Since 1863, Americans have celebrated the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving have always been a tradition of a warm get-together with family and friends over a fresh turkey meal, with homemade sides like mashed potatoes, green bean, casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and you finish the night out with a nice warm slice of pumpkin pie or apple pie. However, there is a lot more to the average thanksgiving story. Here are some fun Thanksgiving facts to keep in the back of your mind when you enjoy your meal or watching the football game with your friends.
- 46 million – You’ve read that right! That is the average amount of turkeys that sacrifice their lives to be the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving meal. If the average turkey weighs about 16 pounds and were to be sold at 91 cents per pound, America spent $670 million a year on turkey alone. This includes the turkey that is pardoned at the White House each year since 1989.
- There are 4 U.S. towns that have Turkey in their names: Turkey Creek, Arizona; Turkey Town, North Carolina; Turkey Creek Village, Louisiana; and Turkey City, Texas.
- The average cost of a 10 person Thanksgiving meal is $50.11 per person. Also, the average person consumes 4,500 calories that night alone (3,000 from the meal and 1,500 from the cocktails/snacks/drinks), which would take an average of a 6 hour run to burn off those calories alone! Maybe we should pass on the second helping of mashed potatoes…
- The average amount a Thanksgiving weekend shopper spent between Thanksgiving door busters and Black Friday deals was on average $299.60. That accounts for 1/3 of the average person’s holiday budget ($953) for the holidays. However, despite the deep discounts and sales, keep in mind that Americans racked up more than $52 billion in debt during the final three months of the last year. Some experts are expecting us to be in bigger financial debt from this year!
- Nearly 90% of Americans drove at least 50 miles from home to go to their Thanksgiving destination. If you are driving, please be careful of the road condition and also be responsible as well too!
- If you are going to cook this year, please also be careful when you are cooking. An average of $28 million in property losses occur each Thanksgiving that are caused by home cooking fires. So enjoy the football game! Laugh with your love ones and friends. However, make sure you keep an eye on the oven as well too!
Which one of these facts is interesting? Anyone of them surprised you? We also wish you and your loved ones a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving as well!