Thanksgiving Countdown

Turkey, football, and the year’s biggest travel weekend.

How many days until Thanksgiving?

Live countdown to Thanksgiving 2027

About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the premier US family holiday: a feast of turkey, stuffing, and pie on the fourth Thursday of November, followed by Black Friday shopping and a weekend of football.

The story behind Thanksgiving

The 1621 Plymouth feast everyone remembers was three days long, and the Wampanoag guests — some 90 men led by Massasoit — contributed five deer. The menu would surprise a modern table: venison and wildfowl, corn and shellfish. No pumpkin pie (ovens were rare) and no turkey on any record.

Thanksgiving became a national holiday thanks to a 36-year letter campaign by writer Sarah Josepha Hale — also the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." She petitioned five presidents; Lincoln, in the middle of the Civil War, finally proclaimed a national Thanksgiving for the last Thursday of November 1863.

The football tradition is nearly as old as the holiday itself: the first Thanksgiving Day football game kicked off in 1876 (Yale vs. Princeton), and the Detroit Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving game every year since 1934 — a radio promotion gimmick by the team's first owner that became sacred television.

Thanksgiving dates 2027–2030

Thanksgiving facts

• Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November in the US.
• About 46 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving Day.
• The first Thanksgiving is traditionally dated to 1621 at Plymouth — a three-day harvest feast shared with the Wampanoag.
• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has run since 1924 and draws 3.5 million street spectators.