Thanksgiving is more than one day

On Thanksgiving Day, Americans show their appreciation for life’s blessings by enjoying home-cooked feasts with family and close friends. Their meal is often bookended by time spent enjoying the outdoors or watching televised parades and football games.

Thanksgiving also marks the start of the holiday season. For many Americans, the days around Thanksgiving are marked by traditions that range from gift shopping to volunteering in their local communities. Here’s a look at the full week that encompasses Thanksgiving, with its days that bring family time, an economic jolt and generosity toward others.

Road-trip Wednesday

First and foremost, Thanksgiving means visiting family and friends. It is the busiest travel time of the year, with 80 million people expected to travel for the holiday in 2024. The American Automobile Association projects peak road travel on Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thursday’s feast.

Thanksgiving Thursday

The exact date shifts, but not the day of the week — Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November each year.

Thanksgiving dinner honors an American origin story. In 1621, the Pilgrims shared a feast with members of the Wampanoag tribe who had taught them to grow the crops the Pilgrims needed to survive. Preparing a meal to share with friends and family remains central to Thanksgiving. And the get-togethers can last all day, with the meal falling between watching a televised parade (or attending a smaller, local one) in the morning and enjoying televised football games in the afternoon.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the most famous one, began a century ago in New York. Millions nationwide gawk, in person and via television, as giant balloon characters and floats pass by Central Park and along Sixth Avenue.

And Thanksgiving Day pro football games rank among the most-watched sporting events of the year. Except during World War II, the Detroit Lions have played on Thanksgiving every year since 1934. The National Football League now plays three games on Thanksgiving. This year, the Lions will take on their rival, the Chicago Bears. The Dallas Cowboys will face the New York Giants. And the Miami Dolphins will play against the Green Bay Packers.

Black Friday

The name comes from a notion among some retailers that consumer spending on the day after Thanksgiving drives their balance sheets out of the red and into the black, or profitable, sphere.

In reality, that accounting milestone is different for each store. But retailers count on the fact that Americans’ holiday shopping in November and December represents a disproportionate share of the year’s sales, says National Retail Federation’s (NRF) chief economist Jack Kleinhenz.

Stores plan promotions to encourage Black Friday shoppers. This year, indicators look strong. During the third quarter of 2024, consumer spending totaled $16.1 trillion, a 3% real increase over the year-before period.

Consumer spending is 69% of the U.S. economy (or nominal gross domestic product), and the U.S. economy represents a large share of the world’s economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Small Business Saturday

Entrepreneurship is a key part of America’s success, and it is alive and well on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when shoppers help their communities by shopping at small, local stores. Today, 95% of retail jobs are at stores with fewer than 10 employees.

Of course, some of those local, independent stores won’t stay small. Most of the biggest U.S. retail companies started as mom-and-pop stores years ago, says the NRF’s Kleinhenz.

Air travel Sunday

Millions of Americans who make a long weekend out of the holiday head to an airport on Sunday to return to their workweek routines. An estimated 3 million travelers are expected to pack U.S. airports December 1, according to the Transportation Security Administration, which screens airport passengers. The numbers this year could break records.

Giving Tuesday

After shopping for friends and family, Americans continue their holiday generosity by volunteering or donating to charity on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Thirty-four million Americans participated in Giving Tuesday in 2023, donating $3.1 billion to charitable causes.

Since its 2012 founding, Giving Tuesday has gone global with 100 countries now holding donation drives or volunteer events that day, raising a combined $13 billion worldwide.

The spirit of giving extends beyond the holidays in the U.S. In 2023, U.S. charitable donations topped $557 billion, according to the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.