11 Facts About Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving dinner could be considered the largest eating event in the United States as measured by retail sales of food and beverages and by estimates of individual food intake.

At Thanksgiving dinner, turkey is served with a variety of side dishes which can vary from traditional, such as mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, to ones that reflect regional or cultural heritage.

Many of the dishes in a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner are made from ingredients native to the Americas, including turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and cranberries.

The tradition of eating them at Thanksgiving dinner likely reflects their affordability for later Americans.

Tradition of Thanksgiving dinner has often been associated in popular culture with New England.

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Use of the turkey in the United States for Thanksgiving dinner precedes Abraham Lincoln's nationalization of the holiday in 1863.

Consumption of turkey on Thanksgiving dinner is so ingrained in American culture that each year since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented a live turkey to the President of the United States prior to each Thanksgiving dinner.

Similarly, Thanksgiving dinner falls within deer hunting season in the Northeastern United States, and as such venison is sometimes used as a centerpiece.

Traditional Thanksgiving foods are sometimes specific to the day, and although some of the dishes might be seen at any semi-formal meal in the United States, the Thanksgiving dinner often has something of a ritual or traditional quality to it.

Beverages at Thanksgiving dinner can vary as much as the side dishes, often depending on who is present at the table and their tastes.

In Puerto Rico, the Thanksgiving dinner meal is completed with arroz con gandules or arroz con maiz, pasteles stuffed with turkey, pumpkin-coconut creme caramel, corn bread with longaniza, potato salad, roasted white sweet potatoes and Spanish sparkling hard cider.