FINALLY! So glad to see you guys do this (Southern California here btw). So proud of you for getting Lawrence's attention and so glad he was so receptive. Shows you what a great guy he is. Thanks for all the entertaining content (:
"It should be out at the same time as ours" - yeah, about that. I'm experiencing abnormally long rendering times, but I expect my video to be up shortly. Stay tuned.
James is loving his new PC said it cut the Render time down a lot! I loved this video and I totally Agree the edit was awesome! It was a pleasure chatting with you briefly in the Beesley Discord Server Laurence awhile back and I have been excited about this for months! Thanks so much, I know everyone is going to love it! I can't wait to see your version next!
If you live in an area with a large Indian population you'll get lights on houses and fireworks for Dwali just before Halloween. It's the pre pre game in Northern Virginia.
Precisely! Here in my hometown, I generally stay clear of the Walmart within the city limits, because I will invariably pay $5-6 more in sales tax vs. shopping at the Walmart in the county for the EXACT same items! Now that dollar amount is for a large amount of exact same items. For 1, 2, or 3 items, the amount is usually $1-2 dollars more in sales tax. Oddly enough, the county Walmart will also have the exact same item for a completely different price all together! This usually refers to non-food items and is only a price difference of a couple of dollars less. Important to note, these 2 Walmart's are literally 15mins away from each other! (Well maybe 20mins if it's rush-hour 😅)
Don't forget that the collection of taxes is different between states also. For example, 1 state may have an income tax that keeps sales taxes lower than in another state while that other one doesn't and has higher sales taxes. Or 1 state may tax some items that another state doesn't. For example, Idaho has a sales tax for food while Washington doesn't. 1 set tax across the country just wouldn't work. I try to explain it like the EU. Each country sets up it's own rules, taxes, etc, as long as it doesn't conflict with the overall rules of the EU that they've agreed to follow. They all pay in a tax to the EU ruling body while setting their own tax laws within their countries. Likewise, each state sets its own laws and taxes, as long as they're abiding by the overarching Constitution.
Christmas is much bigger than Thanksgiving as it goes on through New Years Day. I watch Lost in the Pond regularly. I enjoy Lawrence's comedic approach.
I agree completely! Now if they could just add in The Office Blokes, well...I do think world peace could be achieved! :) Hmm...perhaps I'm getting a little ahead of myself on that, lol...but in any case, would be great to see all my fave TH-cam limeys all together! ;)
I'll share a Thanksgiving experience. Several times I went to a group Thanksgiving that included someone from Australia. He had lived in the US for several years and lived all over the country. One time he said "You all have no idea how weird this is. Basically your entire country sits down and eats the same meal on the same day. That's really weird, especially for such a large country." He told us there were foods associated with holidays in other countries, but not a complete meal with a specific main course and all the side dishes and desserts, with some regional variations like sweet potatoes vs white potatoes.
The cool thing about both of these shows is your undeniable love for America. We are not perfect, nor are we the goofy stereotypes held by many Brits and Europeans.
Patriotism in America originally was influenced by the noble, heroic, ingenuous principles reflected in the US Constitution. With some of those principles slowly withering away, patriotism is increasingly muted in today's US.
Worth noting that Thanksgiving is *always* on a Thursday, meaning it is automatically a 4-day weekend for anyone not working in retail/service or transportation jobs -- making it the biggest travel week of the year. It is fairly common for even large families to plan huge get together for that week, for that reason. Some rotate locations each year (eg. one sibling hosts each year), others go to one place every time (eg. a family cabin in the mountains)
My family has several Thanksgivings because of Thanksgiving with my close family and the doing it again with my cousin's family by marriage and then my dad's brother is a separate event. So, we have a Thanksgiving lunch with my grandma and dinner with my cousin's family and then dinner again on Saturday with Grandma, uncle, his new wife, ex wife, and daughter. It's a lot really.
There have been plenty of times I didn’t get a 4 day weekend. In fact I have worked Thanksgiving Day most years. There are other professions like hospitality, emergency services, media and banks that work that Friday. I’m currently working for the government and I didn’t get that Friday after TG off.
@@anndeecosita3586 very true, I should have mentioned emergency as well! I don't get many off, sometimes even the day of and sometimes not. The others may depend on the area
@@anndeecosita3586 absolutely correct. It really is up to the organization you work for and what their demand is. It can also change from year to year. I worked for one manufacturer who gave us the Friday off the first year because they were ahead of schedule, but the next year we were behind so we were working. Nothing automatic about it unless it is in your benefits package.
We have entire neighborhoods that have massive Christmas displays with lights, various Christmas scenes, music, etc. People take their kids to these neighborhoods every year.
The major reason that sales tax isn't rolled into the advertised price is that every community has a different rate. There are thousands of different jurisdictions with different taxation rules and in any specific place you might be subject to multiple sources of taxation. Where I am, there's a city tax, a county tax, a state tax, and a "Regional Transportation District" tax, which get added together for the total sales tax. Go out into a part of the county that isn't within city limits and you lose the city tax. Go north to the next state and there is a flat state sales tax. And depending on jurisdiction, different things may be taxed at different rates. So some places don't tax food unless it's served in a restaurant, for instance. With national sales of many products, if you publish a book (for instance) with a standard price, you can put that on the cover and leave the taxation issues to each location, where the people actually know what is going on. An advantage of adding sales tax is that government doesn't get to hide as much of their bite out of your budget as it does in a VAT regime. Also, if the sales tax rate is 9% (which is toward the higher end in the US), and the next town over has a rate of (say) 6%, you can make purchasing decisions (or decisions on where to live) on that basis.
Great point. In New York State, for example, food and shoes under $110 are exempt from sales tax. In NYC, there's no food tax at all, unless it involves alcohol, prepared meals, sweets or sodas. So many different rules in various jurisdictions.
You are correct, Thanksgiving is very big here but nothing tops an American Christmas. You cannot go down one street without seeing at least 50% of the homes decorated on the exterior, candles in all the windows, etc. It is quite beautiful. Every town decorates their town center in some way. . Most of them have huge trees with a tree lighting ceremony for everyone to attend. They have hot cocoa stands, snacks, Carolers, etc. every street in my neighborhood goes out at 5 PM and they place small white bags with sand in the bottom and candles in them all around the front of the property so when you drive down the street it’s like you are on an airport runway. It is beyond beautiful. I have two Aunts that lived in England and I visited them. I love your country… But there are some differences for sure. From Norwood, Massachusetts, we wish you both a beautiful Holiday!❤
I think the way that Thanksgiving is often bigger is that often a majority of your extended family (aunts/uncles, adult cousins and their kids, etc) are present for the whole day, and often the whole 4-day weekend. For Christmas, a lot of families spend Christmas morning/day with immediate family, but not so much extended family. Probably because the gift situation could get pretty intense if all the extended family were there as well.
I just commented and said sort of what you said about Christmas Day. Many of us do spend that day with immediate family. I also told them that many of us do a “Boxing Day”. We just don’t call it that. And it’s not a national holiday. My Mom would get together with friends, certain family members that she hadn’t seen in awhile and we didn’t see on Christmas Day and have like a party eating leftovers and give gifts etc. She didn’t go to work the day after Christmas she would take her vacation during that time.
Getting all of my aunts, uncles and cousins from just my mom's side of the family would require renting a hall. It would take hours to hand out all the gifts if you spent a couple minutes per gift and everyone only got one thing. I can't think of a single holiday where my entire family was all in one place at the same time (the most I see in one place at one time is at weddings or funerals). It's just not feasible most of the time.
My family has always done three Christmases. There's Christmas morning with the immediate family, later on Christmas day with my mother's side of the family, and a day near to Christmas day with my father's side of the family...
As others have mentioned sales tax can be very confusing as they differ by state and in some cities there is an additional city tax. Here in New Hampshire we have no sales tax on goods, but we have a 9% sales tax on food in restaurants and anywhere food is consumed on the premises, but none on takeout orders (food consumed off premises).
It is really important to tip at a bar. $1 per drink/service is fine. Or if you receive coinage for change, always give that to the bartender. You will usually get better service and might get stronger drinks.
One of our holiday traditions is driving around looking at the Christmas lights. Many displays get turned on Thanksgiving night. Just north of us (about 12 miles away) one man (family?) decorates the entire side of a mountain and puts up a new message every year! My town has a State Highway as our Main Street and I am told we are the only town that decorates a State Highway.
Thanksgiving is big here in Utah, but Christmas is way bigger. I would say probably 50 to 60 percent of the homes in this area are decorated for Christmas. Main Street in my local city is decorated with lights, for a couple of blocks, for Christmas, and it is very beautiful.
I would have to agree with this as a fellow Utahan. Christmas is definitely bigger here. Lots of lights and decorations on the main streets and homes, Christmas music everywhere. There are even a few people with homes/property on the upper bench of the mountains who will put an enormous star or tree (or whatever) made out of lights on the mountain above their property that can easily be seen from several miles away. It's pretty cool.
I think that americas way of adding the sales tax at the register is good. That way, we know exactly how much the government is getting. I feel like in the UK, any raise in sales tax, would be hidden in the overall cost of the item. I think that whole “taxation without representation” thing (the reason we bowed out on Britain in 1776) really informed our collective psyche in the USA
Oh yeah!! There's a whole block of houses decked out with lights and other displays all synced up to a radio channel. It's sooo awesome! And no,Thanksgiving is in no way bigger than Christmas. Love the collaboration! You're all so great.
Christmas is way bigger to people in my life, as it's spent with many more relatives than Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving tends to be just a few hours with closer family. Sales tax is also nowhere near as high as VAT, so it's not too big of difference (unless buying a pretty high priced item).
Regarding American patriotism, when at a sporting event and the US national anthem is played, almost everything comes to a halt and the US flag is saluted. I was at a weekly stock car race, and the track announcer, who had a decidedly British accent, pointed that out. It was so obvious, the welding in the infield stopped; the air tools stopped; people who were walking around, having visited the concession stands stopped. It's so American, I didn't realize that the rest of the world is not the same.
Wow. Fantastic collaboration. All 3 of you at the same time. So much fun. Just one thing about the sales tax -- I think you guys know that every U.S state is different in terms of sales tax assessment and amounts . . . and often the county and/or city are different. Therefore it would be challenging for national, regional, or even state-wide chain stores to mark all items for the individual locale. But easy to mark up the tax price at checkout. It's not a big deal in the U.S.
I would also suggest that part of it is due to America's higher competitive pressures. With many sources for a product, Americans grow up learning to look for the best price, so shopkeepers respond by leaving off the tax to make their prices look lower than competitors'. I'm guessing it wasn't that way in colonial times, but once some vendor first had the idea, everybody else had to adopt the practice to remain competitive, so now it's institutionalized.
The only thing I’ve found that is bigger in Thanksgiving is the Feast. Though they’re generally pretty close, there’s a lot more at thanksgiving just because that’s pretty much the focus of it. Whereas there’s a lot more to prep and focus on with Christmas.
Thanksgiving has become more about extended family all in one place, whereas I think Christmas seems to skew more towards immediate family in the morning, then they visit one or more sets of grandparents later in the day. So in that way Thanksgiving is a bigger gathering, IMO.
Sells tax varies from state to state. I live in Oregon and we have no sells tax. What you see on the tag is what you pay. Love seeing Lawrence on your show.
It's great that success has made Laurence more generous. A lot of successful TH-camrs go the other direction. He gains nothing from a collab with a lower viewership channel, but did it anyway.
Great video. Christmas is bigger as the prep and overall display / festivities are bigger and last longer. Thanksgiving only lasts longer depending on how long the leftovers last.
When we were small our Mom and Dad would take a night and drive us around looking at all the Christmas lights on the houses and we also have Christmas parades and where I live in the US most little churches have Christmas programs to tell the Christmas story in the bible and pass out bags of goodies to everyone. 🎄⛄🥰🇬🇧🇺🇸
Love Laurence, love the colab. You guys should do a "10 differences between the UK, and the UK". Talking about the things that have changed there since he left.
Thanksgiving is a feast day sprint. Christmas is a marathon. Usually I would have only one thanksgiving dinner. But now I live more unconventionally and have 1-3 dinners with different Branches of family. This year was the first time I ate with a particular branch and I've been sick ever since. Miserable cold. And, yes, it's a COLD.
FWIW, tipping at a bar is usually a dollar per drink. Unless you’re getting table service in which case, 20% on top of the bill is customary just as if you were having a meal with table service.
In almost every city\town there is a street called Candy Cane Lane for Christmas. Every house is fabulously decorated, sometimes Santa giving out candy canes. You can park and walk or drive through. It is quite the experience.
Regarding sales tax, this is charged by the state or smaller jurisdiction. However, prices are often advertised on a national basis. Kind of hard to state an included price that might vary depending on where the purchase is made.
Having the sales tax added on at the cash register is annoying, but it's rarely more than half of what you pay in VAT. The highest I've ever seen is 8.5 percent, except in a few places where they have a lot of tourists and charge more in restaurants and hotels. And the highest I've encountered for that is 14 or 15 percent.
From what I've heard our American tip system is supposed to put the customer more in charge of the service they get. You tip according to how well you like the service. The sales tax being added on after is to make sure you know how much extra you are paying. The thought is your less likely to want to raise the tax if you know how much you are already paying.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and every year we travel to Florida to visit my extended family. I would say that Christmas is probably the biggest holiday here and I usually spend it at home in Virginia with my immediate family. We decorate the house a lot more at Christmas, inside and outside.
Yay!! 🥳 Hey Laurence!! 👋🏽 Great to see y'all here!! Tipping even bigger today due to past couple years, expectations!!! Everything went up except WAGES!! 😭
Thanksgiving is huge, but I’d have to give the edge to Christmas. One thing that helps Christmas to have the edge is the massive consumption nature of Christmas gift giving.
For church-going people, Christmas is bigger than Thanksgiving, but Easter is bigger than either. Lots of people forget the reason for the three holidays.
@@cynthiat6505, Some say that Halloween is the best: lots of chocolate, & little or no Meaning Of. (Actually Halloween is the ancient Celtic New Year. It got pre-empted by the Christians.)
i follow both you guys and its so neat that your working together Most of us Americans are so curios about you brits Its like your our more civil brothers lol
Most of my ancestors immigrated from the UK!! ❤️ First they settled in Utah, but they ALL relocated to Southern California...and that is where I and my siblings were born... Now, I live on a mountaintop in Buford/Laramie, Wyoming, USA!!
I've been watching Lost in the pond for ages and I love him and his wife. I just started watching you guys this year and I love you guys too. Please collaborate more often. You guys are awesome. Sending love from Detroit Michigan
Christmas Lights are big even here in Hawaii but honestly the Mega displays are maybe 1 or 2 per town. The newspaper publishes addresses for families to do drive by tours. But most houses just put up lights on the eaves and/or front doors.
Hee! James, your northern accent grows noticeably stronger when chatting with Laurence! I didn't expect that. Not only is it easy to get used to Sales tax; it is also easy to *lose* being used to it. I live in Oregon now, which has no sales tax. And in spite of the fact that I grew up with sales tax, I was still badly thrown when I stopped at a fast food place for lunch in Washington state, just over the border, and they charged me more than a dollar for my dollar meal! Outrageous! So yes, it's easy to acclimate both to sales tax and to its lack.
@@katw3070 Huh? Oh! I think maybe you thought I meant they charged me a dollar in tax? No, no, no. I just meant I handed over a dollar for my "dollar meal," forgetting that it would be a dollar plus change. I don't remember exactly how much it was: probably $1.05 or something like that. Nothing at all unreasonable; I'd just grown used to paying nothing at all for sales tax.
Free refills: Yep, most places have them. Especially coffee in sit-down restaurants. As a general rule, I don't get soda at fast food restaurants -- these days, they are quite likely to have fruit juices or tea, which are better options even though they are probably going to have added sugar. I get one of the two depending on the location, since the selection is slightly different from one chain to the next. They'll also have unsweetened tea if that's your thing, but it'll usually be warm or room temperature since it's common for most patrons to pour it into a cup filled with ice. Hot tea is more difficult to find, although it can be found in larger gas station mini-markets. Sales tax: We don't include it in the sale price because it varies too much by location. It can be one amount in a town where you live, and a different amount if you go to the next town down the highway. State and local governments each have an amount that is added together for the final tax, and since the local taxes vary quite a bit, there's no way to have one tax amount that covers an entire State, much less the entire country. In the town I live in, it's 8.61% right now. I have yet to pay a sales tax that exceeded 10%, and it can be under 6% in some places. So while VAT may be convenient when you're adding up your expenditure, the 17% you mentioned is a deal-breaker. That's much too high to be appealing. We pay about half that even though we have to figure it out ourselves. All we have to do is add 10% to the total, and we know that it'll be less than that when the cashier rings it up.
The thing about sales tax is that is varies depending on where you are shopping. It is some for the state, some for the city, and possibly some for the county. It can be different at shops across the street from each other depending on district lines. So is just easier to add it at the register.
I always tip at least 20% in restaurants... Independence Day is the number one day/date in my heart...❤️🇺🇸💝 I used to cook the Christmas dinner for my family members... My parents would be parked in front of my home...waiting for our lights to come on... Then they’d come inside, and eat breakfast while watching their grandchildren opening Christmas presents... My parents would go back to their home...but would return for Christmas dinner... I would cook both a turkey and a ham...and I spent the day before Christmas making potato salad, macaroni salad and fruit salad...so I could visit and eat with all of my family!! Phenomenal memories!!!!!
PLEASE note that expiration dates on American food products are about fullest flavor, not safety. You can eat U.S. foods shipped to you by fans & followers many months after the expiry date for boxed and bagged items, and years afterwar for canned goods. They won't make you sick at all; they might start to taste stale or lose their crispiness.
Christmas is a time to be a kid again. It when you can believe in wishes and surprises. It’s my favorite time of year when I make my friends and family happy because I found the perfect gift.
The sad thing about Christmas in the US is when you work retail like I do, Christmas loses it meaning. It is a very stressful time for me and I spend my time wishing it was over. So I am very thankful for Thanksgiving. I don't have to cook anymore, my daughter does that. I just get to spend time enjoying family and friends, and being thankful that I live in this wonderful country.
I'm pretty sure free refills originated with coffee at sit-down restaurants, decades before Taco Bell existed. They may have been one of the first major fast-food chains to offer free refills on fountain pop, though.
Dark side of the free refill. The average cost to order vs supply is astronomical. On the supply side the syrup flavoring, CO2, water and cups+lids is estimated about $0.50 per initial order due to it all being purchased in bulk. Now the restaurant charges anywhere from $3 and up for that order of pop, so offering free refills (of which the average customer gets maybe 1-2 more) means that the restaurant still profits from the initial sale. This info coming from a former employee of a convenience store.
Well. It's because of the Beesleys that I found "Lost in the Pond". Absolutely love both channels. Lawrence's sarcasm is off the charts! Ha.. I always thought that Englins people were all that way. But i don't see it with the Beesleys..
Texas here. It depends on why you are celebrating. As a Christian, Christmas is more important, but Thanksgiving, the giving of thanks is important too!
Thanksgiving is a day of worship in the US. While it is not as thankful as it was in previous generations. Thanksgiving dinner still starts with a prayer praising God for the previous years blessings. Until the '70's, we heard Thanksgiving songs on the radio and sang those songs in school. Many of us appreciated Thanksgiving as much as Christmas. We are still a Christian nation, just at a lower percentage.
LOL--Laurence does indeed live in the midwest because he calls soda pop "Pop". On the west coast we all call it "Soda". I always fly my American flag outside my front door. Every single day. And the Star Spangled Banner can make me tear up like nothing else. :)
Glad you guys got to do a collaboration with "TH-cam Sensation" Laurence Brown. Laurence has got this youtube creator thing down pat, witty, thoughtful, and easy to listen to.
Sales tax can be confusing for those who live here, too. Food items are exempt from tax in the supermarket, even premade items like sandwiches and burritos. Buy those same items at a fast-food place, and suddenly you're paying tax on them! And then there are the other taxed items, like hotel rooms, which are a completely different tax (hotel-motel occupancy tax). The list goes on.
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FINALLY! So glad to see you guys do this (Southern California here btw). So proud of you for getting Lawrence's attention and so glad he was so receptive. Shows you what a great guy he is. Thanks for all the entertaining content (:
"It should be out at the same time as ours" - yeah, about that. I'm experiencing abnormally long rendering times, but I expect my video to be up shortly. Stay tuned.
Will ALWAYS wait patiently for your videos!!
No worries then, Lawrence. Don't mind waiting. Cheers from Tennessee
Also, fantastic edit, guys!
No worries Laurence. Tech can be frustrating sometimes
James is loving his new PC said it cut the Render time down a lot! I loved this video and I totally Agree the edit was awesome! It was a pleasure chatting with you briefly in the Beesley Discord Server Laurence awhile back and I have been excited about this for months! Thanks so much, I know everyone is going to love it! I can't wait to see your version next!
Halloween is the pregame. Thanksgiving is the opening act. Christmas is the main event. New years is the after party
Good description of Holiday Season!
If you live in an area with a large Indian population you'll get lights on houses and fireworks for Dwali just before Halloween. It's the pre pre game in Northern Virginia.
Sales tax (6%) is much lower than a 17% VAT tax. Americans are more hostile to taxes.
To make it extra confusing, the amount of sales tax varies state to state and even sometimes by city or county
Precisely! Here in my hometown, I generally stay clear of the Walmart within the city limits, because I will invariably pay $5-6 more in sales tax vs. shopping at the Walmart in the county for the EXACT same items! Now that dollar amount is for a large amount of exact same items. For 1, 2, or 3 items, the amount is usually $1-2 dollars more in sales tax. Oddly enough, the county Walmart will also have the exact same item for a completely different price all together! This usually refers to non-food items and is only a price difference of a couple of dollars less. Important to note, these 2 Walmart's are literally 15mins away from each other! (Well maybe 20mins if it's rush-hour 😅)
Don't forget that the collection of taxes is different between states also. For example, 1 state may have an income tax that keeps sales taxes lower than in another state while that other one doesn't and has higher sales taxes. Or 1 state may tax some items that another state doesn't. For example, Idaho has a sales tax for food while Washington doesn't. 1 set tax across the country just wouldn't work.
I try to explain it like the EU. Each country sets up it's own rules, taxes, etc, as long as it doesn't conflict with the overall rules of the EU that they've agreed to follow. They all pay in a tax to the EU ruling body while setting their own tax laws within their countries. Likewise, each state sets its own laws and taxes, as long as they're abiding by the overarching Constitution.
Yes, sales tax amounts vary from county to county in my state (Texas).
That’s the reason the sale price does not include the tax: because the sales tax rates are different from county to county.
Christmas is much bigger than Thanksgiving as it goes on through New Years Day. I watch Lost in the Pond regularly. I enjoy Lawrence's comedic approach.
The Beesleys reacting to Lawrence's videos is great but the three of you actually interacting together...fantastic! It's like the Super Friends!
Lol I loved this comment
I agree completely! Now if they could just add in The Office Blokes, well...I do think world peace could be achieved! :) Hmm...perhaps I'm getting a little ahead of myself on that, lol...but in any case, would be great to see all my fave TH-cam limeys all together! ;)
@@TLL1969 I would love to see a collab with Diane next. Currently a Collab with Courtney won't be possible since she's going to America. Pfft
@@TLL1969 agreed office blokes are amazing
I loved that cartoon when I was a kid!
Reminding the taxpayers they are paying the tax is a consideration. Including VAT into the listed price lets the victims forget.
It's also more expensive with VAT since it's added at every level of production.
I'll share a Thanksgiving experience. Several times I went to a group Thanksgiving that included someone from Australia. He had lived in the US for several years and lived all over the country. One time he said "You all have no idea how weird this is. Basically your entire country sits down and eats the same meal on the same day. That's really weird, especially for such a large country." He told us there were foods associated with holidays in other countries, but not a complete meal with a specific main course and all the side dishes and desserts, with some regional variations like sweet potatoes vs white potatoes.
😮
😂
The cool thing about both of these shows is your undeniable love for America. We are not perfect, nor are we the goofy stereotypes held by many Brits and Europeans.
Patriotism in America originally was influenced by the noble, heroic, ingenuous principles reflected in the US Constitution. With some of those principles slowly withering away, patriotism is increasingly muted in today's US.
Worth noting that Thanksgiving is *always* on a Thursday, meaning it is automatically a 4-day weekend for anyone not working in retail/service or transportation jobs -- making it the biggest travel week of the year. It is fairly common for even large families to plan huge get together for that week, for that reason. Some rotate locations each year (eg. one sibling hosts each year), others go to one place every time (eg. a family cabin in the mountains)
My family has several Thanksgivings because of Thanksgiving with my close family and the doing it again with my cousin's family by marriage and then my dad's brother is a separate event. So, we have a Thanksgiving lunch with my grandma and dinner with my cousin's family and then dinner again on Saturday with Grandma, uncle, his new wife, ex wife, and daughter. It's a lot really.
@@shaninnmarie Sounds busy - and delicious!
There have been plenty of times I didn’t get a 4 day weekend. In fact I have worked Thanksgiving Day most years. There are other professions like hospitality, emergency services, media and banks that work that Friday. I’m currently working for the government and I didn’t get that Friday after TG off.
@@anndeecosita3586 very true, I should have mentioned emergency as well! I don't get many off, sometimes even the day of and sometimes not. The others may depend on the area
@@anndeecosita3586 absolutely correct. It really is up to the organization you work for and what their demand is. It can also change from year to year. I worked for one manufacturer who gave us the Friday off the first year because they were ahead of schedule, but the next year we were behind so we were working. Nothing automatic about it unless it is in your benefits package.
Okay, now I need The Beesleys, Lost in the Pond, and Kabir Considers together and I'll be happy for the rest of my life.
We have entire neighborhoods that have massive Christmas displays with lights, various Christmas scenes, music, etc. People take their kids to these neighborhoods every year.
Lawrence seemed to mention free refills are given just in fast food restaurants. My experience is that almost all restaurants give free refills.
and then there's the occasional one that charges for every single refill and we are pretty sure that's highway robbery
No, here in the US, Christmas is WAY bigger than Thanksgiving! Christmas is almost like a month long event while Thanksgiving is just one day.
Richmond, VA has a tree and building lighting on the news around 6pm. They flip a switch and the whole skyline lights up for the holidays.
The major reason that sales tax isn't rolled into the advertised price is that every community has a different rate. There are thousands of different jurisdictions with different taxation rules and in any specific place you might be subject to multiple sources of taxation. Where I am, there's a city tax, a county tax, a state tax, and a "Regional Transportation District" tax, which get added together for the total sales tax. Go out into a part of the county that isn't within city limits and you lose the city tax. Go north to the next state and there is a flat state sales tax. And depending on jurisdiction, different things may be taxed at different rates. So some places don't tax food unless it's served in a restaurant, for instance. With national sales of many products, if you publish a book (for instance) with a standard price, you can put that on the cover and leave the taxation issues to each location, where the people actually know what is going on.
An advantage of adding sales tax is that government doesn't get to hide as much of their bite out of your budget as it does in a VAT regime. Also, if the sales tax rate is 9% (which is toward the higher end in the US), and the next town over has a rate of (say) 6%, you can make purchasing decisions (or decisions on where to live) on that basis.
Great point. In New York State, for example, food and shoes under $110 are exempt from sales tax. In NYC, there's no food tax at all, unless it involves alcohol, prepared meals, sweets or sodas. So many different rules in various jurisdictions.
Thanksgiving is the “warm up” to Christmas, plus it puts you in the attitude of gratitude leading into Christmas
Yay! Congrats on the collab! Loving both your channels.
You are correct, Thanksgiving is very big here but nothing tops an American Christmas. You cannot go down one street without seeing at least 50% of the homes decorated on the exterior, candles in all the windows, etc. It is quite beautiful. Every town decorates their town center in some way. . Most of them have huge trees with a tree lighting ceremony for everyone to attend. They have hot cocoa stands, snacks, Carolers, etc. every street in my neighborhood goes out at 5 PM and they place small white bags with sand in the bottom and candles in them all around the front of the property so when you drive down the street it’s like you are on an airport runway. It is beyond beautiful. I have two Aunts that lived in England and I visited them. I love your country… But there are some differences for sure. From Norwood, Massachusetts, we wish you both a beautiful Holiday!❤
I think the way that Thanksgiving is often bigger is that often a majority of your extended family (aunts/uncles, adult cousins and their kids, etc) are present for the whole day, and often the whole 4-day weekend. For Christmas, a lot of families spend Christmas morning/day with immediate family, but not so much extended family. Probably because the gift situation could get pretty intense if all the extended family were there as well.
I just commented and said sort of what you said about Christmas Day. Many of us do spend that day with immediate family. I also told them that many of us do a “Boxing Day”. We just don’t call it that. And it’s not a national holiday. My Mom would get together with friends, certain family members that she hadn’t seen in awhile and we didn’t see on Christmas Day and have like a party eating leftovers and give gifts etc. She didn’t go to work the day after Christmas she would take her vacation during that time.
Getting all of my aunts, uncles and cousins from just my mom's side of the family would require renting a hall. It would take hours to hand out all the gifts if you spent a couple minutes per gift and everyone only got one thing. I can't think of a single holiday where my entire family was all in one place at the same time (the most I see in one place at one time is at weddings or funerals). It's just not feasible most of the time.
My family has always done three Christmases. There's Christmas morning with the immediate family, later on Christmas day with my mother's side of the family, and a day near to Christmas day with my father's side of the family...
As others have mentioned sales tax can be very confusing as they differ by state and in some cities there is an additional city tax. Here in New Hampshire we have no sales tax on goods, but we have a 9% sales tax on food in restaurants and anywhere food is consumed on the premises, but none on takeout orders (food consumed off premises).
50% for tipping?! You got bamboozled Laurence!! hahaha
It is really important to tip at a bar. $1 per drink/service is fine. Or if you receive coinage for change, always give that to the bartender. You will usually get better service and might get stronger drinks.
One of our holiday traditions is driving around looking at the Christmas lights. Many displays get turned on Thanksgiving night. Just north of us (about 12 miles away) one man (family?) decorates the entire side of a mountain and puts up a new message every year! My town has a State Highway as our Main Street and I am told we are the only town that decorates a State Highway.
This was great! Getting the 3 of you chatting is so cool. I’d love to see more content like this. 🎉
Thanksgiving is big here in Utah, but Christmas is way bigger. I would say probably 50 to 60 percent of the homes in this area are decorated for Christmas. Main Street in my local city is decorated with lights, for a couple of blocks, for Christmas, and it is very beautiful.
I would have to agree with this as a fellow Utahan. Christmas is definitely bigger here. Lots of lights and decorations on the main streets and homes, Christmas music everywhere. There are even a few people with homes/property on the upper bench of the mountains who will put an enormous star or tree (or whatever) made out of lights on the mountain above their property that can easily be seen from several miles away. It's pretty cool.
I think that americas way of adding the sales tax at the register is good. That way, we know exactly how much the government is getting. I feel like in the UK, any raise in sales tax, would be hidden in the overall cost of the item. I think that whole “taxation without representation” thing (the reason we bowed out on Britain in 1776) really informed our collective psyche in the USA
Oh yeah!! There's a whole block of houses decked out with lights and other displays all synced up to a radio channel. It's sooo awesome! And no,Thanksgiving is in no way bigger than Christmas. Love the collaboration! You're all so great.
Lawrence called it pop, Midwest style, those of us in the NYC call it soda.
Christmas is way bigger to people in my life, as it's spent with many more relatives than Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving tends to be just a few hours with closer family. Sales tax is also nowhere near as high as VAT, so it's not too big of difference (unless buying a pretty high priced item).
Regarding American patriotism, when at a sporting event and the US national anthem is played, almost everything comes to a halt and the US flag is saluted. I was at a weekly stock car race, and the track announcer, who had a decidedly British accent, pointed that out.
It was so obvious, the welding in the infield stopped; the air tools stopped; people who were walking around, having visited the concession stands stopped. It's so American, I didn't realize that the rest of the world is not the same.
Love you all! ❤️
Wow. Fantastic collaboration. All 3 of you at the same time. So much fun. Just one thing about the sales tax -- I think you guys know that every U.S state is different in terms of sales tax assessment and amounts . . . and often the county and/or city are different. Therefore it would be challenging for national, regional, or even state-wide chain stores to mark all items for the individual locale. But easy to mark up the tax price at checkout. It's not a big deal in the U.S.
I would also suggest that part of it is due to America's higher competitive pressures. With many sources for a product, Americans grow up learning to look for the best price, so shopkeepers respond by leaving off the tax to make their prices look lower than competitors'. I'm guessing it wasn't that way in colonial times, but once some vendor first had the idea, everybody else had to adopt the practice to remain competitive, so now it's institutionalized.
Thanksgiving is for sure not as big as Christmas here in America. It’s a great time and most people see it as like the start of the holiday season !
The only thing I’ve found that is bigger in Thanksgiving is the Feast. Though they’re generally pretty close, there’s a lot more at thanksgiving just because that’s pretty much the focus of it. Whereas there’s a lot more to prep and focus on with Christmas.
Thanksgiving has become more about extended family all in one place, whereas I think Christmas seems to skew more towards immediate family in the morning, then they visit one or more sets of grandparents later in the day. So in that way Thanksgiving is a bigger gathering, IMO.
Hello from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Remember that in most states there is no sales tax on food purchased at the supermarket. VAT is so much higher than sales tax!
Sells tax varies from state to state. I live in Oregon and we have no sells tax. What you see on the tag is what you pay. Love seeing Lawrence on your show.
I saw the thumbnail on the Lost in the Pond video first and said, "Wait! Isn't that the Beelsleys?!" This was awesome.
It's great that success has made Laurence more generous. A lot of successful TH-camrs go the other direction. He gains nothing from a collab with a lower viewership channel, but did it anyway.
Great video. Christmas is bigger as the prep and overall display / festivities are bigger and last longer. Thanksgiving only lasts longer depending on how long the leftovers last.
In most states there is no sales tax on food shopping or cloths shopping
When we were small our Mom and Dad would take a night and drive us around looking at all the Christmas lights on the houses and we also have Christmas parades and where I live in the US most little churches have Christmas programs to tell the Christmas story in the bible and pass out bags of goodies to everyone. 🎄⛄🥰🇬🇧🇺🇸
Love Laurence, love the colab. You guys should do a "10 differences between the UK, and the UK". Talking about the things that have changed there since he left.
WOW! Two of my favorite youtube channels rolled into one! Fantastic!!!!!
Thanksgiving is a feast day sprint. Christmas is a marathon. Usually I would have only one thanksgiving dinner. But now I live more unconventionally and have 1-3 dinners with different Branches of family. This year was the first time I ate with a particular branch and I've been sick ever since. Miserable cold. And, yes, it's a COLD.
Damn so many people been getting sick in November and December an we are not even done with the year. Pfft
Sales Tax can vary by City, let alone County or State. Food is not included in most States.
So fun to see you both together! I’d love to see more!
FWIW, tipping at a bar is usually a dollar per drink. Unless you’re getting table service in which case, 20% on top of the bill is customary just as if you were having a meal with table service.
Important to note that certain states don’t have sales tax on certain things. For example, my state doesn’t tax food at the grocery store
In almost every city\town there is a street called Candy Cane Lane for Christmas. Every house is fabulously decorated, sometimes Santa giving out candy canes. You can park and walk or drive through. It is quite the experience.
Regarding sales tax, this is charged by the state or smaller jurisdiction. However, prices are often advertised on a national basis. Kind of hard to state an included price that might vary depending on where the purchase is made.
Having the sales tax added on at the cash register is annoying, but it's rarely more than half of what you pay in VAT. The highest I've ever seen is 8.5 percent, except in a few places where they have a lot of tourists and charge more in restaurants and hotels. And the highest I've encountered for that is 14 or 15 percent.
From what I've heard our American tip system is supposed to put the customer more in charge of the service they get. You tip according to how well you like the service. The sales tax being added on after is to make sure you know how much extra you are paying. The thought is your less likely to want to raise the tax if you know how much you are already paying.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and every year we travel to Florida to visit my extended family. I would say that Christmas is probably the biggest holiday here and I usually spend it at home in Virginia with my immediate family. We decorate the house a lot more at Christmas, inside and outside.
Yay!! 🥳
Hey Laurence!! 👋🏽
Great to see y'all here!!
Tipping even bigger today due to past couple years, expectations!!!
Everything went up except WAGES!! 😭
Thanksgiving is huge, but I’d have to give the edge to Christmas. One thing that helps Christmas to have the edge is the massive consumption nature of Christmas gift giving.
This is great! Excellent job on this collaboration, and I hope you can do more. Love you all.
Cool to see you guys do a video with Lawrence. Great job you two!
For church-going people, Christmas is bigger than Thanksgiving, but Easter is bigger than either. Lots of people forget the reason for the three holidays.
Absolutely. The reason for each season is so much more important. Easter is definitely my most revered holiday…it’s the reason my heart beats.
@@cynthiat6505, Some say that Halloween is the best: lots of chocolate, & little or no Meaning Of. (Actually Halloween is the ancient Celtic New Year. It got pre-empted by the Christians.)
As to pay toilets, I beleive that they were outlawed as a Civil RIghts measure.
i follow both you guys and its so neat that your working together Most of us Americans are so curios about you brits Its like your our more civil brothers lol
Most of my ancestors immigrated from the UK!! ❤️ First they settled in Utah, but they ALL relocated to Southern California...and that is where I and my siblings were born...
Now, I live on a mountaintop in Buford/Laramie, Wyoming, USA!!
Pretty sure that’s most of America when it was first born and was growing.
I've been watching Lost in the pond for ages and I love him and his wife. I just started watching you guys this year and I love you guys too. Please collaborate more often. You guys are awesome. Sending love from Detroit Michigan
Christmas Lights are big even here in Hawaii but honestly the Mega displays are maybe 1 or 2 per town. The newspaper publishes addresses for families to do drive by tours. But most houses just put up lights on the eaves and/or front doors.
Christmas is definitely #1.
What an awesome video. Hopefully there are more to come in the future. Love the internet sensation.
Hee! James, your northern accent grows noticeably stronger when chatting with Laurence! I didn't expect that.
Not only is it easy to get used to Sales tax; it is also easy to *lose* being used to it. I live in Oregon now, which has no sales tax. And in spite of the fact that I grew up with sales tax, I was still badly thrown when I stopped at a fast food place for lunch in Washington state, just over the border, and they charged me more than a dollar for my dollar meal! Outrageous! So yes, it's easy to acclimate both to sales tax and to its lack.
That much sales tax doesn’t sound right at all.
@@katw3070 Huh? Oh! I think maybe you thought I meant they charged me a dollar in tax? No, no, no. I just meant I handed over a dollar for my "dollar meal," forgetting that it would be a dollar plus change. I don't remember exactly how much it was: probably $1.05 or something like that. Nothing at all unreasonable; I'd just grown used to paying nothing at all for sales tax.
@@elkins4406 yes, that’s what I thought you meant. Sorry, I misunderstood.
really cool to see you guys interacting, i love both your sites. 👍👍
Free refills: Yep, most places have them. Especially coffee in sit-down restaurants. As a general rule, I don't get soda at fast food restaurants -- these days, they are quite likely to have fruit juices or tea, which are better options even though they are probably going to have added sugar. I get one of the two depending on the location, since the selection is slightly different from one chain to the next. They'll also have unsweetened tea if that's your thing, but it'll usually be warm or room temperature since it's common for most patrons to pour it into a cup filled with ice. Hot tea is more difficult to find, although it can be found in larger gas station mini-markets.
Sales tax: We don't include it in the sale price because it varies too much by location. It can be one amount in a town where you live, and a different amount if you go to the next town down the highway. State and local governments each have an amount that is added together for the final tax, and since the local taxes vary quite a bit, there's no way to have one tax amount that covers an entire State, much less the entire country. In the town I live in, it's 8.61% right now. I have yet to pay a sales tax that exceeded 10%, and it can be under 6% in some places. So while VAT may be convenient when you're adding up your expenditure, the 17% you mentioned is a deal-breaker. That's much too high to be appealing. We pay about half that even though we have to figure it out ourselves. All we have to do is add 10% to the total, and we know that it'll be less than that when the cashier rings it up.
Nah. . . Christmas is the big holiday here in the US. Here we drive around and look at houses decked out with lights. 🙂
Actually, almost all restaurants in the US have free refills on both soft drinks and water.
Both fast-food and sit-down restaurants.
The thing about sales tax is that is varies depending on where you are shopping. It is some for the state, some for the city, and possibly some for the county. It can be different at shops across the street from each other depending on district lines. So is just easier to add it at the register.
Love the collab-you should definitely do it again!
I always tip at least 20% in restaurants...
Independence Day is the number one day/date in my heart...❤️🇺🇸💝
I used to cook the Christmas dinner for my family members...
My parents would be parked in front of my home...waiting for our lights to come on... Then they’d come inside, and eat breakfast while watching their grandchildren opening Christmas presents... My parents would go back to their home...but would return for Christmas dinner...
I would cook both a turkey and a ham...and I spent the day before Christmas making potato salad, macaroni salad and fruit salad...so I could visit and eat with all of my family!! Phenomenal memories!!!!!
Definitely, definitely, do more of these Collaborations.
Enjoyed the collab with Laurence!!! Great to see & hear each other's reactions. Well done.
PLEASE note that expiration dates on American food products are about fullest flavor, not safety. You can eat U.S. foods shipped to you by fans & followers many months after the expiry date for boxed and bagged items, and years afterwar for canned goods. They won't make you sick at all; they might start to taste stale or lose their crispiness.
Two of my favorite TH-cam channels linking up. Good chat!
Christmas is a time to be a kid again. It when you can believe in wishes and surprises. It’s my favorite time of year when I make my friends and family happy because I found the perfect gift.
The sad thing about Christmas in the US is when you work retail like I do, Christmas loses it meaning. It is a very stressful time for me and I spend my time wishing it was over. So I am very thankful for Thanksgiving. I don't have to cook anymore, my daughter does that. I just get to spend time enjoying family and friends, and being thankful that I live in this wonderful country.
You can get a different job.
Millie has a beautiful smile! More please. ❤
I'm pretty sure free refills originated with coffee at sit-down restaurants, decades before Taco Bell existed. They may have been one of the first major fast-food chains to offer free refills on fountain pop, though.
Christmas is the biggest Holiday in my experience. Christmas has a big feast, decorations, a tree, music, movies, and presents.
Dark side of the free refill. The average cost to order vs supply is astronomical. On the supply side the syrup flavoring, CO2, water and cups+lids is estimated about $0.50 per initial order due to it all being purchased in bulk. Now the restaurant charges anywhere from $3 and up for that order of pop, so offering free refills (of which the average customer gets maybe 1-2 more) means that the restaurant still profits from the initial sale. This info coming from a former employee of a convenience store.
Britain will always be our big bro and we need to keep our relationship as strong as possible
Great Collab! Colorado here. Props for the D.U. hoodie, btw.
Well. It's because of the Beesleys that I found "Lost in the Pond".
Absolutely love both channels.
Lawrence's sarcasm is off the charts! Ha.. I always thought that Englins people were all that way. But i don't see it with the Beesleys..
Texas here. It depends on why you are celebrating. As a Christian, Christmas is more important, but Thanksgiving, the giving of thanks is important too!
I love the collaboration. Thanksgiving is meant to remind us of all the good we have been given this year.
No sales tax on food from the store in Florida United States of America. 🇺🇸
The thing about sales tax, is that the amount varies from state to state and county to county. Also, sometimes food will be taxed, sometimes not.
Thanksgiving is a day of worship in the US. While it is not as thankful as it was in previous generations. Thanksgiving dinner still starts with a prayer praising God for the previous years blessings. Until the '70's, we heard Thanksgiving songs on the radio and sang those songs in school. Many of us appreciated Thanksgiving as much as Christmas. We are still a Christian nation, just at a lower percentage.
Christmas is bigger in the US. Well the commercialism of Christmas is bigger than Thanksgiving. Christmas stuff is out before Halloween in America.
LOL--Laurence does indeed live in the midwest because he calls soda pop "Pop". On the west coast we all call it "Soda".
I always fly my American flag outside my front door. Every single day. And the Star Spangled Banner can make me tear up like nothing else. :)
Glad you guys got to do a collaboration with "TH-cam Sensation" Laurence Brown. Laurence has got this youtube creator thing down pat, witty, thoughtful, and easy to listen to.
Great collaboration.
Some states in the US don’t do sales tax at all! I live in Michigan, and it is 6%, but it’s also worth mentioning that food is not taxed.
In Vermont , any pre-made food at Grocery stores are TAXED,
Sales tax can be confusing for those who live here, too. Food items are exempt from tax in the supermarket, even premade items like sandwiches and burritos. Buy those same items at a fast-food place, and suddenly you're paying tax on them!
And then there are the other taxed items, like hotel rooms, which are a completely different tax (hotel-motel occupancy tax). The list goes on.
Depends on the state I know Ohio doesn't charge sales tax at fast food restaurants
Ready to eatt foods have meals tax, but unprepared food does not is the rule.
Taxation without representation......main reason so we know what the actual cost of the taxes are. VAT is confusing to us.