning to decorate their homes, these occurrences beg the question: do people truly care about Thanksgiving, or has it become a pit stop before the snowy celebration?

In a poll that confronts this dilemma, the results come out at an almost perfect 80 to 20 percent. Sixty-four students at Rancho responded to the poll, and 79.3% said yes while 20.7% said no to celebrating Thanksgiving. However, when asked if the students would skip Thanksgiving and keep the break, the percentage shifts. 59.4% of the students wouldn’t skip Thanksgiving, and 21.9% would, while 18.8% of students remained undecided.

These results bring up an interesting contradiction between students truly caring about Thanksgiving or only caring about the break that came with it.

When asked the question of whether they believed the holiday was important or not, the answers were more united.

“It’s important to give thanks to you and your loved ones, and even other people, but I don’t celebrate it that much,” junior Dion DeJurnett said.

People who don’t celebrate the holiday see the importance of it.

“I think it’s important to give thanks in everything you do in life and especially to god cause he’s always watching, and that importance is enough for a holiday,” senior Farrell Marcelin said.

Ultimately, the data shows that although not all people celebrate Thanksgiving, they recognize its purpose. It’s a time for people to pause, reflect, and show gratitude to the people that they care about. Whether the holiday just represents a break convenient for school or a celebration of the turkey holiday, people understand its underlying importance: showing care to the ones they love.