Thanksgiving 2026: Date, the 100th Macy's Parade and the NFL Slate

Thursday, November 26, 2026. Thanksgiving in the United States always falls on the fourth Thursday of November, so the date moves every year. In 2026 that places it near the late end of its possible range, which pushes the whole shopping weekend later too: Black Friday on November 27, Small Business Saturday on November 28 and Cyber Monday on November 30. Source: timeanddate.

Because it is defined by a weekday, not a number. The holiday is fixed to the fourth Thursday of November, which can land anywhere from November 22 to November 28. Abraham Lincoln's 1863 proclamation actually set it on the *last* Thursday; Congress moved it to the fourth Thursday in 1941, which matters only in years with five Thursdays in November. Source: National Archives.

The parade runs in New York City on the morning of Thursday, November 26, broadcast live on NBC and Peacock from 8:30 a.m. to noon ET. It airs in the same window across all US time zones, so the West Coast sees it at 8:30 a.m. PT on a delay rather than live. Source: Macy's.

Yes, and the distinction is worth getting right. 2026 is the 100th time the parade actually marches, but it is not the 100th anniversary of the first one. Macy's started the parade in 1924, so the centenary of the event quietly passed in 2024. The gap exists because the parade went dark for three years, 1942 to 1944, when helium and rubber were diverted to the war effort. Source: Macy's.

The traditional Thursday tripleheader is Bears at Lions, 1 p.m. ET (CBS, Paramount+), then Eagles at Cowboys, 4:30 p.m. ET (FOX), then Chiefs at Bills, 8:20 p.m. ET (NBC, Peacock). The Lions and Cowboys keep their standing early slots, as they have for decades. Source: FOX Sports.

Yes. The 2026 holiday week runs five games across three days. It opens Wednesday night with Packers at Rams, 8 p.m. ET on Netflix, adds the Thursday tripleheader, then closes with Broncos at Steelers, 3 p.m. ET on Prime Video on Black Friday. Source: FOX Sports.

Most large American chains are closed on the Thursday. The mid-2010s push to open on Thanksgiving itself drew sustained backlash from staff and shoppers, and retailers including Target, Walmart and Best Buy reversed it; several now advertise the closure. Grocery convenience stores, pharmacies and restaurants are the usual exceptions. Online storefronts never close, and the early deals are already live by then.

Not really, and not for the reason everyone repeats. Turkey does contain tryptophan, but no more than chicken, beef, cheese or nuts, and in a protein-heavy meal it competes with several other amino acids for entry into the brain. The drowsiness comes mostly from the volume of high-glycemic carbohydrates around the turkey, the stuffing, potatoes, rolls and dessert, plus alcohol and a very large meal. Sources: Britannica, UNC Charlotte.

In autumn 1621, the surviving Mayflower colonists at Plymouth held a harvest celebration lasting about a week, joined for three days by a large delegation of the Wampanoag. The colonists did not call it Thanksgiving; to them that word meant a religious fast day, not a feast. The modern national holiday is a nineteenth-century construction layered on top of that memory. Sources: Britannica, Pilgrim Hall Museum.

Abraham Lincoln, on October 3, 1863, in a proclamation drafted by Secretary of State William Seward, setting a national day of thanksgiving for November 26 that year. Lincoln signed it, but the campaign behind it was Sarah Josepha Hale's, a magazine editor who lobbied five presidents over roughly 36 years to get it done. Sources: History.com, National Archives.

Canadian Thanksgiving is a different holiday on a different date: the second Monday of October, which in 2026 is October 12. It is tied to the harvest rather than to the Plymouth story, it is a Monday rather than a Thursday, and it carries none of the American shopping weekend.