When thinking of Thanksgiving most people think about the food. Sure, a lot of people think of things like traditions, the history, or the Macy’s Day parade, but truly, in particular, they think of the turkey. In most families, turkey is the centerpiece of the table, the thing people in grocery stores wrestle over, and most importantly, the ultimate bragging right among family.

But what if there was an argument that ham is better than Thanksgiving turkey? Immediately, most would disagree and try to argue their point of view that it’s tradition to have turkey and so on and so forth, but let’s give the point of view of why ham is better than turkey for Thanksgiving.

For starters, when comparing the meats, it depends on how each person makes them, but ham tends to be much more flavorful, sweet, and savory than turkey. Turkey tends to be on the more salty and dry side. According to health.com Turkey also has tryptophan which could be what makes people sleepy after eating it. If you have seen the Christmas movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” there is a scene when they are having Christmas dinner and the Turkey they made is so dry they start dipping it into their drinks to try and help it. Yes, that turkey in particular was severely overcooked to the extent that it exploded open is beside the point, but it could help the fact that if they had made a ham instead that never would have been a problem in the first place!

Now if you want to play into factors that could add to the argument think about the gravies. Turkey gravy has a more salty taste whereas Ham gravy is sweeter. Adding the gravy to each meat could either officially make or break the meal. The sides also play into how the ham or turkey plays into the meal. Asking around in Sentry for other’s opinions the result was many were very, very verbal about how strongly they felt that Turkey was superior. There were also quite a few ham-over-turkey people. We ended up doing a tally and the results were, you probably guessed it, Team Turkey won over Team Ham. Even after getting those results the argument still stands that ham is the better choice.

Where would you stand on the Christmas Ham vs. Thanksgiving Turkey debate?