Thanksgiving by the Numbers: Fun Facts About Turkey Day

How many U.S. towns are named after turkey? Learn that and more in this fun trivia roundup.

In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims, early settlers of Plymouth Colony, held a three-day feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest, an event many regard as the nation’s first Thanksgiving. Historians have also recorded ceremonies of thanks among other groups of European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Virginia in 1619. The legacy of thanks and the feast have survived the centuries, as the event became a national holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving. Later, President Franklin Roosevelt clarified that Thanksgiving should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month to encourage earlier holiday shopping, never on the …

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The Brunette Lucy

Can You Have Too Many Turkeys?

Lucy's Matt doesn't think there is such a thing as too many Thanksgiving turkeys.

To me, Thanksgiving is the harbinger of the Christmas season, and I look forward to putting up the tree that weekend. For Matt, however, it marks his favorite day of the year because he loves turkey. He looks forward to the big dinner and all the leftover turkey sandwiches, turkey casseroles, turkey stir fry, you name it. He loves turkey more than Santa loves his elves. So one year, we were out and he wanted to stop in at one of those discount food stores. We don’t have one in our town and Matt likes to shop there whenever he can because second only to turkey, he loves bargains. When we got to the meat aisle, we saw that they had Jennie-O turkeys on sale for 38 cents a pound. I glanced over and saw Matt’s eyes glaze over. He was thrilled; …

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