For those who sleep in, eat some turkey and binge-watch some TV shows on Netflix during Thanksgiving weekend (all totally acceptable activities, by the way), you might not realize everything that goes into creating a wonderful and memorable Thanksgiving holiday. In fact, you might even think that Thanksgiving just happens, and it doesn't. There's a lot of money, time and effort involved.
How much, you say? As we reflect back on this year's Thanksgiving, let's take a look at the holiday purely by the numbers and see what this holiday is really made of.
- 1621: The year of the first Thanksgiving at the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
- 140: The approximate number of Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe that attended the harvest celebration considered to be the first Thanksgiving.
- 3: The number of days the first Thanksgiving celebration lasted.
- 46 million: The number of turkeys eaten on Thanksgiving 2013.
- 736 million: The amount of pounds of turkey eaten on Thanksgiving in 2012.
- $49.41: The average cost of Thanksgiving dinner this year.
- 100,000+: The number of questions the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line experts receive in November and December.
- 26: The number of turkeys that have been pardoned by the President of the United States to date.
- 36: The number of years magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale advocated for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday.
- 1863: The year Abraham Lincoln decreed that Thanksgiving would be celebrated nationally every year on the fourth Thursday of November.
- 12,000: The average number of cubic feet of helium inside a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon.
- 28: The number of full-time employees that create and care for the balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
- 1933: The only year Santa Claus led the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He has ended the parade every other year.
- 1,000: The number of clowns in the 2014 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
- 25.2 million: The number of viewers of the 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC.
- 3: The number of NFL games on TV on Thanksgiving this year.
- Oct. 13: The date of Canadian Thanksgiving this year.
- 46.3 million: The number of Americans expected to travel 50 miles or more from home for Thanksgiving this year.
- $2.85: The average price per gallon of gas that Thanksgiving travelers will pay on the road this year.
- 549: The average distance traveled by Americans roundtrip for Thanksgiving this year.
- 44.8 million: The number of consumers that shopped on Thanksgiving Day in 2013.
- 92.1 million: The number of Black Friday shoppers in 2013.
- $407: The average amount a shopper spent from Thanksgiving Day to the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2012.
