Thanksgiving Day is primarily about just a few things: family, food, and football. It's certainly more than just delicious Thanksgiving recipes. Whether families are spending the day together cooking and eating, crafting, watching football, or playing board games, everyone comes together for some good old-fashioned, warm and fuzzy tryptophan-fueled family fun time.
But what do people really know beyond that about Thanksgiving? They teach kids in school about the Pilgrims, the indigenous people and the first Thanksgiving, but it’s a lot more than that. There are so many cool ways to celebrate. Here are 15 totally random facts about Thanksgiving that’ll impress any kid.
Biggest Turkey Ever
Everybody loves turkey on Thanksgiving. The bigger the family get-together, the larger the turkey needed. According to Guinness Book of Records, the heaviest turkey on record weighed 86 pounds. Now, that’s a Thanksgiving party!
A Passion for Pumpkin
If people thought there were a lot of pumpkin-flavored everything for Halloween, Thanksgiving is the pinnacle of pumpkin popularity. Surprisingly, Americans consume close to 50 million pumpkin pies on Thanksgiving. That’s a lot of whipped cream.
Only Gobblers Gobble
Only the male turkeys, called gobblers, actually gobble. Female turkeys cackle. It’s true, that’s how they tell the difference between a male and female turkey. Well, that, and how pretty their head plumage is.
No Turkey on the Table
There was no turkey on the table at the first Thanksgiving. It was more likely the menu included venison, duck, geese, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish. But definitely no Tofurkey or mashed potatoes.
No Fork for You
There were no forks at the first Thanksgiving dinner. Nope, it was eaten with just spoons and knives. Maybe a spork would have been nice? Thank goodness for grandmas.
Big Meals Make Us Tired
Tryptophan might not be the only reason for those Thanksgiving Day naps. Americans eat 46 million turkeys every Thanksgiving, and in the process, consume up to 229 grams of fat and an average of 4,500 calories during dinner. Wine and high carbs and calories are probably the real reason for the need of the nap, not the turkey.
Wild Turkeys Are Fast
When scared, wild turkeys can run about 20 miles per hour. Domesticated turkeys, which are usually larger and heavier than their wild counterparts, can’t run nearly as fast.
There Are No Stupid Turkey Questions
As we all should know by now, turkey is cooked most often during the holiday season. In fact, it's such a prodigious choice of poultry during that part of the year that Butterball Turkey has a hotline that answers over 100,000 questions about cooking a turkey every holiday season.
Necessity Is the Mother of Invention
Speaking of all that turkey, in 1953, a 260-ton turkey overage at frozen foods company Swanson prompted the invention of the TV dinner. The excess turkey went into aluminum trays so people could enjoy the taste of Thanksgiving dinner any time of year.
Mary Had a Persistent Little Lamb
Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who wrote the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb," is also the one who gets credit for convincing President Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. It was declared a national holiday in 1863.
Thomas Jefferson Declined
To keep church and state separate, President Thomas Jefferson refused to sign off on Thanksgiving as a holiday. Jefferson felt that because it involved prayer, it would be a violation of the First Amendment. Once President Lincoln declared it a national holiday, presidents had to honor it every year.
'Jingle Bells' Isn't Just for Christmas
In 1857, "Jingle Bells" was originally a Thanksgiving Day song. Originally, it was called “One Horse Open Sleigh” and composed by James Pierpont. But the song became so popular to play on Christmas Day that in 1859 the title was officially changed to "Jingle Bells" and now we can't imagine it any other way.
Green Bean Machine
The green bean casserole that everybody’s grandma has made for Thanksgiving their entire life was created by Campbell's soup. In 1955, the soup company created the green bean casserole for an annual cookbook, and the rest is history. Believe it or not, Campbell's currently sells $20 million worth of cream of mushroom soup every year.
To Infinity & Beyond
The first meal Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate in space after walking on the moon was Thanksgiving dinner-ish. The American astronauts ate foil packets containing roasted turkey.
The First Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924 looked a little different than the one seen on Thanksgiving morning now. It’s always been meant to start the holiday shopping season, but the first parade was less about giant character balloons and instead included monkeys, bears, camels, and elephants from the Central Park Zoo.
