Thanksgiving, which is always on the fourth Thursday of November, hasn’t always been the huge phenomenon that it is today. The very first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 as a three day celebratory festival. Among the partakers were 50 pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians who were giving thanks for the bountiful harvest of the preceding year. Nowadays, Thanksgiving is a time in which entire families come together to bond over decimating an entire Thanksgiving meal spread. This is usually the best part of the evening, but in our house, it is the random fun facts and trivia knowledge that make that Thursday truly a holiday. So here are some random trivia bits that you can use this Thanksgiving to spice things up a bit before you fall into a food coma: 

• There are four towns in the United States named “Turkey.” They can be found in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina.
• The average number of calories consumed on Thanksgiving is 4,500.
• The tradition of football on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1920.
• The people at the first Thanksgiving ate venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish, alongside pumpkins and cranberries.
• The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers.
• Americans eat 704 million pounds of turkey every Thanksgiving.
• “Jingle Bells” was originally a Thanksgiving song.
• The woman who got Thanksgiving reinstated as a national holiday also wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” (Sarah Hale)
• The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons used to be let go after the show.
• About 50 million people watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade annually.
• More people travel to Orlando, FL than anywhere else on Thanksgiving.
• The original TV dinner was the result of a Thanksgiving miscalculation.
• More than four-fifths of Americans prefer the Thanksgiving leftovers to the meal.
• One Connecticut town delayed Thanksgiving because of a pumpkin pie shortage.
• Two towns in Texas claim to be the site of the first Thanksgiving.
• The first national Thanksgiving was declared by George Washington.
• Only male turkeys actually gobble.
• Sonic the Hedgehog was the first video-game character featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I hope that you enjoy these random Thanksgiving facts and that they bring a smile to your face as your friends and family question your sanity. Whether said in between mouthfuls of turkey or whatever your main course is, give thanks that you have been blessed with these random facts.