20 fun facts about Thanksgiving to share with kids at the dinner table

Most people who celebrate Thanksgiving use it as an opportunity to recognize, appreciate and be grateful for all the blessings we have in our lives. 

Don’t get me wrong, the food is always worth it and the leftovers are clutch, but there’s so much about this holiday that gets overlooked and neglected. 

That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive list of 20 fun facts about the history of Thanksgiving, the foods we eat and everything else that comes with the holiday. 

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For example, did you know that the First Thanksgiving took place in 1621 and included approximately 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians? 

And did you know there’s no evidence that turkey was the main dish at that First Thanksgiving feast?

What about the fact that your Thanksgiving dinner can equal anywhere from 3,000 to 4,500 calories?

Fun facts like these can be made into an activity sheet for kids or a trivia game for the family. They also make excellent conversation starters at the dinner table. 

So, whether you’re a teacher looking for a classroom activity, a parent looking to keep the kids busy while you cook or a young adult that needs a change of topic when family members start asking about your dating life—these fun facts are for you. 

20. There were 102 passengers on the ‘Mayflower’ when it set sail in September 1620. 

The Mayflower initially left Plymouth, England in July 1620 with a sister ship, Speedwell, but had to turn back twice after the Speedwell started to take on water. This delayed their voyage for several months.

After deciding to do the trip without the Speedwell, the Pilgrims set sail in September 1620 with 102 passengers and 30 crew members on the 100-foot ship. Nearly half of the passengers died en route.

19. The Wampanoag Indians saved the Pilgrims from starvation. 

The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts on December 16, 1620, after initially anchoring in Cape Cod. Most of the passengers spent the next few months on the ship due to the harsh winter.

By their first spring, only 50 passengers remained and a majority of them were starving. After moving ashore, they met the Wampanoag Indians, who had been living on the land for thousands of years.

The Indians taught the Pilgrims how to hunt, plant crops and how to get the best of their harvest. If it weren’t for their help, the Pilgrims would’ve struggled to survive and the settlement would’ve folded. 

18. The Indians and Pilgrims forged an alliance for more than 50 years. 

In March 1621, just a few months after the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Colony, they made a treaty of mutual protection with the Pokanoket Wampanoag leader, Ousamequin, also known as Massasoit. 

The two sides agreed to not harm each other and to leave their weapons behind when meeting. They also became allies in war and agreed that if anything were stolen by the other side, it would be returned. 

This treaty lasted for more than 50 years, but the relationship grew more complex as more English settlers started competing for land and resources.

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17. The First Thanksgiving in 1621 was a three-day harvest festival.

Most people today celebrate Thanksgiving as a one-day event on the fourth Thursday of November, but that’s not how it all started. In fact, the First Thanksgiving was actually a three-day harvest festival event.

The festival, which took place in the fall, marked the Pilgrims’ first harvest after what was a harsh and difficult first winter. The mere 50 Pilgrims were joined by Massasoit and 90 other Wampanoag Indians.

Not only did they feast together, but they played games and taught each other new skills. 

16. Turkey wasn’t the main dish for the First Thanksgiving.

Turkey and pies are two of the most popular Thanksgiving foods today, but there’s no evidence that they were on the menu in 1621. The same goes for mashed potatoes, candied yams and cranberry sauce.

According to Troy Smith, associate professor of history at Tennessee Tech, the First Thanksgiving menu likely included a mix of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, cod, bass, flint, cornbread and porridge.

While there’s a chance turkeys were among the “assorted wildfowl,” it could also refer to ducks, geese, and other wild birds.  

“A particular delicacy was a type of sausage made of pounded groundhog meat,” Smith says. “Most often, though, meals were large stews that might have had many of the ingredients listed above in them.”

15. George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the U.S. government.

On October 3, 1789, then-President George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the United States government, dedicating Nov. 26, 1789 as a day to give thanks for our blessings. 

It was a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness,” according to National Archives.

14. Thomas Jefferson didn’t support Thanksgiving being a national holiday.

After Washington’s proclamation, it became customary for the president to proclaim periodic days of fasting, prayer and gratitude. But there was one president who declined to do so: Thomas Jefferson. 

He explained why in a letter to his attorney general, Levi Lincoln, on Jan. 1, 1802, in which he wrote: “I have long wished to find [an occasion to say] why I do not proclaim fastings & thanksgivings, as my predecessors did.”

The reason was tied to his stance on the separation of church and state, arguing that Thanksgiving is largely a religious event. 

13. New York was the first state to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday.

Up until 1817, Thanksgiving was observed, but wasn’t a dedicated annual holiday at the federal or state level. 

New York was the first state to change that when its governor, De Witt Clinton, made it an annual holiday in 1817, according to the History Channel. 

Several states followed, but it took a while for the American South to open up to the idea. Eventually, enough support grew and the U.S. government was pressured into declaring it a national holiday.

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12. The author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” played a big role in Thanksgiving becoming a holiday.

Some people know Sarah Josepha Hale as the creator of the “Mary Had a Little Lamb” nursery rhyme, which originated as a poem published on May 24, 1830, but that’s just the beginning of what she gave us.

Known as the “Mother of Thanksgiving,” Hale was one of the loudest early advocates for making Thanksgiving a national holiday. She started campaigning in the late 1820s and continued for decades.

It wasn’t until 1863 that her years of campaigning finally broke through. She sat down and wrote a letter to then-President Abraham Lincoln urging him to declar it a holiday—and the rest is history!

11. Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. 

Nearly one week after reading the letter from Hale, President Lincoln issued a statement to the American people, declaring the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving. 

Here’s an excerpt from the statement: 

“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,” he wrote. 

Just like that, the Thanksgiving holiday was born. 

10. The first Turkey Trot was held in Buffalo, NY, in 1896.

You can find a Turkey Trot in just about every major city in the U.S., but the tradition was originally started by the YMCA in 1896 and the first Turkey Trot took place in Buffalo, New York.

It was a five-mile cross country race that only had six competitors, four of whom finished. Henry A. Allison went down in history as the first ever winner.

The Turkey Trot has grown in popularity since then with thousands of people taking to the streets to compete. In fact, many runners consider it their favorite race of the year. 

9. The first Thanksgiving Day Parade happened in Philadelphia in 1920. 

When most people picture a Thanksgiving parade, they imagine the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

But did you know the first ever Thanksgiving Day Parade had nothing to do with Macy’s? It was actually created by Gimbel Brothers Department Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—way back in 1920. 

The parade still exists today and covers nearly 1.4 miles. The parade airs live locally on channel 6abc. 

8. The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade happened in New York City in 1924. 

Four years later, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade made its debut in the streets of New York City. 

The parade took place on November 27, but it went by a different name: the Macy’s Christmas Parade. It was created “in an effort to boost holiday sales and highlight Macy’s new store,” according to NBC. 

An estimated 10,000 people attended that parade in 1924, but it now attracts more than 3.5 million people and tens of millions of others watch it on TV, according to Macy’s. 

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7. Thanksgiving was moved to the fourth Thursday of November in 1941. 

Abraham Lincoln was the first president to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. When he did, he declared that it land on the final Thursday of November. It remained that way for more than 70 years.

In 1939, the holiday landed on the final day of November and the government grew worried that the shortened Christmas shopping season would hurt the economy. 

In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday back a week, to the second to last Thursday of November. This caused a lot of confusion as some states followed, but others didn’t. 

In 1941, Congress stepped in and changed it to the fourth Thursday of November and it has been that way ever since. 

6. President George H.W. Bush was the first president to officially pardon a turkey in 1989.

Presidents have a long history with turkeys on Thanksgiving, but the tradition for pardoning a turkey didn’t become commonplace until President George H.W. Bush made it so in 1989. 

Prior to that, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan had already pardoned turkeys, but Bush was the first to explicitly say it. 

“But let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy—he’s presented a Presidential pardon as of right now—and allow him to live out his days on a children’s farm not far from here,” he said. 

The tradition has stuck every year since. 

5. Four towns in the United States are named after the turkey. 

Most of us have heard of the country Turkey, but did you know there are four towns in the U.S. that are named after the turkey? 

There’s a Turkey in Texas and North Carolina, as well as a Turkey Creek in Louisiana and Arizona, but none of them have more than 500 residents. . 

There’s also a Turkey Creek township in Arkansas and Kansas, and a Turkey Valley township in South Dakota. 

4. The NFL’s Thanksgiving tradition began in 1934.

In 1934, George A. Richards purchased the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans football team before moving the franchise to Detroit and renaming them the Lions. 

Later that year, he set up a holiday matchup between his Lions and the reigning champion Chicago Bears. While games had fallen on Thanksgiving day in the past, this is how the annual tradition began.

The Lions lost to the Bears 19-16 at the University of Detroit Stadium on Nov. 29, 1934. Nearly 26,000 people watched from the bleachers. 

3. The Detroit Lions have the most wins of any franchise on Thanksgiving. 

The Detroit Lions might’ve lost their first Thanksgiving game, but they now have the most wins of any franchise on the holiday—primarily because they’ve played on Thanksgiving Day every year since 1934. 

In fact, the only years they didn’t play on Thanksgiving were during World War II, when no teams did. 

Today, the Lions have a 37-45-2 record on Thanksgiving. The Dallas Cowboys are the next closest with a 33-22-1 record, followed by the Chicago Bears with 20 wins and Green Bay Packers with 15 wins. 

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2. More than 650 million turkeys per year are raised for meat.

According to Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), a campaigning and lobbying animal welfare organization, more than 650 million turkeys per year are raised for meat globally. 

And believe it or not, more than a third of them are raised in the United States. 

Not only that, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans eat more than 46 million turkeys on Thanksgiving Day every year.

1. The average Thanksgiving meal is about 3,000 calories. 

According to research from the Calorie Control Council, a typical holiday dinner can carry a load of 3,000 calories. But that number can balloon up to 4,500 calories if you go for seconds or eat a lot of desserts.

That’s quite alarming considering the Food and Drug Administration recommends no more than 3,000 calories per day for a full grown male and no more than 2,400 calories per day for a full grown female.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feast this Thanksgiving, but just be mindful of all the calories you pile on your plate and challenge yourself to burn it off over the weekend. 

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Either way, we hope you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving holiday!