Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I know shopping is just a few hours away. The big sales and the huge discounts are all locked and loaded. But for now, in the calm before the storm, I would like to wish everyone reading this blog a very happy Thanksgiving holiday!
So while you’re getting ready to dine on turkey and trimmings, I’m going to offer you up some fun facts about Thanksgiving, its history, and the bird it centers on:
Let’s Talk Turkey
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), turkey production has seen a decline in recent years. After U.S. farmers raised approximately 200 million turkeys in 2024, the forecast for 2025 has dropped to 195 million birds.
Of those, the National Turkey Federation estimates that approximately 33 million found themselves roasting in ovens across the country last Thanksgiving.
So, where do all these turkeys come from?
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service provides a clear picture. The forecast for 2025’s top turkey-producing states is:
- Minnesota (32 million)
- North Carolina (28 million)
- Arkansas (22 million)
- Indiana (20 million)
- Missouri (15 million)
- Virginia (15 million)
And what about the side dishes? U.S. farmers are forecast to produce 8.13 million barrels (or 813 million pounds) of cranberries in 2025. The top producers remain Wisconsin (by a large margin) and Massachusetts, followed by Oregon and New Jersey.
History of the Holiday
Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.
Sarah Josepha Hale, the enormously influential magazine editor and author, waged a tireless campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the mid-19th century and is often cited as having an impact on getting Lincoln to declare it. An interesting fact about Sarah Hale: she is the author of the classic nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
What Was On The Menu?
The traditional foods we tend to associate with Thanksgiving were most likely not part of the menu that day in Plymouth. The feast was organized by Governor William Bradford and attended by some 50 English colonists and about 90 Wampanoag American Indians. It lasted for three days and had some foods that might surprise you.
National Geographic suggests that the Wampanoag killed five deer for the feast. And that the colonists shot wild fowl—which could have been geese, ducks, or the turkey we all associate with the feast. It is regarded that some forms of Indian corn dishes were also served. The article also suggests that the Wampanoag supplemented the venison with fish, lobster, clams, nuts, and vegetable dishes like pumpkin, squash, carrots, and peas.
Recounting Turkey Day
The aforementioned National Geographic article also suggests Plymouth wasn’t really the first Thanksgiving. It states that American Indian peoples, Europeans, and other cultures around the world often celebrated the harvest season with feasts and gatherings, many of which gave thanks to higher powers for their survival and their sustenance.
In 1541, Spaniard Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his troops celebrated a “Thanksgiving” while searching for New World gold in what is now the great state of the Texas Panhandle. After that, a similar feast was held in 1564 by French Huguenot colonists in present-day Jacksonville, FL. English colonists and Abnaki Indians feasted together in Maine’s Kennebec River around 1607. And the Jamestown, VA colony celebrated the arrival of a food supply ship that ended a brutal famine in 1610.
More Facts About the Holiday – A Short Top 10:
- Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States. …Just seems wrong.
- The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in 1924. …I always wanted to go to that.
- Congress passed a law on December 26, 1941, ensuring that all Americans would celebrate a unified Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November every year. (And American Express created Small Business Saturday in 2010.)
- Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented a live turkey and two dressed turkeys to the President. He “pardons” the live one and allows it to live out its days on a historical farm. They should make a movie about that.
- Each year, the average American eats about 13.8 pounds of turkey (based on 2024 data), a number that has been trending down from over 15 pounds in previous years.
- Californians consume the most turkey by total volume in the United States (which makes sense, given its large population).
- Although Thanksgiving is widely considered an American holiday, it is also celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada.
- The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog. (That record, set in 1989, still holds!)
- Turkeys will have 3,500 feathers at maturity. Now that’s locked in my brain.
- Weird fact: Male turkeys gobble. Hens do not. They make a clucking noise. I have nothing for that…
So there you have it. A completely incomplete rundown on Thanksgiving and turkeys! Enjoy your meal, watch some football, and get ready for the big shopping blitz to begin later today. Black Friday is upon us, and credit card processing, merchant services, and e-commerce business is about to boom.
One last thing to share: this Thanksgiving, I hope you’re able to avoid the tragedy of the different foods on your plate from touching one another.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving,
David
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