Thanksgiving Countdown

When is Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving does not have a fixed date, which is why so many calendars get it wrong. In the United States it is the fourth Thursday of November, a date set by Congress in 1941. In Canada it is the second Monday of October, fixed by parliamentary proclamation in 1957. This page applies those two rules to the current year rather than reading from a list, so the countdown is correct this year, next year and every year after that.

The fourth Thursday of November is not always the last Thursday. When November 1 falls on a Thursday the month has five Thursdays, and Thanksgiving lands on November 22, the earliest possible date. The latest it can fall is November 28. Canadian Thanksgiving moves between October 8 and October 14 for the same reason.

Getting the timing right

Thanksgiving is a deadline-heavy holiday because everything converges on one meal. Working backwards from the day itself:

• Three weeks out: order a fresh turkey if you want one, and confirm numbers so you buy the right size. Roughly one to one and a half pounds per person is the usual guide.
• Four to five days out: move a frozen turkey to the refrigerator. Thawing takes about 24 hours for every four pounds, and a 20 pound bird needs the best part of five days.
• The day before: make anything that keeps, such as cranberry sauce, pie crusts and stock.
• On the day: work backwards from your serving time. Our turkey cooking time calculator gives you roasting and resting times and tells you exactly when the bird needs to go into the oven.

Thanksgiving and the start of the sales

In the United States, Thanksgiving also marks the start of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday is always the day after, and Cyber Monday the following Monday, which means both dates move with Thanksgiving each year. Because the fourth Thursday can be as early as November 22 or as late as November 28, the number of shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas changes by nearly a week from year to year, which is why some years feel noticeably more rushed than others. When the sales start, the Black Friday discount calculator will tell you what a marked-down price plus a coupon code really comes to.

Canadian Thanksgiving sits much earlier in the calendar, in the middle of October, and is traditionally tied to the end of the harvest rather than to shopping. Many families in Canada hold the main meal on the Sunday rather than the Monday holiday itself.