Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This United States holiday traces its roots, both documented and mythologized, to the early 17th-century settlement of New England. While the familiar tale involves the Pilgrims and the Native American Wampanoag tribe sharing a harvest feast in 1621, the whole story is more complex.
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Early Celebrations and Colonial Traditions
Historical records show that Thanksgiving services, days set aside to express gratitude for blessings such as safe passage, a bountiful harvest, or deliverance from peril, were already practiced by European settlers in North America. For instance, a service in what is now Virginia took place in 1619, following the arrival of English settlers. In Massachusetts, the event that has come to be popularly known as the first Thanksgiving occurred in the autumn of 1621, when Pilgrims at Plymouth and members of the Wampanoag people shared a multi-day feast following the Pilgrims’ first successful harvest.
Scholars note that the Pilgrims themselves may not have considered it a formal Thanksgiving in the sense we understand today. The modern holiday evolved from multiple colonial and regional celebrations.
Thanksgiving: The National Holiday
The idea of a national day of thanksgiving gradually took shape. In 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation designating November 26 as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. But the holiday was still not uniformly observed across the states.
It wasn’t until President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863 amid the turmoil of the Civil War, issued a proclamation setting aside a national Thanksgiving Day in November to heal the wounds of the nation. The holiday’s date remained somewhat variable until 1941, when Congress passed legislation setting Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November, a date still used today.
Over time, the holiday grew from religious observances and local harvest festivals into a widespread secular celebration across much of American society. What started as a meal to mark a communal bounty expanded into meals shared with family and friends, parades, football games, and other public spectacles.
The Psychological Significance of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving holds considerable psychological weight for Americans, which in turn helps explain its power as a launch pad for spending and year-end business planning.
A Moment of Shared Meaning
Psychologically, holidays serve as rhythm markers in the year. They provide a pause, a turn, a time to reflect. Thanksgiving stands out because it is one of the few U.S. holidays grounded in thankfulness, communal gathering, and a break from the daily grind. The act of gathering around a meal, often with extended family, fosters positive emotions, a sense of belonging, and a sense of ritual closure.
A Transition into the Holiday Season
For many consumers, Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday mindset, a mental shift from routine toward celebration, gifting, togetherness, and reflection. In this way, the day functions as a psychological signal. The old year is wrapping up, traditions are being observed, and planning begins for the next cycle. This shift encourages openness to spending, buying for others, treating oneself, and anticipating the year ahead.
Strategic Planning For Businesses
From a business-planning perspective, Thanksgiving serves as a hinge point: the end of one fiscal or seasonal period and the start of the next. Companies often plan promotions, inventory, supply chain, staffing, and marketing calendars around the end-of-year surge that begins with the Thanksgiving weekend. It becomes not just a day of thanks, but a moment of pivoting into year-end strategy: what worked this year, what must be stocked, what consumer moods are, and how the coming year will be shaped.
Thanksgiving as a Retail Behemoth
Consumer spending during the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in 2024 was expected to reach nearly $125 billion.
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What began as a harvest celebration has become a major commercial event, one of the most critical moments on the retail calendar in the United States.
The Economic Launch of the Holiday Shopping Season
In modern U.S. retail, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has become known as the start of the holiday shopping season. Retailers ramp up promotions, consumers gear up for deals, and the four to six-week period through December becomes a vital revenue window.
Retail sales rose 5.3 percent year over year to $936.3 billion during the winter holidays. These figures illustrate how retailers leverage the Thanksgiving weekend as a catalyst.
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Why Thanksgiving Matters to Retailers and Businesses
From a business planning viewpoint, Thanksgiving and its weekend perform several vital functions:
- Inventory and supply chain acceleration: Retailers must ensure promotional goods are in stock and logistics are prepared for high volume. Any disruption in this period has amplified costs.
- Marketing calendar kick off: The Thanksgiving weekend starts the holiday mode, when brands shift into high-visibility campaigns, holiday-themed messaging, and consumer expectations of discounts.
- Consumer behavior insight: Early indicators of spending, deal preferences, favored product categories, and shopping channels (in-store versus online) become visible, giving businesses data to refine December and next-year planning.
- Revenue concentration: Many retailers experience a disproportionate share of annual profits in the last quarter. Thanksgiving is the gateway to that. For smaller businesses, launching sales after Thanksgiving can make or break year-end targets.
- Psychological momentum: For consumers, once the holiday season begins, they tend to feel permission to spend on gifts, self-treats, or preparing for next year. That mindset is valuable for retailers.
The traditional model is evolving. Online shopping has grown steadily, holiday deals are starting earlier, and economic conditions influence consumer behavior. At the same time, consumers express caution, with surveys showing that average planned spending for the season is down, in part due to economic uncertainty. Despite challenges, the post-Thanksgiving shopping period remains critical, and the weekend continues to draw large numbers of shoppers.
Why Thanksgiving Matters This Year
For businesses, from large retailers to small and medium enterprises, the Thanksgiving weekend is not just about immediate sales; it offers strategic cues and foundations for the entire next year.
Forecasting and Planning
The data that emerge from Thanksgiving and the days immediately after provide important inputs into next-year planning: which products sold, which promotions succeeded, what inventory levels were optimal, and how online versus in-store behavior differed. Companies use this period to refine budgets, staffing, logistics, and marketing assumptions for the next calendar year.
Customer Behavior Reset
Thanksgiving signals to consumers the transition into the holiday mindset and then into the next year. Many brands use this moment to launch not just gift-focused campaigns but loyalty initiatives, subscription promotions, or next-year service acquisitions. Capturing consumer attention at this pivot means positioning for 2026 in advance.
Competitive Positioning
Because many competitors ramp up during and immediately after Thanksgiving, brands that perform well are positioned to ride momentum into the holiday season and beyond into early next-year sales such as January promotions or clearance events. Missed opportunities during Thanksgiving often mean lost share for the remainder of the year.
Emotional Timing and Brand Equity
The holiday’s emotional resonance, centered on gratitude, togetherness and renewal, provides a fertile ground for branding. Businesses that tie into the emotional fabric of Thanksgiving through values alignment, customer-centric messaging or authentic experiences can strengthen brand equity and customer loyalty, which pays off in the next year.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving in the United States is far more than a single day of turkey and family gatherings. It occupies a unique psychological and commercial space. It reinforces communal values, marks the shift into holiday mode, and serves as a strategic anchor for businesses planning their final quarter and looking ahead to next year. Its evolution — from early colonial harvests to a national holiday to a key retail event — reflects broader shifts in American society and the economy.
For companies preparing their budgets, promotions, and execution for the coming year, the Thanksgiving weekend remains a critical launch pad. By understanding both its cultural resonance and its commercial impact, marketers and business leaders can better leverage this moment to drive immediate holiday revenue and long-term strategic advantage.
Now, pass the stuffing!
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