True or False?  Roosevelt tried to change Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving was traditionally celebrated on the last Thursday of November because of a standard set by Abraham Lincoln. In 1939, Roosevelt asked Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving a week early to increase the time for Christmas shopping during the Great Depression.   (True)

Americans were so upset that thousands of letters poured into the White House. Practical issues also abounded: Schools, calendar makers and professional football players had all planned on a different schedule.

The controversy prompted Congress to pass a law two years later that declared Thanksgiving would always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

True or False:  Swanson Dinners almost replaced the family meal.

In their dreams.  In 1953, Swanson severely overestimated the demand for Turkey... by 260 tons. With so much fowl left over, the owners of the company kept the birds on a refrigerated train traveling back and forth from the East Coast to Nebraska. Gerry Thomas, a salesman at the company, had a better idea. He got inspired by airplane meals and brought together 5,000 aluminum trays and loads of turkey, peas and sweet potatoes.
 

Who was Sarah Josepha Hale?

Sarah Josepha Hale, American magazine editor and author who waged a winning campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, also wrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

 
How did the Pilgrims set their table?

The pilgrims were not fork-users. Instead they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. If something was particularly hot, they used their napkins to pick up bites.

True or False:  The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade was supposed to be for Christmas.

The famous cavalcade originally bore the name of Christmas because it marked the beginning of the shopping season. The first Macy's parade took place in New York City in 1924. It featured animals from the Central Park Zoo instead of floats which didn't join the route until 1927.
 

Instead of the Eagle, Ben Franklin wanted us to have a national _________.

You knew this one, right?  Benjamin Franklin loved turkeys so much that he suggested they be named our national bird. He was not happy when the bald eagle was chosen instead. In a letter to his daughter, he said: "For my own part I wish the Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character... the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America."

The average person eats more in a meal than they should in a day on Thanksgiving?

Too easy.  The average person consumes 3,000 calories during Thanksgiving dinner. With other meals and snacking included a day can come to between 4,000 and 6,000 calories. It could take 8 hours of moderate exercise to burn that off.

According to estimates from the AP, the original celebrants of Thanksgiving consumed around 550 calories at their celebration thanks to the lack of pies and alcohol.