One of the best things about the holiday season is the amazing food. But everyone has that one traditional dish that they absolutely hate. For most people, it’s cranberry sauce, and here’s why.

There’s an unwritten law in America that says that between the last Thursday in November and January second, all diets are on hold.

The food around the holidays is just too damned delicious.

Yet something always has to get in the way of deliciousness. We all have one dish that is a real turn off around Christmas. And the most hated holiday dish of all? Canned cranberry sauce.

You might have thought that turkey, being less tasty than chicken, would be the most disliked holiday dish. Or perhaps you thought that it was brussels sprouts, which are the bane of children all over the world. But no, cranberry sauce is much more of a turn off, apparently.

This claim comes from a survey carried out by The Harris Poll. The poll asked a cross-section of 2,000 adult Americans which traditional holiday foods they actually enjoyed eating. And the results sure are interesting.

A whopping 68% of Americans revealed that they dislike some classic holiday foods. However, most of these people admitted that they ate those disliked dishes for tradition’s sake.

46% of the responders said that they found the taste of canned cranberry sauce “disgusting”. That means that it’s almost certain that someone will hate having cranberry sauce at your Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner, but they’ll eat it anyway, just for the holiday’s sake.

Another dish that was disliked was green bean casserole. 24% of respondents said that they were put off by this meal.

And 19% said that they disliked the turkey, which is not so bad compared to the cranberry sauce!

Amazingly, very few Americans listed sprouts as their least favorite holiday dish. But it’s fair to say that children probably wouldn’t be happy to see a plate filled with sprouts and little else on Christmas Day. Remember that the poll was strictly for adults.

A little extra research into the Harris Poll survey reveals why so many Americans say that they dislike canned cranberry sauce the most.

31% of Americans serve up their cranberry sauce still shaped like the can. As in, they just shake the sauce out of the tin and let it rest on a plate in the cone shape. Any chef will tell you that the first bite is with the eye, so perhaps seeing something that looks artificial is making people dislike cranberry sauce more?

So the message is clear: if you’re serving canned cranberry sauce with Christmas dinner, then please mash it up before it reaches the table. It’ll only take a few seconds and will do wonders to make it more palatable.

The survey also revealed something shocking about the future of holiday meals. Traditional foods may be on the way out.

Lots of the millennial Americans that answered the survey revealed that they had served something other than turkey for a holiday dinner.

In fact, 42% of millennials who had hosted Thanksgiving dinner admitted serving a meat that wasn’t turkey. As millennials are only just starting to host holiday dinners, this trend looks like it will increase in the future.

So in, say, 20 years will Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners look fundamentally different? It’s hard to tell. Most Americans are currently putting up with dishes that they dislike, but this could soon change!

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Source: Newsner