Not everyone has a large family after growing up and getting holiday meals from "strange" places isn't that strange. Getting a fully cooked holiday meal from the grocery store is a thing, lots of restaurants do this as well. Boston Market often has menu items of turkey/dressing/potatoes/etc that one might think of a traditional holiday meal, so this isn't a stretch for them.
You and GP might be talking past each other. GP is talking about "Honey Baked Ham" as a brand name. You might be talking about honey baked ham as a generic food.
I've also spent all my life in the US in vastly different regions, and I've never heard of a franchise called Honey Baked Ham, but I'm aware of honey baked ham as a food product.
Funny thing was, I had never heard of Honey Baked Ham until my first boss told me he used to be a manager at one. The irony there was that he was Jewish and didn't eat pork.
Not OP, but I’m from the Midwest, and I find your “must be a California thing” hilarious given that we were eating a Honey Baked Ham at least once a year over 40 years ago. Imagine my surprise (and regret that I had since gone vegetarian) when I moved to the west coast and found a Honey Baked Ham store in Bellevue, WA. My wife still gets one once in a great while, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sneak a piece or two.
Anyway, back to the point, looking their website prompts me to ask where one would have to live in the U. S. and not be within an hour’s drive of a store.
Figure out where it takes a couple hours of driving to get to an international airport and you'll have an idea.
Anyway, I just assume anything people on this site assume everyone has seen is from California, especially if I've never heard of it.
Maybe I've just never been in the market for fast food ham? I still feel like this is a weird example of something Americans commonly do on Christmas.
From Seattle, same story. Thanksgiving and Christmas always included honey baked ham.
So no, standard families in the suburbs may be making their own meals, but there are certainly many people in the US that aren't in that situation. Young people away from home, singles and couples, non traditional families, families that don't have time to cook because of jobs or don't want to. There are many people who get holiday meals from these restaurants.
And if you're hitting up Taco Bell on Cinco de Mayo, you're doing it wrong. Home-make 7-layer dip and margaritas (if you're into that kinda thing) is how we rock it in Colorado.
The meme-able phenomenon the OP is talking about is very real and certainly not regional or niche e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/9z7zd6/honey_ba...
Growing up in a rural area with Chinese takeout as the only Christmas option is well protected from the pre-conditioned Honey Baked Ham holiday lifestyle.
Where I'm from everything is closed on Christmas, even Wal-Mart, except the local Chinese takeout, so if you don't want home cooking, that's your one option.
Now, living in a larger area, there are some other limited options but as a seventh generation European descended American I have never known a single family that celebrated Christmas by going to a franchise restaurant