How Many Days Until Thanksgiving?

About this countdown

This page automatically calculates days until the next Thanksgiving. Use the toggle to switch between US Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of November) and Canadian Thanksgiving (2nd Monday of October). The countdown updates every second and advances to the following year’s date after the current holiday passes.

When is Thanksgiving?

US Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November each year. The date changes annually, ranging from November 22 to November 28.

Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October, ranging from October 8 to October 14.

The date calculation requires finding the first occurrence of the target weekday in the month and adding the appropriate number of weeks.

The history of US Thanksgiving

The 1621 harvest: The most common origin story for Thanksgiving is the 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. After a difficult first winter in which roughly half the colonists died, the surviving Pilgrims harvested a good crop in autumn 1621. They invited members of the Wampanoag tribe, including leader Massasoit, to share in the celebration. This event lasted three days and included deer, fowl, and other foods.

It is worth noting that this event was not called “Thanksgiving” by those who participated in it. Thanksgiving as a religious term meant a day of prayer and fasting in Puritan tradition, not a harvest feast. The 1621 celebration was more in line with English harvest festivals than Puritan Thanksgivings.

Competing origins: Several states claim earlier Thanksgivings. Virginia points to a 1619 ceremony at Berkeley Hundred. Maine claims a 1607 celebration. Texas and Florida have competing claims. Each reflects genuine harvest or thanksgiving ceremonies, but none became the template for the national holiday.

George Washington’s proclamations: Washington issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789 for November 26th of that year, and again in 1795. These were not annual events and referred to thanksgiving in a religious sense.

Sarah Josepha Hale’s campaign: The editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book magazine campaigned for a national Thanksgiving holiday for 17 years, writing to presidents and governors. Her persistent advocacy contributed significantly to the establishment of the holiday.

Lincoln’s proclamation: In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving holiday, partly as a unifying gesture during the Civil War. He set it for the last Thursday of November. This is considered the founding of the modern holiday.

FDR’s controversial change: In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving from the last Thursday to the fourth Thursday of November (one week earlier) to extend the Christmas shopping season. About half the states refused to adopt the change, creating two different Thanksgivings for two years. Congress permanently fixed Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November in 1941.

How the fourth Thursday is calculated

Finding the fourth Thursday of November requires identifying when November 1st falls in the week, then counting forward.

November always has 30 days. The fourth Thursday falls on November 22nd to 28th, depending on the year.

The general algorithm:

1. Find the day-of-week for November 1st (0=Sunday through 6=Saturday)
2. Calculate days until Thursday: (4 - dow + 7) % 7 (where Thursday=4)
3. Add to November 1: 1 + offset = first Thursday date
4. Add 21 days for the fourth Thursday

Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October. The date is about six weeks earlier than US Thanksgiving, reflecting Canada’s earlier harvest season at higher latitudes.

The Canadian Thanksgiving has different historical origins from the American holiday. The first official Canadian Thanksgiving was in 1879, proclaimed after a successful harvest. The holiday was moved to October in 1931 and fixed as the second Monday of October in 1957.

Canadian Thanksgiving is a quieter celebration than US Thanksgiving and does not carry the same cultural weight in Canada that US Thanksgiving does in the United States. It is not as tightly linked to Black Friday shopping (though Canadian retailers have adopted US Black Friday sales) and the extended travel phenomenon characteristic of US Thanksgiving weekend does not occur to the same extent.

Traditional foods are similar: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and squash. Regional variations include seafood dishes in maritime provinces and locally grown root vegetables.

Traditional Thanksgiving foods

Turkey: The central dish of American Thanksgiving since at least the mid-19th century. The turkey connection is reinforced by Alexander Hamilton’s quip that “No citizen of the United States shall refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day” and Sarah Josepha Hale’s 1827 novel describing a Thanksgiving turkey. About 46 million turkeys are eaten in the US on Thanksgiving.

Stuffing (dressing): Bread-based stuffing cooked inside or alongside the turkey. Regional variations include cornbread stuffing in the South, oyster stuffing in New England, and sausage stuffing in the Midwest.

Cranberry sauce: Cranberries are native to North America. Canned jellied cranberry sauce (Ocean Spray introduced it in 1941) and homemade cranberry relish both appear at Thanksgiving tables.

Pumpkin pie: The dessert most associated with Thanksgiving. Pumpkins are native to North America. Recipes for pumpkin pie appear in American cookbooks from the 18th century.

Green bean casserole: Invented in 1955 by Dorcas Reilly at the Campbell Soup Company. A 21st-century recipe that has become a classic Thanksgiving side dish in under 70 years.

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows: Another 20th-century creation, popularized in the 1920s by Angelus Marshmallow Company marketing.

Thanksgiving travel

Thanksgiving is the largest domestic travel period in the United States. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving (sometimes called “Black Wednesday”) and the Sunday after are the two busiest days of the year for road travel and among the busiest for air travel.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimates that about 49-55 million Americans travel for Thanksgiving each year, with the majority (roughly 90%) driving rather than flying.

The combination of high demand and fixed timing makes Thanksgiving travel notably expensive for air travel. Flights on the Wednesday before and Monday after Thanksgiving typically cost 30-50% more than surrounding dates.

The term “Thanksgiving traffic” has become a cultural shorthand for severe highway congestion. Highways leading out of major cities see delays starting Tuesday afternoon, with peak congestion Wednesday afternoon through Wednesday evening.

Friendsgiving

“Friendsgiving” is a portmanteau of “friends” and “Thanksgiving” describing a Thanksgiving celebration with friends rather than (or in addition to) family. The term became common in the 2010s, partly reflecting the reality that many young adults live far from family, have complicated family dynamics, or simply prefer celebrating with chosen community.

Friendsgiving celebrations tend to be less formal than traditional family Thanksgivings. The menu is often a potluck, with each guest contributing a dish. The setting is typically a home or apartment rather than a formal dining room.

The concept is not entirely new: college students have long held “orphan Thanksgivings” for those who could not travel home. Friendsgiving gave this informal tradition a name and normalized it as a legitimate celebration rather than a consolation alternative.

Black Friday and the Thanksgiving shopping connection

Black Friday, the day after US Thanksgiving, is traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season. The term “Black Friday” was first used by Philadelphia police in the 1960s to describe the chaos of post-Thanksgiving shopping traffic. Retailers later reframed it as referring to when stores moved from operating at a loss (“in the red”) to profit (“in the black”), though this etymology is disputed.

The connection between Thanksgiving and Black Friday is why FDR moved Thanksgiving earlier in 1939: extending the distance between Thanksgiving and Christmas by one week gave retailers one more week of holiday shopping. This logic shaped the Thanksgiving date we use today.

Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, emerged in the 2000s as the online retail equivalent of Black Friday. Increasingly, sales begin before Thanksgiving itself, with “Black November” promotions running throughout the month, though Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday remain peak shopping moments.

Thanksgiving and football

American football has been closely linked to Thanksgiving since 1876, when the first Thanksgiving Day football game was played by Yale and Princeton. The NFL has played Thanksgiving Day games since 1920, establishing a decades-long tradition.

The Detroit Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving game every year since 1934, with the exception of the war years 1939-1944. The Dallas Cowboys have hosted a Thanksgiving game almost every year since 1966. A third Thanksgiving game was added in 2006, with the host team rotating among other NFL teams.

College football also has a long Thanksgiving tradition. The Army-Navy game, one of college football’s most storied rivalries, is played in early December but was historically played on Thanksgiving for decades.

Turkey Bowl games, informal flag football games among friends and family on Thanksgiving morning, are a widespread American tradition, with millions of informal games played across the country each Thanksgiving.

The national turkey pardon

Since at least the 1980s (and possibly earlier), the President of the United States has “pardoned” a turkey in a White House ceremony shortly before Thanksgiving. The pardoned turkey is spared from being served as a meal and sent to a farm or petting zoo to live out its natural life.

The ceremony has become an annual media event, often featuring presidential jokes about the pardon and the turkey’s name (selected through public voting). The tradition reinforces the turkey’s status as the symbol of Thanksgiving.

Despite the playful ceremony, the turkeys selected for the pardon are typically commercial breeds that have been bred to grow so large and quickly that most do not survive more than a few years regardless of the pardon. The ceremony is more cultural theater than a meaningful act of conservation.

Thanksgiving and charitable giving

Thanksgiving is the highest-traffic period for food banks, soup kitchens, and charitable donation campaigns in the United States. Organizations including the Salvation Army, food banks affiliated with Feeding America, and local community organizations run Thanksgiving meal programs serving tens of thousands of people.

Corporate charitable campaigns and workplace giving drives often time their fundraising to Thanksgiving and the subsequent holiday season, when generosity is culturally primed. GivingTuesday, held the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (the week after Black Friday and Cyber Monday), was created in 2012 specifically to harness this seasonal generosity for charitable causes. It has grown into a global giving movement.

Volunteering at food banks and meal programs on Thanksgiving Day is a tradition for many families and civic groups. Many programs rely heavily on this volunteer surge to operate their Thanksgiving service.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City is one of the most watched events in the US, with approximately 50 million viewers watching on television and about 3 million attending in person. The parade runs from 77th Street and Central Park West to Herald Square at 34th Street.

The parade began in 1924, organized by Macy’s employees to celebrate the start of the Christmas shopping season. The giant character balloons, now the parade’s signature feature, were introduced in 1927. Early balloons were released into the sky at the end of the parade with a return address tag for a $100 reward to whoever returned them.

Modern balloons require teams of handlers to manage in wind and represent significant engineering challenges. Each balloon is tested before the parade. Wind speeds above 23 mph can trigger reductions in flight altitude; speeds above 34 mph can ground balloons entirely.