Thanksgiving Trivia Questions and Answers
Built by the people behind America's biggest trivia-night directory, these 60+ Thanksgiving trivia questions run from kid-friendly warm-ups to genuinely hard turkey-day deep cuts. Every medium and hard question gives you a foothold — a clue in the setup and a guessable answer, never a flat you-know-it-or-you-don't. From the 1621 harvest feast and the food on your table to the Macy's parade and the Detroit Lions, tap any question to reveal the answer, then find a real trivia night near you.
Round 1: Kids
1 Question: What bird is the traditional centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner?
Answer: Turkey
2 Question: In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated in which month?
Answer: November
3 Question: US Thanksgiving always falls on which day of the week?
Answer: Thursday
4 Question: What was the name of the ship that carried the Pilgrims to America in 1620?
Answer: The Mayflower
5 Question: What sound does a turkey make?
Answer: Gobble
6 Question: What red berry becomes the classic sauce served with turkey?
Answer: Cranberry
7 Question: What orange pie is the classic Thanksgiving dessert?
Answer: Pumpkin pie
8 Question: Two people pull apart what Y-shaped turkey bone while making a wish?
Answer: The wishbone
9 Question: Which New York department store throws the famous Thanksgiving Day parade?
Answer: Macy's
10 Question: What sport do millions of Americans watch all afternoon on Thanksgiving?
Answer: Football
Round 2: Easy
1 Question: The Pilgrims' colony — and the rock they supposedly landed at — share what name?
Answer: Plymouth
2 Question: What savory bread-cube dish is cooked inside or alongside the turkey?
Answer: Stuffing (or dressing)
3 Question: The shopping frenzy the day after Thanksgiving is known as what?
Answer: Black Friday
4 Question: A 'cornucopia,' the classic harvest centerpiece, is also called the horn of what?
Answer: Plenty
5 Question: An adult male turkey is called a what?
Answer: A tom
6 Question: Which neighbor to the north celebrates its own Thanksgiving — in October?
Answer: Canada
7 Question: In 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,' who cooks the dinner of toast, popcorn, pretzels, and jelly beans?
Answer: Snoopy
8 Question: What Native American people shared the 1621 harvest feast with the Pilgrims?
Answer: The Wampanoag
9 Question: What vegetable gets mashed with butter as the standard turkey side?
Answer: Potatoes
10 Question: True or false: turkey's tryptophan is why you're sleepy after dinner.
Answer: False (mostly a myth — blame the overall feast)
Round 3: Medium
1 Question: Thanksgiving became a national holiday in 1863, proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln in the middle of which war?
Answer: The Civil War
2 Question: Lincoln was persuaded by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who campaigned for 17 years — and who also wrote what famous nursery rhyme about a girl and her pet?
Answer: 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'
3 Question: The first Thanksgiving feast at Plymouth took place in what year — one year after the Mayflower landed?
Answer: 1621
4 Question: The 1621 celebration wasn't a single dinner. Roughly how long did the feasting and games last?
Answer: Three days
5 Question: In 1939, FDR moved Thanksgiving up a week to stretch the shopping season. What nickname did critics give the moved holiday?
Answer: 'Franksgiving'
6 Question: After the Franksgiving chaos, Congress fixed Thanksgiving in 1941 as which Thursday of November?
Answer: The fourth Thursday
7 Question: Which NFL team has hosted a game every Thanksgiving since 1934 — a marketing gamble by a radio-executive owner to sell football in a baseball town?
Answer: The Detroit Lions
8 Question: Which second NFL team joined the Thanksgiving tradition in 1966 and has hosted nearly every year since?
Answer: The Dallas Cowboys
9 Question: The Macy's parade debuted in 1924 — but under a different holiday's name. What was it originally called?
Answer: The Macy's Christmas Parade
10 Question: Before giant balloons, the early Macy's parade marched real elephants, lions, and camels borrowed from where?
Answer: The Central Park Zoo
11 Question: The parade's first-ever giant balloon, in 1927, was what silent-film-era cartoon cat?
Answer: Felix the Cat
12 Question: Green bean casserole was invented in 1955 by home economist Dorcas Reilly in the test kitchen of which soup company?
Answer: Campbell's
13 Question: The TV dinner was born in 1953 when which frozen-food company over-ordered 260 tons of Thanksgiving turkey and had to improvise?
Answer: Swanson
14 Question: The presidential turkey pardon became an official annual ceremony in 1989 under which president?
Answer: George H. W. Bush
15 Question: What English-speaking Patuxet man, made famous as 'Squanto,' taught the Pilgrims to plant which staple crop with fish as fertilizer?
Answer: Corn (maize)
16 Question: What Wampanoag leader — his name now on countless streets and schools in New England — attended the 1621 feast with some 90 of his men?
Answer: Massasoit
17 Question: Fresh cranberries have a built-in quality test that growers still use. What do ripe ones do?
Answer: Bounce
18 Question: America's oldest continuously run footrace isn't a marathon — it's a Thanksgiving 'Turkey Trot' held since 1896 in which snowy New York city?
Answer: Buffalo
19 Question: Since 1981, Butterball has staffed a phone line every November answering panicked cooking questions. What's it called?
Answer: The Turkey Talk-Line
20 Question: In 'Friends,' the most famous Thanksgiving flashback involves Monica with what on her head?
Answer: A raw turkey
21 Question: Steve Martin spends the holiday travel days from hell with John Candy in what 1987 comedy?
Answer: Planes, Trains and Automobiles
22 Question: Canada's Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October — the same day as which US federal holiday?
Answer: Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples' Day
Round 4: Hard
1 Question: In a letter to his daughter, which Founding Father called the turkey 'a much more respectable bird' than the bald eagle?
Answer: Benjamin Franklin
2 Question: Turkey isn't actually documented at the 1621 feast. The two meats the primary sources DO mention are wild fowl and what, brought by the Wampanoag?
Answer: Venison (five deer)
3 Question: There was no pumpkin pie in 1621 either — the colonists lacked ovens and what key baking ingredient?
Answer: Wheat flour (and butter)
4 Question: In a legendary 1978 'WKRP in Cincinnati' episode, a station promotion goes wrong when live turkeys are dropped from a helicopter. Finish the famous line: 'As God is my witness…'
Answer: '…I thought turkeys could fly.'
5 Question: Adam Sandler first performed 'The Thanksgiving Song' in 1992 on what late-night show?
Answer: Saturday Night Live
6 Question: A turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey. Which bird is the OUTERMOST layer? (Careful.)
Answer: The turkey
7 Question: What is the collective noun for a group of turkeys — also a word for what holds up your roof?
Answer: A rafter
8 Question: The red fleshy flap that droops over a turkey's beak has a specific name. What is it?
Answer: The snood
9 Question: Virginia's Berkeley Hundred plantation claims an English thanksgiving service predating Plymouth's feast by two years. What year?
Answer: 1619
10 Question: In the parade's early years (1928–1932), Macy's ended the show by doing what with the giant balloons — with a reward for whoever found them?
Answer: Releasing them into the sky
11 Question: A baby turkey is called a what?
Answer: A poult
12 Question: Norman Rockwell's famous 1943 Thanksgiving-dinner painting 'Freedom from Want' belongs to what four-part series inspired by an FDR speech?
Answer: The Four Freedoms
13 Question: Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute talking-blues epic — a radio Thanksgiving ritual since 1967 — is named after what fictional-sounding eatery?
Answer: 'Alice's Restaurant'
14 Question: About how many passengers sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 — 52, 102, or 202?
Answer: 102
15 Question: The cranberry is one of only a handful of commercially grown fruits native to North America. Name either of the other two most-cited ones.
Answer: Blueberry or Concord grape
16 Question: 'Over the River and Through the Wood' (1844) is sung at Christmas today, but Lydia Maria Child wrote it about a trip to whose house for which holiday?
Answer: Grandfather's house, for Thanksgiving
17 Question: The 1934 Lions Thanksgiving game became a national event because owner George A. Richards — a broadcasting man — secured what first for the game?
Answer: A national radio broadcast (NBC)
18 Question: The first Macy's parade year, 1924, was also the year of which landmark US law granting citizenship to Native Americans? (Decade foothold: the Coolidge era.)
Answer: The Indian Citizenship Act
More Trivia Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some good Thanksgiving trivia questions?
Good Thanksgiving trivia mixes the first-feast history (the Mayflower, the Wampanoag, 1621), food origins (green bean casserole, the TV dinner, cranberries that bounce), and the traditions — the Macy's parade, the Detroit Lions, and Black Friday. The rounds above run from kid-friendly warm-ups to hard questions, so there's something for every table.
What was really eaten at the first Thanksgiving?
Turkey isn't actually documented at the 1621 Plymouth feast. The primary sources only mention wild fowl and venison — the Wampanoag brought five deer. There was no pumpkin pie either, since the colonists had no ovens or wheat flour; the meal leaned on the corn, seafood, and game they had on hand.
Why is Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November?
Lincoln set Thanksgiving as the last Thursday of November in 1863. In 1939, FDR moved it up a week to lengthen the holiday shopping season, creating the chaos critics dubbed "Franksgiving." To end the confusion, Congress passed a law in 1941 fixing the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, where it has stayed ever since.
What are Thanksgiving trivia questions for kids?
The Kids round above collects the easiest, most age-appropriate Thanksgiving questions — the turkey, the Mayflower, the wishbone, and the Macy's parade. The answers are one or two words each, so younger players stay in the game and keep smiling.
How many trivia questions should a pub quiz have?
A standard pub quiz has between 40 and 60 questions, typically organized into 4-6 rounds of 8-10 questions each. Most trivia nights run 60-90 minutes, so 40-50 questions is the sweet spot. Each round should mix easy and harder questions so every team scores some points.
Where can I find trivia nights near me?
TriviaNearMe lists bar trivia and pub quiz nights across thousands of US cities. Search by city or use your location to find trivia nights happening near you this week.
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