11 Ways To Commemorate Thanksgiving That Do Not Consist Of Sculpting The Turkey

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, you may be hectic planning what this year's spread will resemble. For numerous homes, nonetheless, the holiday will probably look much different than it has in year's past. Instead of hosting large gatherings filled with smiling faces of family and friends, many of us may be opting for smaller and safer ways to celebrate the day of grace. That doesn't mean, though, that you have to completely cut out the fun that you have this year.

Of course, you'll want to make sure you take all of the necessary precautions and adhere to all of the guidelines presented by your local and state officials as the holiday approaches in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But whether or not you're gathering with three or opt to spend it alone, there will still be plenty of activities for your to participate in and memories to be made for Thanksgiving this year. Not sure what to add to the schedule? Here are 11 Thanksgiving activities that everyone will love. If you're still in need of some lighter recipes to help keep you from dragging through all of the activities, don't forget to check out these 35 healthy Thanksgiving recipes to add to this year's menu.

Thursday is a weird day for a holiday, right? Sure, some companies give their employees the Friday after Thanksgiving off, but many don't, which means Americans across the country are lugging their turkey-filled bodies back to work after inhaling every piece of food in sight the day before.

A famed publisher even wrote to President Herbert Hoover in 1929, asking him to * please * move the holiday to Friday so we all get a three-day weekend for "thanksgiving, rest, pleasure and recreation"-- amen, F.B. Haviland.

Historians don't know exactly which day the "first Thanksgiving" between the Pilgrims and Native Americans fell on-- and it actually happened in October, not November, according to the Farmer's Almanac. So why do we observe Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November?

At any rate, Thanksgiving has been held on a Thursday in November since George Washington's presidency. Washington declared a day of thanksgiving and prayer in 1789, partly to honor the new U.S. Constitution.

But it was President Abraham Lincoln who proclaimed in 1863 that Thanksgiving would be held the last Thursday of November.

" He's the father of the whole idea of a nation giving thanks for its advantages and privileges of living in a democracy like this," said Harold Holzer, historian and chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.

Writing that the nation's many blessings "should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged" by the American people, Lincoln declared: "I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.".

( It should be noted that while Lincoln issued this proclamation, most historians believe it was actually written by his secretary of State, William Seward.).

The proclamation served a familiar purpose for Lincoln. "He was always looking for ways to unify the nation in a terrible time of war," biographer Ronald C. White Jr. said.