65 Thanksgiving Trivia Questions for Kids – 2025 Edition with Answers

Thanksgiving is about more than just turkey—its history, foods, and traditions provide plenty of fun facts for curious kids. Use these questions to test your knowledge and learn something new about this special holiday. They’re organized by difficulty so everyone can play along.

Easy difficulty:

 

1. In the United States, which month do people celebrate Thanksgiving?

Answer: November

 

2. On which day of the week is Thanksgiving celebrated?

Answer: Thursday

 

3. What large bird is traditionally eaten on Thanksgiving?

Answer: Turkey

 

4. What orange vegetable is commonly used to make pie for dessert on Thanksgiving?

Answer: Pumpkin

 

5. What type of bread often forms the base of the stuffing or dressing served with turkey?

Answer: Bread cubes or cornbread

 

6. Which group celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Wampanoag people?

Answer: The Pilgrims

 

7. In what U.S. state did the first Thanksgiving take place?

Answer: Massachusetts

 

8. What do you call the small red berry sauce served with turkey?

Answer: Cranberry sauce

 

9. What utensil do you use to serve mashed potatoes?

Answer: A spoon or scoop

 

10. What is the name of the long parade held every year in New York City on Thanksgiving morning?

Answer: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

 

11. Which sport is often watched on television on Thanksgiving Day?

Answer: Football

 

12. What is the name of the Native American tribe that celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims?

Answer: The Wampanoag

 

13. What do you call the holiday that sometimes occurs the day after Thanksgiving when people go shopping?

Answer: Black Friday

 

14. What is the process of breaking the wishbone called when two people pull it apart and make a wish?

Answer: Wishbone pulling

 

15. What color are cranberries?

Answer: Red

 

16. What vegetable dish is made with green beans and crispy fried onions?

Answer: Green bean casserole

 

17. What do you call the person who leads the family in saying “thanks” before the meal?

Answer: The host or the person saying grace

 

18. Which utensil do you use to cut the turkey?

Answer: A carving knife

 

19. What is the name of the ship on which the Pilgrims sailed to America?

Answer: The Mayflower

 

20. Which city hosts America’s oldest Thanksgiving Day parade?

Answer: Philadelphia

 

Medium difficulty:

 

21. Which U.S. President made Thanksgiving a national holiday?

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

 

22. What year was Thanksgiving first proclaimed a national holiday?

Answer: 1863

 

23. What large department store sponsors the famous Thanksgiving Day parade in New York?

Answer: Macy’s

 

24. What is the day called when the U.S. President pardons a turkey at the White House?

Answer: The National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation

 

25. Which Founding Father wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States instead of the bald eagle?

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

 

26. What Native American interpreter and guide helped the Pilgrims plant crops and communicated with the Wampanoag?

Answer: Squanto (Tisquantum)

 

27. What is another name for corn that was common at early Thanksgiving feasts?

Answer: Maize

 

28. Which state produces the most turkeys in the United States?

Answer: Minnesota

 

29. What is the name of the official song often associated with the Thanksgiving holiday?

Answer: “Over the River and Through the Woods”

 

30. What is a popular board game or family game often played after Thanksgiving dinner?

Answer: Monopoly or other board games

 

31. Which President started the tradition of pardoning a turkey?

Answer: John F. Kennedy informally; George H. W. Bush made it an annual tradition

 

32. Which U.S. National Football League team has hosted a Thanksgiving Day game every year since 1934?

Answer: The Detroit Lions

 

33. What color are most turkey feathers?

Answer: Brown

 

34. How many days did the first Thanksgiving feast last?

Answer: Three days

 

35. What sauce is made from tart red berries and sugar?

Answer: Cranberry sauce

 

36. What kind of pie is made from a nut that grows on trees and is popular in the southern United States?

Answer: Pecan pie

 

37. What type of vegetable is candied and served as a side dish in many households?

Answer: Sweet potatoes or yams

 

38. Which famous rock is associated with the landing of the Pilgrims?

Answer: Plymouth Rock

 

39. What festival celebrated by Indigenous peoples gave thanks for a good harvest long before the Pilgrims arrived?

Answer: Harvest festivals such as the Green Corn Festival

 

40. What is the name of the Pilgrim settlement that hosted the first Thanksgiving?

Answer: Plymouth Colony

 

Hard difficulty:

 

41. Which female writer campaigned for decades to make Thanksgiving a national holiday?

Answer: Sarah Josepha Hale

 

42. In Canada, which month is Thanksgiving celebrated?

Answer: October

 

43. What day of the week do Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving?

Answer: The second Monday in October

 

44. What Native American interpreter taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn and where to fish?

Answer: Squanto

 

45. What year was the first Thanksgiving believed to have been celebrated?

Answer: 1621

 

46. Which U.S. state calls itself the “Turkey Capital of the World”?

Answer: Minnesota

 

47. What do you call the bread and seasoning mixture often cooked inside the turkey?

Answer: Stuffing or dressing

 

48. What popular holiday carol was originally written as a Thanksgiving song?

Answer: “Jingle Bells”

 

49. Which U.S. National Football League team began playing on Thanksgiving Day in 1966?

Answer: The Dallas Cowboys

 

50. Who was the governor of Plymouth Colony during the first Thanksgiving?

Answer: William Bradford

 

51. What is the term for a Thanksgiving meal where guests bring dishes to share?

Answer: Potluck

 

52. Which fruit, often baked in pies during Thanksgiving, was once called “Malus pumila”?

Answer: The apple

 

53. What major document did the Pilgrims write and sign before coming ashore?

Answer: The Mayflower Compact

 

54. Which parade character is famous for always ending the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?

Answer: Santa Claus

 

55. What small nut is used in a classic Thanksgiving pie originating from the southern U.S?

Answer: Pecan

 

56. Which U.S. town claims to have held the first community Thanksgiving celebration (possibly before the Pilgrims)?

Answer: St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565

 

57. What region of the world do turkeys originally come from?

Answer: North America

 

58. What is the name of the day that encourages charitable giving following Thanksgiving?

Answer: Giving Tuesday

 

59. Which President moved Thanksgiving up one week in 1939 to extend the holiday shopping season?

Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

60. In what year did the U.S. Congress officially set the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day?

Answer: 1941

 

Bonus questions:

 

61. What is the fleshy red piece that hangs down from a turkey’s beak called?

Answer: A wattle

 

62. What sound does a female turkey make?

Answer: Female turkeys click or purr; only males gobble

 

63. What do you call a baby turkey?

Answer: A poult

 

64. Which animal did the Pilgrims bring on the Mayflower that many thought would produce butter during the voyage?

Answer: A cow

 

65. What Native American food made of dried meat, berries, and fat was a staple for long journeys and might have been served at the first Thanksgiving?

Answer: Pemmican