Where to go for Thanksgiving 2017?
Since President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday 154 years ago, Americans have been gathering around the table with family and friends.
There are potentially 118.9 million places to eat dinner this year.
That’s the number of occupied housing units across the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancies and Homeownership Survey.
About 4.6 million of those households might need to purchase large quantities of food even if there are no guests, because that’s the number of multigenerational households, according to the 2016 American Community Survey.
If you want to celebrate in a holiday-themed location, there are four U.S. towns named after the main course. Turkey Creek, Ariz. had 405 residents in 2015. Turkey, Tex. had 367. Turkey Creek, La. had 357, and Turkey, N.C. boasted 280.
Add to those 11 townships with “turkey” in their names, according to the 2011-2015 American Community Survey.
There are four places in the U.S. that share their name with the cranberry, a popular Thanksgiving side dish. And there are 34 counties, places and townships named Plymouth, as in Plymouth Rock. The largest is Plymouth, Minn., a city with 77,216 residents. (An estimated 859 million pounds of the berries were produced in the U.S. last year.)
The sole township dubbed Pilgrim is in Missouri, with a population of 129, but there is also a census-designated tract in Michigan with a population of 50.
There are two locations with “Mayflower” in their names ““ one in Arkansas and one in California.
Wondering if you are a descendant of the Plymouth colonists who participated in the first autumnal feast? Could be. There are 23.8 million U.S. residents of English ancestry. About 636,000 of them still reside in Massachusetts.
The Plymouth colonists broke bread with Wampanoag American Indians, who were essential to the colonists’ survival in their first year. About 6,500 Wampanoag lived in the U.S. when the 2010 decennial census was conducted. Roughly half of them resided in Massachusetts.
Two items essential for traditional Thanksgiving celebrations are the oven and the television. About 98.6 percent of U.S. households have a gas or electric stove.
Another 96.8 percent have a microwave. And 98.3 percent of American households have a television to settle in front of for some football.
If there are leftovers, 35.8 percent of households owned a stand-alone food freezer in 2011, according to the U.S. Census’ Extended Measures of Well-Being: Living Conditions in the United States.
