Thanksgiving Fun Facts

A three-day feast with about 50 colonists and 90 Native Americans, the first Thanksgiving in 1621 didn't include mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie or cranberries. Deer, rabbit and squash graced the table, and historians believe that lobster, seal and swan may have been served as well. While fowl was on the menu, the bird of choice was probably not turkey.

American leaders called for days of thanks rather regularly during the 17th and 18th centuries. A celebration on a specific day every year didn't occur until President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. For nearly 40 years prior to the declaration, eminent writer Sarah Josepha Hale—author of Mary Had a Little Lamb, among other titles—led a campaign to make the holiday official.

While gobble is the call most people associate with turkeys, the birds have at least 28 different known vocalizations. Other calls, including yelps, clucks, putts, cackles, purrs, hoots and hisses, are used to indicate danger, advertise the caller's sex, establish control and keep the flock together.

Created by Charles Schulz in 1973 and originally airing on CBS, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving won an Emmy in 1974. Now shown on ABC every Thanksgiving night, the show is usually paired with another half-hour special. Since 2008, the accompaniment has been The Mayflower Voyagers, an episode from the This Is America, Charlie Brown miniseries.

Despite popular belief, the tryptophan in turkey is probably not responsible for post-meal drowsiness. Thanksgiving sleepiness is more likely caused by drinking excess alcohol and eating a large, high-carbohydrate meal that the body must work hard to digest. While eating turkey on a completely empty stomach without any other food might make you a tad tired, when served as part of a hefty feast, the tryptophan's effect is negligible.

The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924 drew a quarter of a million people and featured costumed Macy's employees, professional bands, and animals from Central Park Zoo. Today, over 3 million people attend the parade, and another 44 million tune in on the tube.

According to Guinness World Records, the largest pumpkin pie ever baked was 12 feet in diameter and 2,020 pounds. The recipe required 900 pounds of pumpkin, 1,860 eggs, 300 pounds of sugar and 250 pounds of crust, among other ingredients. The creators claim they've broken their own record with a pie that's 20 feet in diameter and 3,699 pounds, but Guinness has yet to confirm the achievement.

The tradition of holding a Thanksgiving Classic started in 1934, when the Chicago Bears defeated the Detroit Lions in front of 26,000 fans. Detroit's all-time record on the holiday is 33 wins, 36 losses and two ties, and the only time the Lions didn't play a game on Thanksgiving Day was when the NFL was on moratorium during World War II.

The average Thanksgiving turkey weighs 15 pounds and is comprised of 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark meat. The National Turkey Federation estimated that in 2007, 46 million turkeys—one-fifth of the annual total of 235 million—were eaten at Thanksgiving.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of the month in an effort to spur shopping during The Great Depression. Met with vast public opposition, Roosevelt was forced to change the holiday back to the last Thursday in November just two years later.

The National Turkey Federation has given a turkey to the White House every Thanksgiving since 1947. Until 1989—when George H. Bush began the tradition of pardoning the White House turkey—nearly every president chose to eat the bird. Spared turkeys spend the rest of their days in the happiest place on earth: Disneyland.

Though Thomas Jefferson selected the bald eagle as our national bird, Benjamin Franklin thought the turkey was a better candidate. A bird of courage, a turkey, Franklin believed, would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard. In comparison, he said the eagle had bad moral character and played a lesser role in early American life.