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1. President Jefferson called a federal Thanksgiving proclamation "the most ridiculous idea ever conceived."
2. Americans eat roughly 535 millions pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.
3. Cranberries are only one of three fruits native to America. Now a Thanksgiving dinner staple, cranberries were actually used by Native Americans to treat arrow wounds and to dye clothes.
4. In 2007, George W. Bush granted a pardon to two turkeys named May and Flower. The tradition of pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys began in 1947, though Abraham Lincoln is said to have informally started the practice when he pardoned his son's pet turkey.
5. Thanksgiving football games began with Yale versus Princeton in 1876.
6. In 1920, Gimbels department store in Philadelphia held a parade with about 50 people and Santa Claus bringing up the rear. The parade is now known as the IKEA Thanksgiving Parade and is the nations oldest Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City
7. Established in 1924, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ties for the second oldest Thanksgiving Day parade. The Snoopy balloon has often appeared in the parade more often than any other character. More than 44 million people watch the parade on TV each year and 3 million attend in person.
8. In 1941, the U.S. Congress sanctioned Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
9. Baby turkeys are called poults. Only male turkeys gobble and, therefore, are called gobblers.
10. Thanksgiving Day is actually the busiest travel day, even more so than the day before Thanksgiving, as many people believe.
Info courtesy of http://facts.random-history.com/thanksgiving-facts.html
