With Thanksgiving leftovers finally eaten and homes (temporarily) back in order, holiday cooks are taking a breather before plunging back into the end-of-the-year marathon. A new national survey commissioned by Samsung Electronics America, Inc., America’s fastest growing major home appliance brand, and conducted online by Harris Interactive in November among U.S. adults¹, reflects on the Thanksgiving meal and takes a look at the rest of the season ahead.

The vast majority of holiday cooks have plenty of positive things to “gobble” about and clearly love what they do, as 88% plan to host all over gain in the near future or next year. But not surprisingly, given the amount of time and work required, 66% of US adults who cooked a Thanksgiving meal admitted to having some regrets with how they pulled off the meal. Number 1 on the list is timing the meal correctly (21%), followed by not enough advance planning (16%) and too much time spent hand-washing dishes (15%).

The Make Your House Work for the Holidays program brought to you by Samsung features ideas, inspiration and smart product innovations to turn holiday regrets into hosting success in the areas of planning, cooking and cleaning. So for holiday cooks who had issues with meal timing, the hub features a multi-dish timer tool to keep the meal in sync. It also offers advanced planning assistance with helpful menu guides, pantry checklists and table setting maps, as well as a guide to items that should go in the dishwasher and those that should be hand washed.

With the first big holiday meal under their belt and less than a month to go until New Year’s, consumers are already looking ahead to a very busy December, sizing up the challenges ahead, and thinking about best ways to approach them.

Plan Ahead? Many Don’t

Although you would think that planning ahead would be a crucial step for holiday cooks, close to half (45%) don’t actually do it. The non-planners run the gamut from “winging it” (10%), to asking guests to bring dishes (14%), having a drink to calm their nerves (7%) or to having absolutely no game plan at all (7%). Just 2% of cooks actually do a holiday meal test run.

Tis the Season for Guests in the Kitchen

One of the biggest challenges for holiday cooks can be how to handle holiday guests who gather in the kitchen during meal preparation time. In fact, 45 percent say they put people to work chopping vegetables, loading dishes, and setting the table; and 47 percent roll out snacks, drinks and conversation as they love the company. There’s also a fine line between guests in the kitchen and “meddlers” looking over their shoulder. More than half (60%) complained of being closely watched while cooking – with spouse/partner/significant other topping the list, followed by mother/mother-in-law, other family members and sibling.

When it comes to cooking, over half (52%) of holiday cooks want an oven that is fast, efficient and able to multi-task at the top of their holiday wish list. Samsung’s Flex Duo Oven (FE710DRS) reduces your stress and increases your options by preparing two dishes at two different temperatures, from one large capacity oven.

To the Grocery Store We Go, But Where To Put all the Food?

The sheer amount of holiday grocery shopping and groceries can also be a challenge. Almost 4 in 5 (78%) of holiday cooks will make themselves or have someone else in the household make up to three trips to the store and 22 percent will make four or more. Samsung’s LCD Refrigerator with apps (RF4289HARS) includes an Epicurious app that provides a shopping list to cook all your favorite recipes.

Once the groceries are home, where to put them? The refrigerator, of course. But when faced with a shortage of space in the fridge, one third (31%) of holiday cooks will throw out older groceries to make room for new -- which raises the question of just how much good food will be wasted during the holidays? The most desperate among us (7%) have even resorted to asking neighbors to temporarily store groceries in their refrigerators. Holiday leftovers only add to the space crunch, with one third (33%) of those who host holiday dinners and have leftovers indicating they would store them in the refrigerator/freezer. Samsung’s 31.6 cu. ft. French Door Refrigerator (RF323TEDBSR) is the perfect solution for space-challenged holiday cooks. It is the largest in its class with enough room for 32 bags of groceries.

For additional information regarding Samsung Home Appliances, including press releases, video content and product images, please visit www.samsung.com/newsroom.

About Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

Headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., markets a broad range of award-winning, digital consumer electronics, IT and home appliance products, including HDTVs, home theater systems, digital imaging products, notebook PCs, tablets, refrigerators and washing machines. A recognized innovation leader in consumer electronics design and technology, Samsung is the market leader for HDTVs, French-door refrigerators and front-load washers in the U.S. Please visit www.samsung.com for more information.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Samsung Home Appliances from November 16th - 20th, 2012 among 2,324 adults ages 18 and older; of whom 1,758 indicate that they cook any holiday meals. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Simone McDermid at Current smcdermid@talktocurrent.com.

¹ Harris Interactive 2012 - all data in this press release was conducted online by Harris Interactive in November 2012. Refer to boilerplate for full methodology