- For many people, Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family and friends. It’s a time when you prepare food together and let each other know what you’re thankful for whether it be your children, your job, or other things that are in your life. Aside from eating turkey, being thankful, and watching a parade, there are a few fun facts about the holiday that you might not know about that you can stump your friends with at the dinner table.
- Edward Winslow documented the first details about Thanksgiving in a letter. He wrote the letter to several friends and family members, and while he did talk about the holiday, it was only mentioned a few times. The first formal Thanksgiving was held in 1789 when George Washington proclaimed the day a holiday. However, Abraham Lincoln decided that Thanksgiving should be the fourth Thursday in November. Some presidents didn’t agree with celebrating Thanksgiving and refused to acknowledge that it was a holiday including Thomas Jefferson.
- If you watch the Macy’s Parade, then you’re watching an event that’s close to 100 years old as the event was first held in 1924. A dish that’s popular in Louisiana is the turduken. This is a combination of turkey, duck, and chicken with each bird stuffed inside the other. It’s a way to have a variety of meats on the dinner table at one time.
- When a town in Connecticut was unable to get molasses to make pumpkin pies, it decided to postpone Thanksgiving. Your Thanksgiving meal likely includes turkey or ham, but the first meal in North America probably featured lobster and various types of venison. The United States isn’t the only country that celebrates Thanksgiving. Canada celebrates the holiday, but it’s on a different day during the year. Their holiday is in October.
- Plumbers have perhaps the busiest job the day after Thanksgiving. This is in large part due to more people in one home using the toilet and the sink. It’s also due to items clogging kitchen sinks and garbage disposals after Thanksgiving dinner. If you’re unsure of how to cook a turkey, Butterball has a hotline that you can call during the month of November and into December. TV dinners were inspired by Thanksgiving with the first meals featuring turkey and stuffing. Green bean casserole was inspired by Campbell’s Soup.
- Avoid traveling the Sunday after Thanksgiving as this is one of the most expensive days to fly. If you plan to travel on the roads on Thanksgiving, you might want to get started the night before as it’s a time when there’s not as much traffic to fight. The presidential pardon for a turkey started with Abraham Lincoln when he pardoned the bird for Christmas. About 22 million pounds of turkey are consumed in the United States for Thanksgiving. You can run off your Thanksgiving dinner in a Turkey Trot each year that dates back to 1896.
- “Jingle Bells” is a song that is sung at Christmas, but it was written for Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving wasn’t held on one day. It was spread out over three days to allow more people to gather together. “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” has been declared one of the best movies about the holiday even though it’s a cartoon.
