Thanksgiving Trivia Questions and Answers
One Thanksgiving question on the card, a table full of guesses, and the answer one tap away.
- Time
- 15–45 min
- Players
- Two or more people
- Best for
- Thanksgiving dinner, Friendsgiving and the long weekend
- Deck
- 100 questions in 5 categories
How to use these Thanksgiving trivia questions
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the question on the top card aloud and let everyone at the table call out or write down an answer.
- Tap “Show answer”, then “Next question”, or swipe the card away, for another. Questions do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save a question on this device, or tap “Make a 10-question list” to copy questions with their answers.
When to play Thanksgiving trivia
Thanksgiving has plenty of waiting built in: for the turkey to finish, for the pie to cool, for everyone to find a seat. A trivia card fills those minutes with a question everyone can guess at, and the answer is one tap away.
While dinner finishes
Guests gather in the kitchen while the gravy thickens. The meal is the right category here, from brining to the safe temperature for a roast turkey.
Friendsgiving
A table of friends from different places makes Around the world and the calendar a good pick, with Canada in October, Chuseok and the harvest moon.
The game on TV
During halftime or a long break, draw from Parades and football. The Detroit and Dallas games and the 1924 parade make easy talking points.
Ways to play Thanksgiving trivia
A round while the turkey rests
The cook gets the phone while the bird rests before carving. Read five questions from The meal and let the table shout answers. Whoever gets the most right carries the platter in, and everyone else finds out whether the cook knows their own dressing from their stuffing.
Two sides of the table
Split the table down the middle. Each side takes a turn drawing a card for the other, which has thirty seconds to agree on one answer. A right answer scores a point, and a miss passes to the other side for a steal. Switch categories every five cards.
Halftime questions
If the football game is on, keep the phone by the couch and play Parades and football or History of the holiday during halftime and commercial breaks. Each player answers one card in turn, and a correct answer picks the next category.
Tips for a good Thanksgiving trivia round
- Start with The meal or Turkeys and the harvest. Everyone has opinions about gravy and pie, so the first answers come fast, and History of the holiday can follow once the table is warmed up.
- Give half a point for close answers. Saying “a turkey run” for a turkey trot, or “1622” for 1621, keeps the mood friendly.
- Read the answer out with a little extra, like the three days the 1621 feast lasted or the ninety Wampanoag men who came. The stories often outlast the score.
All 100 thanksgiving trivia by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and play there.
History of the holiday
The 1621 harvest feast at Plymouth, the Wampanoag, Sarah Josepha Hale and the presidents who set the date.
- In what year did the Plymouth harvest feast, often called the first Thanksgiving, take place?Answer: 1621
- Which Native American people joined the Plymouth colonists for their autumn harvest feast?Answer: the Wampanoag
- What was the name of the Wampanoag leader who came to the 1621 harvest feast?Answer: Massasoit (Ousamequin)
- Which ship carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic in 1620?Answer: the Mayflower
- Plymouth, home of the 1621 harvest feast, is in which present-day US state?Answer: Massachusetts
- From which English port did the Mayflower make its final departure in 1620?Answer: Plymouth
- Which Patuxet man, who spoke English, showed the Plymouth colonists how to plant corn?Answer: Squanto (Tisquantum)
- Who was governor of Plymouth Colony at the time of the 1621 harvest feast?Answer: William Bradford
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- Which colonist described the 1621 harvest feast in a letter home to England?Answer: Edward Winslow
- According to Edward Winslow, about how many Wampanoag men joined the colonists at the feast?Answer: about ninety
- What did the Wampanoag guests bring to the feast, according to Edward Winslow?Answer: five deer
- Before the 1621 feast, the governor sent four men out to hunt what?Answer: fowl (wild birds)
- According to Edward Winslow, for how many days did the 1621 celebration go on?Answer: three
- Which magazine editor wrote to presidents for years, asking for a national Thanksgiving Day?Answer: Sarah Josepha Hale
- Sarah Josepha Hale edited which popular 1800s magazine?Answer: Godey’s Lady’s Book
- Which president proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863?Answer: Abraham Lincoln
- Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation set Thanksgiving on which Thursday of November?Answer: the last Thursday
- Which president issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation, in 1789?Answer: George Washington
- Which president moved Thanksgiving a week earlier in 1939, a change nicknamed “Franksgiving”?Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt
- In what year did Congress fix Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November by law?Answer: 1941
The meal
Stuffing or dressing, gravy, giblets, pecan pie and the right temperature for a roast turkey.
- Which tart red berry is cooked into a sauce to serve with the turkey?Answer: the cranberry
- What is stuffing usually called when it’s baked in a dish instead of inside the bird?Answer: dressing
- Which orange squash fills the classic Thanksgiving custard pie?Answer: pumpkin
- Which nut tops the sticky, sweet pie that’s a Southern favorite?Answer: pecan
- Which toasted topping often covers a sweet potato casserole?Answer: marshmallows
- What crunchy topping usually finishes a green bean casserole?Answer: fried onions
- What sauce is made from the drippings in the turkey’s roasting pan?Answer: gravy
- Which forked turkey bone do two people pull apart, each hoping for the bigger piece?Answer: the wishbone
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- What is it called when you soak a turkey in salt water before roasting it?Answer: brining
- What is it called when you spoon pan juices over a roasting turkey?Answer: basting
- What internal temperature does the USDA recommend for safely cooked turkey?Answer: 165°F
- Turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside what?Answer: a turkey
- In many US grocery stores, the orange vegetables labeled yams are actually what?Answer: sweet potatoes
- Which soft, gray-green herb is the classic seasoning in stuffing?Answer: sage
- What are a turkey’s heart, liver and gizzard called together?Answer: giblets
- Which bread is crumbled into a Southern-style dressing?Answer: cornbread
- What is the lower part of a turkey’s leg called?Answer: the drumstick
- What is it called when you pinch the edge of a pie crust into a wavy pattern?Answer: crimping (or fluting)
- Which squash, named a bit like a dairy spread, is often roasted for the feast?Answer: butternut squash
- Dark meat comes mainly from which parts of the turkey?Answer: the legs and thighs
Parades and football
The New York parade since 1924, giant balloons, turkey trots, the Detroit and Dallas games and scoring basics.
- In what year did New York City’s big department store Thanksgiving Day parade first march?Answer: 1924
- In what year did giant character balloons first float in the New York Thanksgiving parade?Answer: 1927
- Who traditionally arrives at the very end of New York’s Thanksgiving Day parade?Answer: Santa Claus
- The New York parade ends outside a famous department store on which Manhattan square?Answer: Herald Square
- Which 1947 movie opens at New York’s Thanksgiving Day parade?Answer: Miracle on 34th Street
- Which city’s Thanksgiving parade, first held in 1920, is often called the oldest in the country?Answer: Philadelphia
- Which gas lifts the giant balloons in a Thanksgiving parade?Answer: helium
- Which pro football team started its Thanksgiving Day home game tradition in 1934?Answer: the Detroit Lions
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- Which Texas team began hosting a Thanksgiving Day football game in 1966?Answer: the Dallas Cowboys
- What is a fun run held on Thanksgiving morning usually called?Answer: a turkey trot
- Which New York State city has held a Thanksgiving morning turkey trot since 1896?Answer: Buffalo
- What is the yearly White House ceremony that spares a turkey from the dinner table called?Answer: the turkey pardon
- How many points is a touchdown worth in American football?Answer: six
- How many points does a team score for a field goal?Answer: three
- After a touchdown, how many points is a kick through the uprights worth?Answer: one
- How many players does each football team have on the field at once?Answer: eleven
- How many yards long is a football field from one goal line to the other?Answer: 100
- What is the two-point score called when a ball carrier is tackled in their own end zone?Answer: a safety
- Which farm animal gave the football its old nickname?Answer: the pig (pigskin)
- How many quarters are there in a regulation football game?Answer: four
Turkeys and the harvest
Toms, poults, snoods and wattles, plus cranberry bogs, pumpkins, pecans and the Three Sisters.
- What is a male turkey called?Answer: a tom (or gobbler)
- What name is given to a turkey chick?Answer: a poult
- Male turkeys are toms. What are female turkeys called?Answer: a hen
- What is the fleshy flap that hangs over a turkey’s beak called?Answer: the snood
- What is the red flap of skin under a turkey’s chin called?Answer: the wattle
- What is the tuft of bristly feathers on a tom’s chest called?Answer: the beard
- Can wild turkeys fly?Answer: yes, in short bursts
- Where do wild turkeys spend the night?Answer: up in trees
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- Wild turkeys are native to which continent?Answer: North America
- What is the scientific name of the wild turkey?Answer: Meleagris gallopavo
- In a 1784 letter, who called the turkey a more respectable bird than the bald eagle?Answer: Benjamin Franklin
- What are the wetland fields where cranberries grow called?Answer: bogs
- Why do cranberries float when growers flood the bogs at harvest time?Answer: pockets of air inside
- Botanically speaking, is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?Answer: a fruit
- Pumpkins belong to which plant family, along with cucumbers and melons?Answer: the gourd family
- Pecan trees belong to which group of nut trees?Answer: the hickories
- Which three crops make up the Three Sisters of Native American farming?Answer: corn, beans and squash
- What is another name for corn, from a word in the Taíno language?Answer: maize
- What does the word cornucopia mean?Answer: horn of plenty
- A potato is a swollen stem. What part of the plant is a sweet potato?Answer: a root
Around the world and the calendar
Canada in October, Japan’s November holiday, Chuseok, harvest moons and the earliest and latest dates.
- On which day does Canada celebrate Thanksgiving?Answer: the second Monday of October
- What is the earliest date US Thanksgiving can fall on?Answer: November 22
- If November 1 falls on a Friday, on what date is US Thanksgiving?Answer: November 28
- Which country marks Labor Thanksgiving Day every November 23?Answer: Japan
- During which Korean harvest holiday do families make half-moon rice cakes called songpyeon?Answer: Chuseok
- Which round pastries are shared during the Mid-Autumn Festival?Answer: mooncakes
- The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of which lunar month?Answer: the eighth
- Which West African country holds its own Thanksgiving Day on the first Thursday of November?Answer: Liberia
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- What do people call a Thanksgiving-style meal shared with friends instead of relatives?Answer: Friendsgiving
- What is the big shopping day right after Thanksgiving called?Answer: Black Friday
- What is the Monday after Thanksgiving called by online stores?Answer: Cyber Monday
- What is the full moon nearest the autumn equinox called?Answer: the harvest moon
- What is the full moon after the harvest moon traditionally called?Answer: the hunter’s moon
- Which animal gives November’s full moon its traditional name?Answer: the beaver
- When Americans sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, what season is it in Australia?Answer: spring
- What do French speakers in Canada call Thanksgiving?Answer: l’Action de grâce
- What is Thanksgiving called in Spanish?Answer: Día de Acción de Gracias
- November’s name comes from the Latin word for which number?Answer: nine
- In which Dutch city did many of the Pilgrims live before sailing to America?Answer: Leiden
- In the Northern Hemisphere, in which month does the autumn equinox fall?Answer: September
Frequently asked questions
How many Thanksgiving trivia questions are there?
There are 100 questions, 20 in each of five categories: history of the holiday, the meal, parades and football, turkeys and the harvest, and around the world and the calendar. Every question comes with its answer, shown on the card when you tap “Show answer” and printed under it in the list on this page.
How do you play Thanksgiving trivia at the dinner table?
Pass one phone around the table and let whoever holds it read the next card. Everyone else answers out loud, or on a scrap of paper if you want a score. Play between courses or while the pie cools, so the game fills the gaps without interrupting the meal.
Are the answers checked?
Each answer is a well-documented fact that does not change from year to year, like the 1621 harvest feast at Plymouth, Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation, the 1941 law that set the fourth Thursday of November, and Canada’s Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. There are no shifting statistics, such as how much turkey people eat.
What else can we play over the holiday?
For conversation instead of quiz answers, try Thanksgiving questions for couples once the guests head home. For more quiz rounds, trivia questions covers general knowledge, and Christmas trivia is ready for the next holiday on the calendar.