Thanksgiving Trivia Questions and Answers

Six history questions

In 1620, the Pilgrims sailed to America on which ship?

The Santa MaríaThe EndeavourThe MayflowerThe Beagle

Where in what is now Massachusetts did the Pilgrims build their colony?

JamestownPlymouthSalemBoston

In 1621, the Pilgrims shared a three-day harvest feast with which Native American people?

The WampanoagThe CherokeeThe NavajoThe Lakota

Which president made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, during the Civil War?

George WashingtonThomas JeffersonUlysses S. GrantAbraham Lincoln

The magazine editor who campaigned for years for a national Thanksgiving also wrote which nursery rhyme?

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little StarHumpty DumptyMary Had a Little LambHickory Dickory Dock

In 1939, which president moved Thanksgiving a week earlier to give shoppers a longer holiday season?

Herbert HooverFranklin D. RooseveltHarry S. TrumanWoodrow Wilson

The 1621 meal was not called Thanksgiving at the time. To the Pilgrims, a day of thanksgiving meant church and prayer; this was a harvest celebration that lasted three days, and almost everything we know about it comes from one short letter by Edward Winslow. The Wampanoag had lived on that coast for thousands of years, and Plymouth was built on the site of Patuxet, a Wampanoag village emptied by an epidemic a few years before the Mayflower arrived. The magazine editor was Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote to one president after another; five days after her 1863 letter to Lincoln, he proclaimed the holiday. Roosevelt's change in 1939 was so unpopular that people called it "Franksgiving", and in 1941 Congress fixed the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.

Six questions about the food

Stuffing, also called dressing, is mostly made from what?

BreadPastaCouscousQuinoa

What is the crunchy topping on a classic green bean casserole?

MarshmallowsFried onionsCoconut flakesPecans

Cranberries grow on low vines in sandy wetlands that farmers flood at harvest time. What are those fields called?

BogsPaddiesOrchardsVineyards

According to a Pilgrim's letter written in 1621, what did the Wampanoag bring to the feast?

Pumpkin piesFive deerCranberry sauceMashed potatoes

A turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside what?

A gooseA pheasantA turkeyA swan

Canned cranberry sauce slides out of the can in what shape?

A cylinderA cubeA domeA ring

Pumpkin pie was almost certainly missing in 1621: the colony had no proper ovens yet and very little sugar. Deer, wild birds, corn and seafood are much safer guesses. The green bean casserole is newer than most people guess: a soup company's test kitchen came up with it in 1955.

Why Detroit? The Lions' owner put a game on Thanksgiving in 1934 to fill the stadium, it sold out, and the game has stayed. The Dallas Cowboys have hosted one most years since 1966. And Canada's Thanksgiving, on the second Monday of October, gives thanks for the harvest, which comes in earlier up north.

• Start with the picture round. Young kids can answer the bird, pie and sport questions without reading a word, so everyone at the table plays from the first question.
• Play in teams across the generations. Grandparents know the history, kids know the pictures. Mixed teams keep every round close.
• Add a round about your own family. Questions like "Who burned the rolls last year?" make the quiz feel like yours, and you can add them to your copy in a minute.
• Leave time after each answer. The short explanation after every question is where people learn about the zoo animals in the first parades, the kind of fact they will repeat over pie.