Thanksgiving Archives - My Merry Christmas | Merry Forums of My Merry Christmas

Inconvenient Facts About Thanksgiving

Every year now we seem to find new ways to corrupt Thanksgiving. The facts about Thanksgiving have always been kind of inconvenient. It’s true history, meaning and origin has somehow created a state of endless debates. There are debates about stores open on Thanksgiving, debates about how Thanksgiving is taught wrong in schools, debates about debating politics at the Thanksgiving dinner table and now even a debate about if we …

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Thanksgiving? Not a Problem

The media is making a firestorm out of a new holiday outrage some are calling The War on Thanksgiving. Silly as it all seems the rhetoric of politics never has a down season. There are several polarizing modern talking points about Thanksgiving this year: • PETA doesn’t want you eating animals for Thanksgiving…because they are sexually assaulted. • Your carbon footprint matters. The food of Thanksgiving isn’t the problem. Travel …

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How Thanksgiving Became Thanksgiving

Like Christmas, the origins of Thanksgiving are hotly debated. Like Christmas, we can thank stories of Thanksgiving passed down through generations by word of mouth, in letters and documents, period media reports, and great literary works for the making of all that we celebrate of the holiday today. Historians these days love to deconstruct “the facts” surrounding Thanksgiving. They tell us we are wrong to think of it as we …

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Finding Christmas in Thanksgiving

A recent survey revealed sharp divisions in when the celebration of Christmas begins. Nearly a third said Christmas begins right after Halloween, a third said Christmas begins right after Thanksgiving and for another third the celebration of Christmas is something done every day. In recent years many have insisted that Christmas so overpowers the calendar that holidays such as Thanksgiving and Veteran’s Day are entirely forgotten. Those making the argument …

Christmas Features Thanksgiving

Over the River and Through the Wood

“Over the River and through the wood” is a phrase endeared to many that evokes the memory of Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings. Many know it as a poem first, many more know it as a Christmas song. Christmas was never it’s original intention. It was always, from its title forward, meant to be a tribute to Thanksgiving. It was written by an extraordinary woman named Lydia Maria Child in 1844 …

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Pumpkin Pie Poetry

The Thanksgiving of old America included a serious reverence the people of the 18th and 19th centuries had for pumpkin pie. Said the editor of the Philadelphia Ledger in 1837 “that he should like to be thrown into a pumpkin pie as large as Lake Superior, only deeper, and obliged it eat his way out.” Some historians and foodies would have you to believe that pumpkin was a staple of …

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Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing has become for many an anthem of Thanksgiving — as close to a Thanksgiving carol as there can be. The song was written in the mid-18th century by a 22-year old theology student. His name was Robert Robinson. As a youth, Robinson was a bit of a wild child, having lost his father when he was just 5 years old. As he entered his …

Christmas Features Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving History You Never Hear

Modern media is flooded each Thanksgiving with tales of the myths and distortions of America’s most widely celebrated holiday. That is the most amazing thing about Thanksgiving. It is full of ironies and falsehoods and ignored facts. On one extreme you have those who cling to the Charlie Brown version of Thanksgiving. This is what most of us were taught in grade school – that the pilgrims walked off the …

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Josiah, His Turkeys and His Sweetheart

(Editor’s Note: This Thanksgiving story was published sometime in the early 19th century. Like A Visit from St. Nicholas it was published as a tradition year after year in many newspapers. We found it in the Boston Traveler from 1836, though we noted it dating back as far as 1824 in another newspaper. This is a delightful look an old American Thanksgiving traditions – as well as a great story …

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Five Must See Movies Over Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving represents a lot of traditions in American culture. Some enjoy the parade, others get into the football and some are all about the food. For many, it is a simple day of being together and playing games. Thanksgiving, more than any other holiday, really is a true holiday. Everything stops for something different. Thanksgiving is also traditionally a time set aside to kick off the Christmas season. Many put …

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Ancient Connections of Thanksgiving and Christmas

Here is some fodder for your Thanksgiving day discussions around the turkey — which is the more sacred holiday in America, Thanksgiving or Christmas? Check your learning of history at the door. This history of both holidays goes back further than you know — and both are related to each other in significant ways. Watch this video: Christmas, while constantly under a cloud in regular debates of what is politically …

Christmas Video Thanksgiving

Singing with Drumsticks

For three years we have avoided sharing this video. That’s how much we don’t like this song. But, nearly 20 million views over three years makes this song something of a tradition — to somebody out there. It comes from Nicole Westbrook who uses — no kidding — a turkey leg as a microphone to sing “It’s Thanksgiving”. Enjoy this well before you eat:

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Thanksgiving Debate of Stuffing or Dressing

While the world embroils itself in constant debates and controversies each holiday season and calls it the War on Christmas the skirmishes over Thanksgiving get a pass. That is mostly because the debates of Thanksgiving rage about food. There is no greater debate at Thanksgiving than the one of stuffing versus dressing. Which do you have? And how can you tell the difference? The debate could well date back to …

Christmas Features Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is America’s Acknowledgement of God

Thanksgiving is America’s only holiday invention and it may, in fact, be its most sacred. While the Christmas season is marked by repeated debates of “church vs. state” Thanksgiving is the only day of the year when American leadership calls for citizens to pray and actually acknowledges God. Anyone who grew up watching Charlie Brown and the Peanuts or attending public schools in the United States know of Thanksgiving’s early …

Christmas Features Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Project Promises to Preserve History

How would you like to hold a great event as part of your Thanksgiving celebration that also preserves your own family history? That is the hope of a project called The Great Thanksgiving Listen by StoryCorps. StoryCorps is a non-profit dedicated to preserving family stories and over the past 12 years they have recorded more than 100,000 such stories and archived them in the Library of Congress. They have developed …

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Thanksgiving Archives - My Merry Christmas

Inconvenient Facts About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving? Not a Problem

How Thanksgiving Became Thanksgiving

Finding Christmas in Thanksgiving

Over the River and Through the Wood

Pumpkin Pie Poetry

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

The Thanksgiving History You Never Hear

Josiah, His Turkeys and His Sweetheart

Five Must See Movies Over Thanksgiving Weekend

Ancient Connections of Thanksgiving and Christmas

Singing with Drumsticks

Thanksgiving Debate of Stuffing or Dressing

Thanksgiving is America’s Acknowledgement of God

Thanksgiving Project Promises to Preserve History