Keep the whole table talking between the turkey and the pie! These 100 Thanksgiving trivia questions and answers cover everything from easy questions for kids to the real history of 1621, Thanksgiving food, the Macy’s parade, NFL football and true-or-false fun facts that will surprise even Grandpa.
Every answer is hidden – tap “Show answer” after everyone has guessed.
Contents
- Easy Thanksgiving Trivia for Kids
- Thanksgiving History Trivia
- Thanksgiving Food Trivia
- Parade, Football & Pop Culture Trivia
- True or False: Thanksgiving Fun Facts
- How to Play Thanksgiving Trivia at Dinner
- More Thanksgiving & Holiday Fun
- Frequently Asked Questions
Easy Thanksgiving Trivia for Kids
1. In which month is Thanksgiving celebrated in the United States?
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November
2. On which day of the week does American Thanksgiving always fall?
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Thursday
3. Which Thursday of November is Thanksgiving?
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Answer: The fourth Thursday
4. Which bird is the star of most Thanksgiving dinners?
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Answer: The turkey
5. What is a male turkey called?
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Answer: A tom (or gobbler)
6. What is a female turkey called?
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Answer: A hen
7. What is a baby turkey called?
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Answer: A poult
8. What sound does a turkey make?
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Answer: A gobble
9. Which orange vegetable goes into the most popular Thanksgiving pie?
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Pumpkin
10. Which small red berries are made into a sauce for Thanksgiving dinner?
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Cranberries
11. Two people pull on a turkey’s wishbone. Who gets their wish?
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Answer: The person left with the bigger piece.
12. Which country celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October?
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Canada
13. What is the horn-shaped basket overflowing with fruit and vegetables called?
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Answer: A cornucopia (horn of plenty)
14. What is the red, fleshy flap that hangs over a turkey’s beak called?
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Answer: The snood
15. Which Peanuts TV special first aired in 1973?
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A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
16. In “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”, Snoopy serves toast, pretzels, jelly beans and what other snack?
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Popcorn
17. What is the big shopping day after Thanksgiving called?
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Black Friday
18. What is the online shopping day after Thanksgiving weekend called?
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Cyber Monday
19. What do many families go around the table sharing before they eat?
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Answer: What they’re thankful for
20. Can wild turkeys fly?
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Yes – in short, fast bursts, and they roost in trees at night.
Thanksgiving History Trivia
21. In which year did the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag share the famous harvest feast?
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1621
22. What was the name of the Pilgrims’ ship?
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Answer: The Mayflower
23. In which year did the Mayflower arrive in America?
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1620
24. What did the Pilgrims name their colony?
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Plymouth (in today’s Massachusetts)
25. Which Native American people shared the 1621 harvest feast with the Pilgrims?
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Answer: The Wampanoag
26. Who was the Wampanoag leader at the 1621 feast?
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Massasoit (Ousamequin)
27. Which Patuxet man, who spoke English, helped the Pilgrims plant corn and fish?
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Squanto (Tisquantum)
28. How many days did the 1621 harvest celebration last?
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Three days
29. Which president made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863?
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Abraham Lincoln
30. Which writer – also the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” – campaigned for 17 years for a national Thanksgiving?
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Sarah Josepha Hale
31. Which president moved Thanksgiving a week earlier in 1939, a change people nicknamed “Franksgiving”?
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
32. In which year did Congress fix Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November?
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1941
33. Which president issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation, in 1789?
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George Washington
34. What was the agreement the Pilgrim men signed aboard their ship called?
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Answer: The Mayflower Compact
35. About how many passengers sailed on the Mayflower?
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Answer: About 102
36. Roughly how many Wampanoag men came to the 1621 feast?
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Answer: About 90
37. Do we know for certain that turkey was served at the 1621 feast?
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No – the records mention “wild fowl” (probably ducks, geese or turkey) and deer.
38. What did the Wampanoag guests bring to the 1621 feast?
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Five deer
39. Which famous rock is said to mark where the Pilgrims landed?
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Plymouth Rock
40. Which president made the official turkey pardon a yearly White House tradition in 1989?
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George H. W. Bush
Thanksgiving Food Trivia
41. Which bread-based side dish is cooked inside or alongside the turkey?
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Stuffing (or dressing)
42. Sweet potato casserole is often topped with what?
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Marshmallows
43. Green bean casserole is topped with crispy fried what?
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Onions
44. Who created green bean casserole in 1955 while working at Campbell’s?
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Dorcas Reilly
45. Which US state raises the most turkeys?
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Minnesota
46. Which US state grows the most cranberries?
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Wisconsin
47. Cranberries grow on low vines in wet, sandy areas called what?
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Bogs
48. What internal temperature should a cooked turkey reach to be safe to eat?
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165 °F (74 °C)
49. Thawing a frozen turkey in the fridge takes about one day for every how many pounds?
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Answer: Every 4 to 5 pounds
50. Which company’s leftover turkeys led to the first famous frozen TV dinner in 1953?
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Swanson
51. What is a turducken?
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Answer: A chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey
52. Which nutty pie is a Southern Thanksgiving favourite?
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Pecan pie
53. What is turkey gravy usually made from?
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Answer: The turkey’s pan drippings
54. Which turkey brand runs a famous hotline that answers cooking questions every November?
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Butterball (the Turkey Talk-Line)
55. About how many turkeys do Americans eat on Thanksgiving?
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Answer: About 46 million
56. Which part of the turkey is the “white meat”?
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Answer: The breast
57. What is a “Friendsgiving”?
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Answer: A Thanksgiving-style meal shared with friends
58. Which brand is famous for jellied cranberry sauce that slides out of the can in one piece?
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Ocean Spray
59. Which spices usually go into pumpkin pie?
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Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves
60. Which corn and bean dish has Native American roots?
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Succotash
Parade, Football & Pop Culture Trivia
61. Which department store holds the famous Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City?
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Macy’s
62. In which year was the first Macy’s Thanksgiving parade?
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1924
63. Before the giant balloons, which animals took part in the first Macy’s parade?
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Live animals from the Central Park Zoo, such as bears and elephants
64. Which cartoon cat was the parade’s first giant balloon, in 1927?
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Felix the Cat
65. Which character has appeared as a Macy’s parade balloon more times than any other?
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Snoopy
66. Who always arrives at the very end of the Macy’s parade?
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Santa Claus
67. Which 1947 Christmas film opens at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade?
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Miracle on 34th Street
68. About how long is the Macy’s parade route?
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Answer: About 2.5 miles
69. Which TV network broadcasts the Macy’s parade?
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NBC
70. Which two NFL teams play at home on Thanksgiving every year?
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Answer: The Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys
71. In which year did the Detroit Lions play their first Thanksgiving game?
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1934
72. Which 1987 comedy with Steve Martin and John Candy is about trying to get home for Thanksgiving?
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles
73. Which comedian sang “The Thanksgiving Song” on Saturday Night Live?
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Adam Sandler
74. Which long Arlo Guthrie song do many radio stations play every Thanksgiving?
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Alice’s Restaurant
75. In “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”, who invites herself and her friends to Charlie Brown’s for dinner?
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Peppermint Patty
76. Which sitcom has the Thanksgiving episode “Slapsgiving”?
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How I Met Your Mother
77. What is a “Turkey Trot”?
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Answer: A fun running race held on Thanksgiving morning
78. Which part of the turkey is the drumstick?
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Answer: The lower leg
79. Which two days around Thanksgiving are among the busiest travel days of the year in the US?
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Answer: The Wednesday before and the Sunday after
80. What is the turkey that the president pardons each year officially called?
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Answer: The National Thanksgiving Turkey
True or False: Thanksgiving Fun Facts
81. True or false: Benjamin Franklin officially proposed the turkey as the national bird.
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False – he praised the turkey in a letter to his daughter, but never made an official proposal.
82. True or false: the Pilgrims wore black hats with shiny buckles.
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False – buckles came into fashion later; the image comes from 19th-century art.
83. True or false: turkeys can see in colour.
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True
84. True or false: farm-raised turkeys can fly as well as wild turkeys.
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False – most farm turkeys are too heavy to fly.
85. True or false: wild turkeys sleep in trees.
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True
86. True or false: only male turkeys gobble.
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True – hens cluck and purr instead.
87. True or false: turkey is the main reason you feel sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner.
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False – turkey has about as much tryptophan as chicken; the huge meal is what makes you sleepy.
88. True or false: turkeys were first domesticated in what is now Mexico.
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True – more than 2,000 years ago.
89. True or false: Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the US.
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True
90. True or false: the Pilgrims called themselves “Pilgrims”.
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False – they called themselves “Saints” or Separatists; “Pilgrims” became popular much later.
91. True or false: fresh cranberries bounce.
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True – farmers use the bounce to sort good berries from bad.
92. True or false: a tom turkey’s head can change colour when he’s excited.
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True – it can turn red, white or blue.
93. True or false: botanically, a pumpkin is a fruit.
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True
94. True or false: pumpkin pie was served at the 1621 harvest feast.
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False – the Pilgrims had no ovens for pies and almost no sugar.
95. True or false: turkeys have no ears.
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False – they have small ear openings behind their eyes.
96. True or false: Macy’s parade balloons fly no matter how windy it is.
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False – in strong winds they must fly lower or stay on the ground.
97. True or false: Canada celebrated a thanksgiving before the Pilgrims’ 1621 feast.
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True – explorer Martin Frobisher held one in 1578.
98. True or false: the day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days of the year for plumbers.
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True – all those extra guests and leftovers!
99. True or false: the turkey’s wishbone is really two bones joined together.
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True – it’s the two collarbones fused into one (the furcula).
100. True or false: more turkey is eaten on Thanksgiving than on any other day in the US.
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True
How to Play Thanksgiving Trivia at Dinner
- Play between courses – one round after the turkey, one with dessert.
- Kids vs. grown-ups: the kids answer the easy round, the adults take history.
- Pass the pie: whoever answers correctly gets the next slice.
- True or false round: everyone stands up and sits down if they think “false” – last one standing wins.
More Thanksgiving & Holiday Fun
- Thanksgiving Riddles with Answers
- 100 Fun Trivia Questions
- 100 Pop Culture Trivia Questions
- Christmas Riddles
- Riddle of the Day
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good Thanksgiving trivia questions for kids?
Start simple: Which bird do we eat on Thanksgiving? (turkey) What is a baby turkey called? (a poult) What’s the horn-shaped basket of food called? (a cornucopia)
When was the first Thanksgiving?
The famous harvest feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag took place in 1621 in Plymouth Colony and lasted three days.
Who made Thanksgiving a national holiday?
Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, after a long campaign by writer Sarah Josepha Hale. Congress fixed the date as the fourth Thursday of November in 1941.
Why does Detroit play football on Thanksgiving?
The Detroit Lions first hosted a Thanksgiving game in 1934 and have done so every year since, apart from a break during World War II; the Dallas Cowboys joined the tradition in 1966.