Recently updated on September 27th, 2025 at 07:16 pm
The leaves are turning, Halloween has been and gone, and every store you visit is piled high with pumpkins. This can only mean one thing… it’s almost Thanksgiving! Those familiar family get-togethers, the buzz on the streets and, of course, the trials and tribulations of getting that roast turkey just right. But despite the age-old traditions, there are some facts about Thanksgiving that you’ve probably never heard of. Here are a few of our favourites.
A freshly baked pumpkin pie with decorative crust beside a basket of assorted fruits and a whole pumpkin on a dark wooden table, prepared for Canadian Thanksgiving.
Why is it called Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving’s name comes no surprising source: it’s meant as a day of giving thanks. The Pilgrims, a deeply religious community, celebrated good fortune by spending days giving thanks to their God. These New England colonists were joined by the Native American Wampanoag tribe for a multi-day feast, which became the first Thanksgiving in the United States. It also notably ended with a decades-long treaty between the two groups. Thanksgiving became a national holiday two centuries later during the Civil War when President Lincoln dedicated the day to the unity of all Americans.
What is special about Thanksgiving?
The significance of Thanksgiving in a historical sense marks a time of peace and relative cooperation between the Native Americans and colonists. Contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States, however, means different things to different people. For some, it’s a special time when whole families come together, often for the only time each year. For others, it’s the unofficial last day of autumn and before the Christmas season “starts” on Black Friday.
Ultimately, American Thanksgiving is special because it offers an opportunity for families and friends to leisurely engage in traditions new and old. Whether watching or playing football, cooking feasts or dining out at buffets, and shopping for presents or pulling down holiday decorations, Thanksgiving is a special time for people of all backgrounds across the United States.
A football field with many people watching the game – a USA bucket list experience.
1. A three-day feast
These days, Americans get one day’s holiday on Thanksgiving, but at the very first Thanksgiving in 1621, festivities lasted a little longer. When the local Wampanoag tribe turned up to the Plymouth Plantation for the colony’s big harvest feast, it was declared that celebrations would be prolonged for another couple of days. With the spread including everything from swan to lobster, it’s hardly surprising!
It’s thought that the all-important centrepiece to Thanksgiving dinner got its name from the Europeans. The continent’s Guinea Fowl were brought over by Turkish merchants, and gradually became known as ‘Turkeys’. The name crossed the Atlantic when the first Spaniards arrived in the New World and found similar birds waddling around.
3. What do Thanksgiving and nursery rhymes have in common?
The answer is one magazine editor, Sarah Josepha Hale. She penned Mary Had a Little Lamb, but Americans also have her to thank for their Thanksgiving day off. At the height of the Civil War, Sarah urged Abraham Lincoln to unite the country by declaring the fourth Thursday in November a national holiday. In autumn 1863, the president finally agreed.
Nowadays, you can’t have Thanksgiving without Macy’s Parade, and you can’t have the parade without its huge balloons. However, there were no balloons at the procession debut in 1924. Instead, in true Macy’s extravagance, elephants and camels from Central Park Zoo joined the march. In 1927, Tony Starg of Good Housekeeping designed the parade’s first balloons, and they’ve been a fixture ever since.
A large balloon of a blue-haired anime character floats above a crowd during a bucket list event, with a person taking a photo in the foreground.
5. Macy’s Parade, part II
To begin with, there was no deflation routine for Tony’s balloons. At the end of the parade, they were merely cut loose to float to the sky. Those lucky enough to discover one of the inflatable characters once it had drifted back down to earth, could return it to Macy’s for a prize.
6. A (very) brief history of the TV dinner
Even the beloved TV dinner has its origins in Thanksgiving. In 1953, food manufacturer Swanson ended up with 260 tons of excess turkey to shift over the festivities. Rather than sell the birds whole, they decided to fill thousands of aluminium trays with frozen slices, along with all the traditional trimmings. At 98 cents each, they were a huge hit and Swanson has never looked back!
7. Got a culinary crisis?
The Butterball Turkey Talk Line is the number you want. 35 years ago, the cooking experts on the other side of the phone were answering 11,000 calls over Thanksgiving season; today, that number is closer to 100,000. With a 24-hour text helpline introduced in 2016, they’re the fairy godmother for any turkey-related disasters in the lead up to the big feast.
8. The first national Thanksgiving was in October, not November
On October 3 1863, the United States was two years into a war that wouldn’t end for another two years. As the Civil War raged on, President Abe Lincoln was encouraged by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale to create a national day of gratitude to promote unity across the country. President Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving not as the fourth Thursday in November, but on October 3, 1863. It wasn’t changed to November until 1941.
9. Lincoln was the first president to pardon a turkey
It’s only fitting that President Abraham Lincoln, the one who proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, was the first president to pardon a turkey. Lincoln sparred the fowl at his son’s request and it unofficially started a presidential tradition.
10. The White House officially started pardoning turkeys in 1989
Many sitting U.S. presidents including Ronald Regan and JFK showed clemency for turkeys. Even though the tradition dates back to Lincoln’s term, it didn’t become an annual White House tradition until 1989. President George H.W. Bush pardoned a turkey and the act has continued annually in every administration since. One of the more interesting fun facts about turkey pardoning is that historically only male turkeys are pardoned.
11. The NFL draws huge viewership numbers for football games
Football games have become part of the Thanksgiving day traditions just as much as cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — though there’s a chance the old pigskin gets more eyes on it than the controversial jellied sauce.
A football field with many people watching the game – a USA bucket list experience.
The National Football League reported approximately 141 million people tuned in for football games on Thanksgiving Day, which averaged around 34 million people per game. That’s akin to the entire Indonesian island of Java watching all of the games and the entire population of Poland watching each individual game.
12. Thanksgiving week sees the most travel days by car
As a holiday with deep family traditions, it’s no surprise that millions of people travel on Thanksgiving. Whether across town or across the region, the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday surrounding Thanksgiving Day are among the most traveled days of the year by car.
13. More than 40 million turkeys are eaten each year
Turkey is by far the most popular dish on the Thanksgiving menu. It’s the quintessential staple of every Thanksgiving dinner, and even as side dishes gain enormous popularity, many families don’t consider the spread truly complete without gobbling up this famous fowl.
Whether you’re kicking off the Christmas season as soon as possible or choosing to eat your turkey while traveling the world, book one of our amazing Trafalgar tours for Thanksgiving this year!
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