Thanksgiving is often considered the forgotten holiday, squeezed between Halloween and the winter holidays like Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. But there are a lot fun facts about Thanksgiving that are pretty interesting, and you probably don't know about most of them.
Or do you?
Take our fun quiz to test your Thanksgiving knowledge. You could gobble it up, as they say!
🦃 How much do you know about Thanksgiving?
- When was the first Thanksgiving celebrated?
- Do all turkeys gobble?
- What Christmas song was originally written as a Thanksgiving song?
- How many pounds of turkey do Americans buy during the Thanksgiving season?
- How many pumpkin pies do Americans eat on Thanksgiving?
- Who started the annual tradition of pardoning the White House Thanksgiving turkey?
- What was one Thanksgiving staple that was NOT on the menu at the first Thanksgiving?
- When was the first Turkey Trot race?
- Who wanted the turkey to be America's national bird, instead of the eagle?
- When was the first Macy's Day Parade?
- Which company offers a Turkey Talk-Line during November and December?
- Does tryptophan make you tired?
- What is typically a plumber's busiest day of the year?
- Which president pardoned a live raccoon on Thanksgiving in 1926?
- What percentage of American dislike the classic Thanksgiving dinner?
- Why do we traditionally eat turkey on Thanksgiving?
- How long did the first Thanksgiving feast last?
- Who invented Green Bean Casserole?
- What is a turducken?
- There are four cities in the United States named Turkey. Where are they?
🦃 Answers
- The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621.
- No! Only male turkeys gobble. Female turkeys cackle. HAHA!
- Jungle Bells was originally a Thanksgiving song.
- 365 million pounds of turkey is purchased by Americans during Thanksgiving.
- It is estimated that Americans eat 50 million pumpkin pies on or around Thanksgiving.
- The annual pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey officially began in 1989 with President George H.W. Bush. However, President Kennedy is said to have let the first bird off the hook in 1963.
- Turkey was NOT served during the first Thanksgiving!
- Now a popular tradition, the first Turkey Trot took place in Buffalo, New York, in 1896. There were only six runners!
- Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird, because he believed that the turkey is a more respectable bird.
- The first Macy's Day Parade was held in 1924, and featured monkeys, bears, camels, and elephants borrowed from the Central Park Zoo instead of the traditional character balloons we know today.
- Butterball started a Turkey Talk-Line in 1981. Turkey experts will answer your turkey questions, in English or Spanish, if you call in.
- No! Feeling tired after eating turkey is typically a result of overeating. After you've had a big meal, your body goes into shutdown mode, and then you feel sleepy. The phenomenon is called postprandial fatigue.
- Plumbers call the day after Thanksgiving "Brown Friday". Can you guess why that would be? (Ew.)
- President Calvin Coolidge was gifted a raccoon, to be eaten as his Thanksgiving dinner. (WHAT?) He wasn't interested in eating the raccoon, so he officially pardoned it, and kept it as a pet instead!
- 68% do not like the traditional Thanksgiving meal! However, most will eat it anyway to keep up the tradition. (FUN FACT: I am one of the 68% but I do NOT eat the traditional Thanksgiving meal.)
- Turkeys were plentiful in New England, and they were often distributed to soldiers in the area. They were an inexpensive and large bird that could feed lots of people.
- The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.
- Green Bean Casserole was invented by a Campbell's employee, using Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup as one of the main ingredients.
- A turducken is a chicken and a duck cooked inside of a turkey. The earliest version of cooking a bird within a bird was found in the 1774 cookbook, The Art of Cookery. That recipe called for a pigeon, partridge, fowl, and goose to be stuffed inside the turkey.
- There are "Turkey towns" in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana and North Carolina.
How many answers did you know? Who claims the title of Biggest, Most Knowledgeable Turkey in your family?
🧡 Happy Thanksgiving!
