45 Thanksgiving Facts To Impress Dinner Guests
Thanksgiving is officially here, and dinner may not be the only thing on your mind to prepare. With plenty of family and friends coming together to spend time this holiday you might be thinking of all the different topics that you're going to discuss. Why not talk about the holiday itself? Most people know the traditional foods served during Thanksgiving and have at least a vague idea of the first Thanksgiving, but not everyone knows all there is to know about this special day.
This list of 45 Thanksgiving facts is not only educational, but it's festive too! And it may just keep your Great Aunt Betsy distracted enough to not discuss your love life.
Related: 7 Ways To Redirect a Heated Conversation This Thanksgiving, According to a Therapist
45 Fun Thanksgiving Facts
1. The First Thanksgiving
The Mayflower pilgrims founded the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts and had a three-day meal with the Wampanoag tribe in 1621.
2. U.S. Towns Named Turkey
There are four, and they are in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana and North Carolina.
3. Estimated Number of Turkeys Prepared
Each year it is estimated that 46 million turkeys are prepared to provide the traditional feast.
4. Football Teams
The Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions have played the most games on Thanksgiving Day. The Lions have played almost each Thanksgiving since 1934 and The Cowboys since 1966.
Related: Recipes That Prove Thanksgiving is the Best
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5. October 3, 1863
On this day, Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.
6. Average Cost of Thanksgiving Dinner
The average cost of Thanksgiving dinner is $53.31 for 10 guests.
7. Dinner Plans
13 percent of Americans plan to order takeout or go to a restaurant in lieu of preparing Thanksgiving dinner.
8. Turkey Calories
Each year Americans collectively consume three billion calories from turkey alone. Imagine how high that number would be if every other dish were included!
9. 3,150-4,500 Calories Consumed
You read that right. That is the average number of calories each person consumes on this holiday!
10. 9 Hours and 27 minutes
This is the amount of time it takes for an average male to burn 4,500 calories. That second slice of pie is definitely worth it, though!
11. Turkeys Sent to the White House
The National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation is a ceremony wherein the president is presented with a live turkey each year.
12. 1989
The first year a president, (George H.W. Bush) officially pardoned a turkey.
13. The Oldest Thanksgiving Day Parade
While the Macy's parade is surely the most popular these days, the oldest goes to a department store parade in Philadelphia in 1920. The Philadelphia Gimbel Brothers Department Store put on a parade including only 50 people and 15 cars, and ended with Santa on his sleigh to mark the coming Christmas season.
14. The First Feast
While turkey is the front runner of Thanksgiving dishes today, the dinner guests at the first Thanksgiving dined on more local foods, including deer. Turkey was likely served, but it was not the main dish.
15. Thomas Jefferson
Before Lincoln officially declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, the president had to declare the holiday each year. Thomas Jefferson, however, refused to do so. He felt that the included prayer of the holiday violated the separation of church and state.
16. Religious Holiday
The first recorded religious celebration of Thanksgiving took place two years after the first feast in 1621 and was the mark of the end of a two-month drought.
17. Average Guests
The average number of guests surrounding a modern Thanksgiving dinner table is 10.
18. A Toast to Thanks
The most popular drinks to toast with on Thanksgiving are wine, beer and whiskey (in order of popularity).
19. The First Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Balloons are an extremely large importance in the Macy's Parade these days. However, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade did not feature balloons at all! Instead, animals from the Central Park Zoo were included in the procession.
20. Frozen TV Dinners
This convenient form of dinner was brought about by a mistake. A Swanson employee accidentally ordered 260 tons of turkey for Thanksgiving in 1953. As a result, the solution to the problem was to sell all of that turkey as frozen dinners!
21. Thanksgiving Preparations
A whopping 47 percent of Thanksgiving hosts will take time off of work in order to properly prep the feast.
22. Preparation Time
The average amount of time it takes for a host to prepare that feast is 9.6 hours!
23. Football Tradition
The tradition of a football game being played on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with Princeton and Yale.
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24. NFL Tradition
The National Football League joined in on the tradition of a game being played on Thanksgiving Day in 1920. That game was between the Akron Pros and the Canton Bulldogs.
Related: Thanksgiving Trivia
25. Thanksgiving Travel
31 percent of Americans travel on Thanksgiving Day, and 47 percent of those travelers drive.
26. First Turkey Trot
The first turkey trot hosted only six participants. Taking place in 1896, the race was five miles long and was held in Buffalo, New York.
27. 2011 Turkey Trot
The YMCA race held in Dallas, Texas that year broke the world record for most participants dressed as a turkey. A total of 661 runners donned feathered costumes to run the race.
28. Gobble, Gobble
Female turkeys cackle. Only male turkeys actually gobble, which is why they are aptly named "gobblers".
29. Pumpkin Pie Importance
In 1705, the town of Colchester, Connecticut canceled Thanksgiving because they couldn't make pumpkin pies. The river had frozen over, leaving their import of liquid sugar inaccessible. The holiday ended up only being postponed for about a week.
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30. Rebecca Raccoon
Calvin Coolidge was gifted a live raccoon by Vinnie Joyce, a Mississippi resident, in 1926. The gift was intended to be used as Thanksgiving dinner. Coolidge, however, became attached to the raccoon, kept her as a pet and named her Rebecca.
31. The Mother of Thanksgiving
Sarah Josepha Hale, the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", was named the Mother of Thanksgiving after years of lobbying to make it a national holiday. Numerous letters finally paid off in 1863 when President Lincoln officially declared it a national holiday.
32. Third Thursday
Thanksgiving has not always been held on the fourth Thursday of the month. In 1939 President Roosevelt moved the holiday back one week to allow more shopping days after Thanksgiving in order to boost the economy. The change was not well-liked, and in 1942 Thanksgiving was again moved to the fourth Thursday.
33. Traditional Dinner
While turkey is the first thing that comes to mind when Thanksgiving is mentioned, not everyone enjoys the dish for Thanksgiving dinner. 88 percent of Americans do, however.
34. Fat Intake
The average American consumes 229 grams of fat on this holiday!
35. Norfolk Island
This is the only known area of Australia to celebrate Thanksgiving. The tradition started because American ships would stop at the island during the 1800s on their whaling trips.
36. Pardoned Turkeys
What happens to the turkeys that each President pardons? They go on to live their lives happily gobbling and cackling away. Two specifically, from 2005 and 2009, were sent to Disneyland and Walt Disney World to be included in their annual Thanksgiving parades.
Related: Thanksgiving Activities for Kids
37. The Best Part of Thanksgiving
According to most Americans, the best part of Thanksgiving is actually the leftovers!
38. Butterball Turkey Talk Line
Each year, the Butterball turkey talk line receives about 100,000 calls with questions about how to best prepare a turkey. They even have a 24-hour text message line if you prefer that form of communication.
39. Canadian Thanksgiving
America isn't the only country to celebrate this holiday. Canada celebrates the feast after English explorer Martin Frobisher's successful voyage from England to the Canadian territories in 1578. The USA's neighbors to the north celebrate their Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October.
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40. Number of Pumpkin Pies Consumed
Each year Americans eat an estimated total of 50 million pumpkin pies. And to think pumpkin comes in second to apple as the favorite pie!
41. Shopping Enthusiasts
Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year in America, with over 32 million participants!
42. Plumbing Woes
Black Friday is also the biggest day of the year for plumbers. Due to the influx of using garbage disposals, kitchen drains and toilets from multiple guests, plumbers have their busiest days right after Thanksgiving.
43. Not Just for Thanksgiving
The last Thursday in November is also known as the National Day of Mourning. While European settlers fled to North America to hopefully be free of the persecution they faced in their home country, they, in turn, persecuted the natives in the new land. Beginning in 1970, people began gathering at the top of Cole's Hill, which overlooks Plymouth Rock, to memorialize the conflicts that took place between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag resulting in the tribe's near extinction.
44. Not Just For Sauce
Cranberries definitely make a delicious sauce! But aside from that delightful dish, Native Americans had many uses for the berry. Those included healing wounds, dyeing fabrics and being eaten raw, and being used in plenty of other recipes.
45. Jingle Bells
Written in 1857 by James Lord Pierpont and originally titled "One Horse Open Sleigh," "Jingle Bells" was meant to be sung on Thanksgiving, not Christmas. When it was reprinted in 1859, the title was officially changed and it was adopted as a predominantly Christmas tune.
Up Next: Black Friday Origin
