Do you know…
When was the first Thanksgiving?
What character has appeared in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade more than any other?
Which state consumes the most amount of turkey?
Why is the day after Thanksgiving called “Black Friday?”
Which NFL team has played on Thanksgiving every year since 1945?
- The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621
- President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the 4th Thursday in November as Thanksgiving to spur economic growth and extend the Christmas shopping season.
- Congress made it official in 1941
- This year marks the 85th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
- The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in NYC and is broadcasted by NBC.
- Snoopy is the character that has appeared most in the parade.
- The Detroit Lions have hosted a game every Thanksgiving since 1934, except 1939-1944 due to World War II.
- In 1956, NFL fans got to watch the Thanksgiving day game for the first time on television
- The day after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday” because due to the heavy amount of shopping it helps to put retailers’ books back into black.
- Since 1947, The National Turkey Federation has given the President a live turkey and two dressed turkeys. The President “pardons” the live turkey and it’s transferred to a historical farm where it lives out its life.
- An estimated 280 million turkeys are sold for Thanksgiving.
- That is averaged at over 7 billion pounds of turkey!
- It is estimated at over $3 billion dollars in sales.
- 91% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving.
- California is the largest consumers of turkey.
- In 2007 Americans ate 690 million of turkey. That is equal to the weight of the entire population of Singapore
- Swanson’s started creating T.V. dinners in 1953 to do something with all of the frozen leftover turkeys from Thanksgiving.
