Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan. 

Each year Americans in the United States celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday on the fourth Thursday of November and also Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada.

Most families follow traditions begun on the first Thanksgiving, but many have their own traditions that they follow each year. Here are some of the common traditions associated with Turkey Day.

THE TURKEY PARDON

Each year at Thanksgiving, the president of the United States receives a gift of two live turkeys. At a White House ceremony, the president traditionally “pardons” the National Thanksgiving Turkeys so they can live on a farm.

Fun Fact: Female turkeys don’t gobble.

We humans gobble down dinner, and our feathered turkey friends just plain gobble, right? Not quite. Only male turkeys make the well-known “gobble, gobble” sound that has come to be associated with the holiday. In fact, male turkeys are even known as “gobblers.” Females make other noises, such as purring and cackling.

THE FEAST

Traditional foods are a large part of Thanksgiving celebrations. Many families include the entire family in the food preparation. Traditional foods include turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Many people serve pie for dessert at the end of the meal. Popular pie flavors are pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, and apple.

Another Fact: Pumpkin pie has been beloved for a long, long time—although, it isn’t America’s favorite pie.

Records show that people have been cooking up pumpkin pies since the mid-1600s! Pumpkins were likely at the first Thanksgiving, although probably not in pie form. The dessert has been an important part of Thanksgiving meals since the 1700s—one Connecticut town even postponed the holiday in in 1705 due to a molasses shortage that prevented people from making pies. However, The American Pie Council is putting an end to the pumpkin vs. apple pie debate. According to their research, apple pies are America’s favorite, with pumpkin coming in second place.

Some families choose to serve vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners instead of a stuffed turkey. They might eat vegetarian turkey, which can be made out of tofu. Others eat squash, salads, or other fruit and vegetable dishes.

Either you always are on the run (like me) or shopping for the last minute you can always shop your groceries on Amazon Fresh and without extra cost.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Many families watch the New York City Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which includes marching bands, floats, songs and performances from Broadway musicals, and giant helium-filled balloons! People like to watch football games—maybe your family likes to play one outside!

Did you Know?: The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924 featured animals from the Central Park Zoo…

Though the parade stretched just two blocks, New York City went all out for what newspapers called “a marathon of mirth.” Notably, however, there were none of the balloons the parade is known for today. Instead, there were live bears, elephants, camels, and monkeys from the Central Park Zoo. There were also floats with puppets, celebrities, bands, costumed Macy’s employees, and of course, Santa Claus.

Thanksgiving Day football games began in the 1870s.

Turkey Day football began long before the country could watch the sport on TV. In fact, football wasn’t even a professional sport when the Thanksgiving game tradition took hold. In 1876, Yale played Princeton in the first ever Thanksgiving Day football match. At that point, the sport was still evolving from a rugby hybrid into the game we know today. Games stayed on the college and high school level for nearly fifty years. Eventually, when the National Football League was founded in 1920, it began hosting as many as six Thanksgiving matches every year.

Host a Thanksgiving Movie Marathon

After the table has been cleared and the leftover turkey has been put away, it’s time to cuddle up and watch one or two of the best Thanksgiving movies, like A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

If your budgeting and you just cut your cable and want to watch the parade or games; here you can get that advantage to do it; it’s included with your Prime Membership.

Also check my Campsite and take a look on some apps to start earning cash back from your own purchases on your daily life.

Four-day weekend

Americans look forward to their extended holiday weekend right around the time Halloween ends. Thanksgiving Day starts a mini work/school vacation that also includes Black Friday (I’ll link you up later with some cyber deals) and Small Business Saturday.

HELPING OTHERS

Thanksgiving is a great time to help out people who might not be as lucky as you. Some people volunteer to serve food at homeless shelters; others donate to shelters or participate in canned food drives.

Check your local activities and organizations if you want to be part of helping others.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!