Most people who celebrate Thanksgiving spend days thinking about the holiday menu and mouthwatering Thanksgiving desserts. And we don't blame 'em! The holiday is essentially an excuse to dig in, especially if you're trying any of Ree Drummond's favorite Thanksgiving recipes! As you prep for a full belly this season, it might also be worth looking into the history of Thanksgiving. The holiday is full of cool facts, so we rounded up a bunch of Thanksgiving trivia for you to read before heading to the dinner table.
Love pumpkin pie? Well, prepare for some fascinating facts about the popular dessert. You'll also learn all about the first Thanksgiving, which NFL team always plays in the annual Thanksgiving football game, and who was the first president to pardon a turkey. You can use your newfound knowledge to impress your guests or create a fun Thanksgiving trivia quiz to see who really knows their stuff. The winner gets to pick which Thanksgiving movie you'll watch after the big dinner! (P.S. When the trivia runs dry, keep the rest of your dinner interesting with these hilarious Thanksgiving jokes and meaningful Thanksgiving quotes!)
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is usually the worst day to travel.
This doesn't really come as a shock, though. People do most of their traveling the day before, and if that's you, you should expect to hit the road either early in the morning or after 6 p.m. if you want to make the best of it.
The Pilgrims actually landed in Provincetown, Massachusetts first.
The Mayflower initially arrived to Provincetown Harbor, where it was docked up on November 11, 1620.
You shouldn't let your cooked turkey sit out for longer than two hours before refrigerating.
It's the reason why timing your dinner just right is so important! Make sure you leave some extra room in your refrigerator if you anticipate on having a lot of leftovers.
It takes about 440 cranberries to make up one pound.
It's true! While the exact number might depend on the type of cranberry, you can expect about 440 per pound. It probably makes sense why you need so many of them for your cranberry sauce on the holiday. We guess the motto going forward should be: There's never too much cranberry!
People are mostly thankful for family, health, and life on Thanksgiving.
According to a survey conducted by YouGov in 2021, family ranks at the top of the list. So, the next time you go home to greet your aunt or cousin that you don't see all the time, make sure to give them a long hug. They're probably super grateful for you!
Female turkeys are called hens.
If you thought this only applied to female chickens, you were wrong! Turkey's aren't the only ones, either. In fact, female lobsters are also called hens!
Despite what you may think, pumpkins are actually a fall fruit.
We know that pumpkins can have an earthy flavor, and they're often used in savory pumpkin recipes. But because pumpkins technically grow as a flower first, they're actually deemed as a fruit.
Over 300 pounds of glitter is used during the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.
Just think about it, there are tons of floats and costumes that need to look flashier than ever—so this number makes sense when you really put it all into perspective. Next time you try to spot your favorite attraction at the parade, just remember how much work went into it!
There are over 62,300 grocery stores in the United States.
Hey, if you think that's a lot—it really just means you have a variety of different places to visit for your Thanksgiving prep! For our last minute shoppers out there, you might want to check out our list of stores open on Thanksgiving.
The movie A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving premiered in 1973.
That's 50 years ago! Is the classic holiday film older than you thought? The first time it aired was on CBS in November of 1973, and it's been a holiday tradition ever since.
Only male turkeys make a gobble sound.
That's right! Female turkeys don't let out a gobble, but give out a cackle instead! Bonus points if you go ahead to hear the noise for yourself!
Plymouth, Massachusetts looks pretty much the same now as it did in the1600s.
It's pretty cool, too! You can actually head down to the Plimoth Patuxet and have your own traditional Thanksgiving in the area! You'll get a history lesson on how everything was done back in the day as you enjoy your visit.
Norfolk Island is the only region in Australia to celebrate Thanksgiving.
This isn't as random as it may seem, though. This is due to American influence in the area during the 1800s, when ships from the United States would make pit stops there—which in turn saw the Australian natives learning about Thanksgiving traditions, and adapting it for themselves.
President Calvin Coolidge once received a raccoon as a Thanksgiving gift.
Okay, so he was sent the raccoon in 1926 from a man named Vinnie Joyce of Nitta Yuma, Mississippi. It's certainly odd, until you realize that it was meant to be served as a dinner option. But in a turn of some fortunate events, President Coolidge decided that he loved the adorable creature, and kept it as a pet!
The world's most expensive Thanksgiving cost a whopping $180,000.
If that sounds rather much to you, just wait 'til you hear the story. In 2019, Old Homestead Steakhouse in Manhattan, New York announced that it would be serving a luxurious, packed dinner for 12 (which included the likes of Alaskan King crab, Otoro tuna and golden caviar). Going further, members of the dinner also received iPhones and tickets to the upcoming Super Bowl!
Two turkeys are sent to the White House each year.
Only one of the turkeys is actually meant to be pardoned by the president, while the second turkey is a backup, should anything happen to the first before the ceremony. However, in 2022 President Joe Biden pardoned both turkeys, Chocolate and Chip.
The largest pumpkin pie on record weighed 3,699 lb.
Everyone gets seconds—or even thirds! The world's largest pumpkin pie was made by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers and displayed at the New Bremen Pumpkinfest in New Bremen, Ohio in September 2010. The diameter of the pie was 20 feet!
For the majority of Americans, the true meaning of Thanksgiving is spending time with family.
Sixty-four percent of the respondents polled in the 2022 GCS Special Holiday Season & New Year survey said that to them, Thanksgiving meant being with their family.
Thanksgiving leftovers led to the invention of TV dinners.
In 1953, C.A. Swanson & Sons overestimated how much turkey it was going to sell for Thanksgiving and ended up with 260 tons of leftover frozen turkey. A Swanson salesman named Gerry Thomas suggested the turkey be used in frozen dinners in aluminum trays. The following year, the company released what would become known as the first TV tray dinner.
Colchester, Connecticut, once cancelled Thanksgiving due to lack of pumpkin pie.
That's right! The story goes that this New England town postponed its Thanksgiving feast for a week in 1705 because of a molasses shortage. We guess it's just not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie!
Philadelphia is home to the oldest Thanksgiving parade.
The first parade was hosted by the Philadelphia Gimbel Brothers Department Store in 1920. It would go on to inspire the famous Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Day Parade, which began in 1924.
Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for plumbers.
They receive up to 50% more calls than they do on a normal Friday. "The number one reason for calls is kitchen sink drains and garbage disposals," says Paul Abrams, director of public relations for the plumbing company Roto-Rooter. So be sure to properly dispose of all your food scraps this year!
Remember Sonic the Hedgehog? He was the first video game character to be featured in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In 1993, Sonic the Hedgehog made waves as the first video game character to appear in the staple holiday parade. Though '90s kids were definitely pleased, the showing didn't go too well for the Blue Blur. High winds blew the balloon off track and it ended up crashing into a lamp post.
About 46 million turkeys are prepared for Thanksgiving in America each year.
This is according to the National Turkey Federation, which also reported that 95 percent of Americans polled eat turkey at Thanksgiving. Gobble, gobble!
The first Thanksgiving is believed to have taken place in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Surprisingly, there's actually very little information on record about this “first” Thanksgiving. But we do know that it was a three-day festival to celebrate a bountiful harvest, and that it was attended by pilgrims and the Wampanoag people.
What meats were served at the first Thanksgiving?
Believe it or not, there is no record of turkey being on the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Venison, swan, duck, and goose were likely served instead.
What seafood was served at the first Thanksgiving?
Yes, you read that right! People also feasted on seafood, including lobster, oysters, fish, and possibly eel.
Who was the first president to pardon a turkey?
The first president on record to pardon a turkey was John F. Kennedy. The reprieve took place in 1963 when JFK received a 40-pound turkey with a sign around its neck that said, "GOOD EATING, MR. PRESIDENT!"
When did the turkey pardon become an annual event?
George H.W. Bush officially made turkey pardoning a yearly occurrence in 1989.
The turkeys pardoned by the president get some pretty cool perks.
The lucky birds pardoned in 2005 and 2009 went on to serve as grand marshals in Thanksgiving parades at Disneyland and Disney World. And the turkeys pardoned from 2010 to 2013 got to spend their final days at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.
President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.
For more than 200 years, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. In 1863, amid the Civil War, President Lincoln made Thanksgiving a permanent national holiday, according to the History Channel.
Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the official bird of the U.S.
In a letter to his daughter, he lamented the choice of the bald eagle as the official bird because of its "bad moral character." He noted that a turkey is a "more respectable bird" as well as native to the country.
Thanksgiving once took place on a different Thursday in November.
President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday in November in 1939. It was an attempt to help the economy during the Great Depression to expand the Christmas shopping season. In the end, most states still celebrated on the last Thursday of the month, while Colorado, Mississippi, and Texas observed both Thursdays.
The Detroit Lions always play on Thanksgiving Day.
While you probably watch football every Thanksgiving, you might not have realized that the Detroit Lions play every year! In 1934, they played the Chicago Bears on the holiday as a way to attract more fans. Even though the Lions lost the game, it was the start of a tradition that holds strong today. The only time the Lions did not play on Thanksgiving was between 1939 and 1944 due to World War II.
Minnesota produces the most turkeys in the country.
There's a chance your holiday bird came from Minnesota—they produce around 40+ million turkeys every year!
It's estimated that over 30 million households make green bean casserole every year.
The infamous casserole turned 65 years old in 2020—it was originally called the "Green Bean Bake" when Dorcas Reilly, a home economist who worked in the Campbell’s Soup Co. test kitchen, invented it in 1955. You can see the original recipe in the National Inventor's Hall of Fame in Akron, OH.
About 200 cranberries are needed to make one can of cranberry sauce.
Ocean Spray, which is the largest producer of cranberry products in the U.S., produces almost 80 million cans of cranberry sauce a year—85% of that supply is sold during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" helped Thanksgiving become a holiday.
Sarah Josepha Hale, who also wrote the famous children's poem, lobbied state and federal officials for years to make Thanksgiving an official holiday. She argued that the day could help bring unity to the divided country amid the Civil War.
The breaking of the wishbone is actually based on an ancient tradition.
Breaking a wishbone is probably one of those traditions that you never really understood. It originated with the Etruscans, an ancient Italian civilization who believed that birds were oracles and could predict the future. Basically, they kept this bone—the furcula—in order to hold on to the bird's supposed powers so they could continue making wishes.
The first Turkey Trot included only six runners.
In 1896, the first ever Turkey Trot was hosted by a YMCA in Buffalo, NY with just six contestants! The first person to win was Henry A. Allison, while Mary Anne Bolles was the first woman to run the race in 1972.
Tierney McAfee
Tierney McAfee is a freelance writer and Country Living and The Pioneer Woman contributor who covers entertainment,holiday & entertaining, food & drinks, design ideas, DIY, and more.
