Only by leaving the country can Yanks grasp what a thoroughly American holiday Thanksgiving is.

If the country an American expat has landed in has a Canadian community (like this one does), the locals will become particularly confused about this Thanksgiving business — because Canada has a Thanksgiving day of its own. But theirs is the second Monday in October. (Canadians. Go figure.) OK, we’ll give them this; by the fourth Thursday of November, much of Canada is frozen solid, including many of its people. Not much to be thankful for there.

Christmas is not big in the officially Muslim UAE, of course, but they seem to have accepted that the idea of some sort of holiday at the end of the year is acceptable, at least as a marketing concept. The malls here will put up lights, and ridiculous faux snow figures that look vaguely like reindeer. It’s quite strange, and I’m not sure how they would definite what they’re going for, other than the wonders of winter, but it’s there.

Thanksgiving?

As one American colleague in the offices of The National put it: “Can you feel it … in the air?

“Me neither.”

As usual, the handful of Americans in Abu Dhabi seemed to be making their best efforts to assemble, patching together T’day menus as best they can. Whole turkeys are not common here, and cranberry sauce is difficult, and you’re on your own with pumpkin pie, never mind mince.

I was in the office late, and my Thanksgiving (day of) meal consisted of a turkey sandwich. At my desk. (Yes, I’m trying to make you feel sorry for me.) A year ago, we were invited to a gathering of random Yanks in a suburb south of town, and two years ago we somehow got the day off and hosted a dinner in a friend’s apartment downtown. (She had a kitchen; we had a turkey.)

We may yet do something to recognize the date, perhaps even watching a bit of the early NFL game late tonight. (We are exactly upside down from California. If it’s 10 a.m. there, it’s 10 p.m. here.)

Our U.S.-based correspondent, Mike Tierney, did a column that tried to explain to puzzled UAE residents what all these NFL games are about. I have one quibble with Tuerney’s pice: I have yet to see cousins (or anyone else) fight over the last serving of cranberry sauce.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Most American holiday of all. Ahead even of the Fourth of July, which some people on this side of the Atlantic actually have heard of, if only because it offers a chance to set off fireworks.