Thanksgiving is the one day of the year when it is socially acceptable to plan your entire schedule around side dishes, parade balloons, and whether the turkey will cooperate with your cooking timeline. It is also a day built around gratitude, family, and the age-old question, “How many times can we reheat these leftovers before they become a science experiment?”

This year, instead of adding another complicated recipe to the internet, we thought we would release our unpaid interns from their underground cells to experience a rare breath of fresh air give an unexpected vacation to our already-generously compensated junior associates and serve up a plateful of light Thanksgiving trivia, a stroll through some of our favorite past articles, and a very real thank-you to the people who keep Commonplace Fun Facts going: you.

First Things First: Thank You

Before getting to Pilgrims, parades, and poultry, we want to pause for the part that matters most. Every time you read, share, comment, subscribe, or quietly chuckle at something on Commonplace Fun Facts, you keep this odd little project alive.

You are very near the top of our “things we are thankful for” list, somewhere between “indoor plumbing” and “the discovery that coffee exists.” We are grateful for longtime readers who have stuck with us through lobsters, lemmings, and leaky historical myths, and for new readers who have just wandered in, looked around, and decided, “Yes, I will absolutely read an article about turkey droppings.”

Thank you for reading, for letting us invade your inbox and timelines, and for reminding us that curiosity and humor are still alive and well.

A Little Thanksgiving Tour of Commonplace Fun Facts

Over the years, we have built up a surprising amount of Thanksgiving-adjacent mayhem. If you would like to turn your holiday into a historically themed reading binge, here are a few stops on the tour:

• Calendar chaos and “Franksgiving”: If you ever thought one Thanksgiving was plenty, you might enjoy “The Year of Two Thanksgivings: a Fascinating Historical Quirk”, where 1939 America split over which Thursday to carve the turkey on and some states simply chose both.
• The not-so-traditional “first Thanksgiving” menu: Popcorn and pumpkin pie were not invited to the 1621 feast, but seafood showed up in force. In “It’s Thanksgiving — Pass the Lobster!” we look at how the early menu leaned more toward lobster, rabbit, and venison than the classic turkey-and-gravy combo.
• The president, the bird, and the pardon: If you like your constitutional powers served with stuffing, “The First Turkey Pardoned By a President” explores the origins of the presidential turkey pardon and how a bird managed to become a seasonal White House lobbyist.
• Turkey science you never knew you needed: For reasons that probably say something about us, one of our most memorable holiday pieces is “You Can Identify the Gender of a Turkey by the Shape of Its Poo”. You leave this article with more than you wanted to about cloacas and possibly less of an appetite than when you started. You’re welcome for both.
• The woman who nagged America into Thanksgiving: If you want the “how did we get this holiday in the first place?” story, take a look at “Sarah Josepha Hale: She Gave Us Thanksgiving and Mary Had a Little Lamb”, where one determined editor spent decades campaigning for a national day of thanks.
• Quotes for when you run out of small talk: For something short and reflective between helpings of pie, you can revisit “10 Heartwarming Thanksgiving Quotes to Celebrate the Spirit of Thankfulness”.
• And for the day after: If your post-Thanksgiving motto is “I regret nothing… probably,” “Beware the Dangers of Eating Yourself to Death” serves as a cautionary tale about what happens when enthusiasm at the table goes just a bit too far.

Thanksgiving Fun Facts to Nibble On

Once you have your reading list, you might want some conversation fillers to deploy while waiting for the rolls to bake. Consider these your mental snacks.

Thanksgiving Took Centuries to Become “Official”

The famous 1621 feast in Plymouth was a three-day harvest celebration, not a national holiday. It involved about 90 Wampanoag and 53 Pilgrims and featured plenty of venison and seafood, including lobster. Turkey might have been present, but it was not the star of the menu, and there was definitely no pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, or canned cranberry sauce in sight.

“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

— Abraham Lincoln

For the next couple of centuries, days of thanksgiving were proclaimed locally or regionally. It was not until 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving to be observed on the last Thursday in November, setting the pattern that shaped the modern holiday.

In his official proclamation, Lincoln noted a few of the many blessings experienced by the nation. He then observed:

“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

The First Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation Was Much Earlier

Lincoln made Thanksgiving an annual national tradition, but he was not the first president to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation. In 1789, President George Washington called for a national day of thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26, inviting Americans to give thanks for the new Constitution and the survival of the young republic.

Thanksgiving Has Played Calendar Hopscotch

For decades after Lincoln, each president chose the Thanksgiving date by proclamation, usually the last Thursday of November. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried moving Thanksgiving up one week to stretch the Christmas shopping season, triggering such confusion that the year became known as “Franksgiving.” Some states followed the new date, others refused, and a few observant overachievers had both.

If that sounds familiar, it may be because you have already met this saga in our article “The Year of Two Thanksgivings: a Fascinating Historical Quirk”. The chaos finally ended in 1941 when Congress stepped in and set Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November, where it has stayed ever since.

Parades Began with Zoo Animals, Not Balloons

The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade marched through New York City on November 27, 1924. It was originally called the “Macy’s Christmas Parade” and featured floats, bands, and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. Giant character balloons did not arrive until 1927, and early on, Macy’s used to release the balloons after the parade, offering rewards to anyone who found them and returned them. Eventually, people realized that experimental balloon races over a major city might not be the safest long-term plan — although not before Cleveland’s spectacular balloon disaster of 1986. It was unrelated to Thanksgiving, but it took until long after the holidays to recover from the mess.

Football Moved In Early and Never Left

As soon as Americans had a holiday in late November, someone looked at it and said, “This seems like a perfect time for a sporting event.” College football games on Thanksgiving go back to the 19th century, and the National Football League embraced Thanksgiving in the 1920s and 1930s. If your holiday now includes a background soundtrack of commentators, instant replays, and shouted opinions about fourth-down decisions, you are participating in a tradition that has been around almost as long as the modern holiday.

Thanksgiving Has Even Gone to Space

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have celebrated Thanksgiving with their own “space-approved” menu. The turkey is smoked and thermostabilized, the sides come in pouches, and pumpkin pie is replaced by things that can be eaten without crumbs drifting into the equipment. It may not look like your family table, but the theme is the same: a chance to pause, share a meal, and be grateful, even while orbiting the planet.

Memorable Moments on Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving has also been the backdrop for some memorable moments in American history and culture. Here are a few to tuck between the stuffing and the gravy:

• 1924: The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade steps off in New York City, complete with zoo animals and a very busy Santa at the finish line.
• 1934: The Detroit Lions play their first Thanksgiving Day football game, beginning a tradition that will one day cause countless families to schedule dinner around a kickoff time.
• 1941: After the “two Thanksgivings” confusion of 1939 and 1940, Congress passes a resolution establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the official national Thanksgiving holiday.
• 1947: President Harry Truman participates in a turkey presentation that helps cement the idea of the presidential “turkey pardon,” a tradition later explored in detail in “The First Turkey Pardoned By a President”.
• 21st century and beyond: Astronauts celebrate Thanksgiving aboard the International Space Station with smoked turkey and space-friendly side dishes, proving that not even low Earth orbit is safe from holiday food.

Why We Keep Coming Back to This Holiday

For all of its shifting dates, evolving menus, and ever-expanding parade balloons, Thanksgiving keeps circling back to the same core idea: taking time to acknowledge what is good in our lives. That might be family gathered around one table, friends found along the way, traditions old or new, or the simple fact that there is, mercifully, still pie left.

We like this holiday because it sits right at the intersection of history, food, and storytelling. There is room for serious reflection, silly trivia, and the occasional deep dive into turkey anatomy. It is a reminder that gratitude does not cancel out the hard parts of life, but it does help us notice the grace, kindness, and surprising weirdness along the way.

From Us to You: Happy Thanksgiving

As we wrap up this little Thanksgiving ramble, we want to say one more time how grateful we are for you. You read our articles, share them, comment on them, and occasionally send us down research rabbit holes we never saw coming. You are a big part of why we keep doing this.

Whether your day involves a perfectly roasted turkey, a slightly singed casserole, takeout pizza, or a quiet afternoon with a book, we hope it brings you moments of joy, rest, and genuine gratitude.

From all of us at Commonplace Fun Facts: Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for being such a big reason we are thankful this year.

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