Today is Thanksgiving Day. While many people jump feet-first into the Christmas season as soon as the Halloween jack o-lanterns hit the compost pile, Thanksgiving is the last hurrah of fall, and a moment for us to gather together to break bread and give thanks for what we have.

Over the years on this blog, we’ve talked about gratitude, and being civil during the holidays, and we’ve talked about the history of the holiday of Thanksgiving itself. But… why the turkey? How did turkey end up associated with holiday feasts, and as the main dish at Thanksgiving?

According to what we do know about the celebration feast that the Pilgrims and the native Wampanoag tribe held in Plymouth over 400 years ago, “fowl” was on the menu, but the meat of the moment at the meal was most definitely venison.

It is often assumed that today’s Thanksgiving menu originated in an event commonly referred to as the “first Thanksgiving.” There is indeed evidence of a meal shared between Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth colony (in what is now Massachusetts) and Wampanoag people in late 1621. But there is no indication that turkey was served. For meat, the Wampanoag brought deer, and the Pilgrims provided wild “fowl.” Strictly speaking, that “fowl” could have been turkeys, which were native to the area, but historians think it was probably ducks or geese.

The turkey ended up as the main dish of our Thanksgiving dinners for a few reasons. For starters, the bird was easy to get.

While turkey wasn’t the centerpiece in 1621, annual autumnal harvest dinners continued, and turkey gained popularity as a source of protein. Indigenous to the area and plentiful, turkeys were larger than chickens, ducks, and geese, making them economical to serve to a crowd. Also, turkeys didn’t provide milk or edible eggs, so slaughtering one for its considerable meat just made sense to North American homesteaders.

North American turkeys served from the 1700s up to the 1900s were wild fowl, (history professor Ken) Albala points out. They were scrawnier and quite different from the farmed turkeys we’re familiar with, which are often cultivated and raised to be mostly breast meat.

The other major reason was due to Sarah Josepha Hale, who convinced President Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday after years of campaigning for it. She was both an author and a magazine editor, and pushed the concept of a holiday meal, starring roast turkey.

Owing to the tireless lobbying efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale, a writer and magazine editor, President Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, to take place on the last Thursday of November.

Before that, Thanksgiving had been an unofficial New England holiday. Turkey was often served as part of celebratory feasts because it was cheap, plentiful, and big. In Hale’s first popular novel, Northwood: A Tale of New England (1827), she describes a Thanksgiving table topped with roasted turkey, gravy, and vegetables: “The roasted turkey took precedence on this occasion, being placed at the head of the table; and well did it become its lordly station,” she writes, “sending forth the rich odor of its savoury stuffing, and finely covered with the frost of its basting.” (Apparently, a feathered bird was no longer in fashion by this time!)

While pushing for Thanksgiving to become a national holiday, Hale also often published turkey recipes in her magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book. So by the time the holiday was official, Thanksgiving and turkey were linked in the popular consciousness.

When rationing was in effect for the American public during wartime in the 20th century, the turkey was not subject to that rationing. The Wilson administration issued a cookbook during World War I entitled “Win The War In The Kitchen,” where all poultry was classed as “meatless meats” – meaning that it was not red meat or preserved meat. First up on the recipe list for “meatless meats”? Roast turkey.

During World War II, poultry was still not rationed, but many turkeys were sent to the front in order to give those serving a proper Thanksgiving meal.

In 1942, the first wartime Thanksgiving in America in World War II, only sugar was rationed, but shortages of meat and butter challenged housewives to create innovative menus. Many of the spices used in traditional foods were scarce, since they came from areas of the world conquered by the Japanese, and precious cargo space was reserved for more vital supplies.

In 1943 and 1944, the challenges increased. In early 1943, meat and cheese, butter and fats, and canned and processed foods were added to rationing. The clever cook saved ration stamps for the holiday and improvised substitutions. While poultry was never rationed in the US, turkey was scarce for Thanksgiving, since so many of the birds were shipped overseas for the servicemen’s feasts.

And to those serving, a Thanksgiving turkey dinner was a slice of home, proving how deeply this meal was embedded in the national imagination.

The military was deadly serious about getting every man overseas a traditional Thanksgiving meal. In 1943, two Liberty ships, a type of cargo ship built specifically for the war (Read our earlier article – Liberty Ships), set out across the waves, carrying not just an unimaginable quantity of turkeys, but also similar-sized hoards of trimmings, cranberry sauce and even various pies.

Delivering such a feast was not always easy or safe. In 1942, U.S. Navy transport planes braved potential Japanese attacks above Guadalcanal in order to land at Henderson Field and surprise the battle-weary Marines on the island with the taste of a good American Thanksgiving turkey. Every man was also delivered a cold bottle of Pepsi to make the event all the sweeter.

The British people were quick to embrace the American soldiers who started arriving to their homeland in 1942 in large numbers. Though England has no Thanksgiving tradition, the locals had decided to give the welcome guests a chance to celebrate. Thanksgiving services were scheduled everywhere from small town churches to massive cathedrals, including Westminster Abbey in London, where English (and later British) Kings and Queens were crowned and buried.

The Americans returned the kindness. Many U.S. camps invited British war orphans to a Thanksgiving feast and an evening of games and conversation. Many servicemen also passed up their own portions of turkey, giving them to wounded British soldiers.

In the years since, the turkey has continued to be the main feature of the traditional Thanksgiving meal, and presidents “pardoned” turkeys, with the moment becoming an annual occasion during the George H.W. Bush administration, according to the White House Historical Association. President Trump pardoned two turkeys this year, Gobble and Waddle, and Waddle even made it to the press briefing room.

TURKEY TIME: Karoline Leavitt’s son steals the show — making an adorable appearance alongside one of the turkeys up for a presidential pardon, Waddle. pic.twitter.com/WB1ffPea3f

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 25, 2025

While your Thanksgiving table may contain other alternatives, the turkey is the undisputed centerpiece of the traditional dinner. Thanks to American mythology, availability, and history, the turkey is forever associated with holiday festivities and this season of thanks. No matter if you brine it, deep fry it, or just put it in the oven until the thermometer pops, may your tables be laden with food, grace, and healthy helping of gratitude this Thanksgiving.

Featured image via Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license