Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving Day in America is a time to offer thanks, of family gatherings and holiday meals. A time of turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. A time for Indian corn, holiday parades and giant balloons.

So join us for our Thanksgiving celebration. We’ve got stories of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, turkeys to take home, holiday pictures for the kids to print and color, tasty holiday recipes and e-greeting cards to send your friends and family. We hope you find something you like!

Links:
Thanksgiving on the Net

The History of Thanksgiving and its Celebrations
The Pilgrims and America’s First Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving Turkey
Thanksgiving Goodies! (holiday crafts and coloring pictures)
Tasty Thanksgiving Recipes
Free Thanksgiving eGreeting Cards

Did You Know?
November 24

It’s Thanksgiving!!

Thank you for joining us as we counted down to Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Louie and the Holiday elves

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

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President Barack Obama, with daughters, Malia and Sasha, pardons ‘Liberty’, the National Thanksgiving Turkey, in a ceremony on the North Portico of the White House, Nov. 23, 2011. At left is National Turkey Federation Chairman Richard Huisinga. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

As promised, this morning, President Obama pardoned two more turkeys — Liberty and Peace. The ceremony was held on the North Portico of the White House, and the president received a bit of help of his daughters, Sasha and Malia.

This year’s turkeys are both 19-weeks old and weigh 45 pounds. They were raised by a group of students from Willmar High School in Minnesota.

More – White House blog – President Obama Pardons Peace & Liberty (the Turkeys)

The White House has released the Presidential Proclamation for Thanksgiving, 2011

Thanksgiving Day, 2011
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

…THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 24, 2011, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage the people of the United States to come together whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place of fellowship for friends and neighbors to give thanks for all we have received in the past year, to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own, and to share our bounty with others.

Barack Obama
President of the United States of America

Full text of Thanksgiving Day 2011 Presidential Proclamation

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures &
Folklore about the Pilgrims
& America’s Thanksgiving
Nov 23 : 01 day till Thanksgiving

Did you know that for many Native American people, Thanksgiving is cause for mourning rather than celebration?

Although the First Thanksgiving included the Pilgrims’ Native American neighbors, that spirit of cooperation did not last long between the native people and the colonists.

The land and lives of the native people were pillaged and destroyed countless times during the early history of the United States of America. Racism and bigotry persist until this day. As a result, Thanksgiving has taken on greater historical significance for many Native Americans, who view that First Thanksgiving as the beginning of centuries of oppression and discrimination.

Related: The National Day of Mourning

Thanksgiving Day in America is a time to offer thanks, a time for family gatherings and holiday meals. A time of turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. A time for Indian corn, holiday parades and giant balloons. We are delighted to invite you to partake in our Thanksgiving celebration. Our table is full this year, but we always have room for one more! So join us for a new Did You Know? each day as we count down to Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving will be celebrated on Thursday November 24, 2011.

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

National Game and Puzzle Week
A week for bringing the family together through playing games, doing puzzles, and generally spending quality family time together.

photo credit: via flickr

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures &
Folklore about the Pilgrims
& America’s Thanksgiving
Nov 22 : 02 days till Thanksgiving

Did you know that it has become tradition for US Presidents to issue a pardon to the White House Thanksgiving Turkey?

Since about 1947 the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one (and in recent years – two) live turkey(s) in a ceremony known as the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation.

The live turkeys are pardoned and live out the rest of their days on a farm or, since 2005, sent to either Disneyland in California or Walt Disney World in Florida, where they serve as the honorary grand marshals of Disney’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

While it is commonly believed that this pardoning tradition began with President Harry Truman in 1947, the Truman Library has been unable to find any evidence for this. The earliest Thanksgiving Presidential Pardon on record is with President George H. W. Bush in 1989

Thanksgiving Day in America is a time to offer thanks, a time for family gatherings and holiday meals. A time of turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. A time for Indian corn, holiday parades and giant balloons. We are delighted to invite you to partake in our Thanksgiving celebration. Our table is full this year, but we always have room for one more! So join us for a new Did You Know? each day as we count down to Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving will be celebrated on Thursday November 24, 2011.

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)