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How to celebrate Thanksgiving in 2024

Best places to go & fun facts

FILE - A Thanksgiving dinner is displayed on a table in Concord, N.H., on Oct. 22, 2012. The holidays are a time where families and friends can get together to talk, to laugh - or get into screaming arguments. There's plenty of reasons togetherness can turn into tension, but experts in psychology and mental health say it doesn't have to be that way. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead, File) (Matthew Mead)

Preparations are underway for Thanksgiving celebrations. It’s a time to reflect on what we’re grateful for while surrounding ourselves with family at the dinner table.

30% of Americans will be traveling for the holiday, in other words, we’re talking thousands. However, if you’re staying here in Detroit, you may find yourself standing along Woodward Avenue for America’s Thanksgiving Parade presented by Gardner White. Watching the floats, high-flying balloons and more than 80 big heads march down the road to officially kick off the holiday season. Or not. It depends on who you ask.

If you’re traveling out of town, WalletHub put together a list of the best places to visit for Thanksgiving.

  1. San Diego, CA
  2. Atlanta, GA
  3. San Francisco, CA
  4. San Jose, CA
  5. Dallas, TX

If you’re wondering where Detroit is on the list, you’ll have to scroll for a while. We ranked 85.

Detroit and New York City undoubtedly holds one of the biggest Thanksgiving parades in the country. If you find yourself in New York for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year, you’ll be standing along streets there in the 42nd ranked city.

All that aside from the trio of F’s – Food, Football, and Friday. That has become just as important to some.

File - Crowds walk past a large store sign displaying a Black Friday discount in midtown Manhattan, Friday, Nov. 23, 2018, in New York. While Black Friday may no longer look like the crowd-filled, in-person mayhem that it was just decades ago in large part due to the rising dependence on online shopping that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic the holiday sales event is still slated to attract millions of consumers. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

You may find yourself staying cozy indoors and cooking a warm meal for your friends and family.

I pulled some numbers from WalletHub to get a better idea of how Americans celebrate when they try beating the cold.

Americans spend $1.2 billion on Thanksgiving turkeys each year. On a sad note, 46 million turkeys are killed for the holiday.

The average amount of calories consumed during your feast is 3,150 – 4,500. For the men, if you’re already planning to work that off, you’re going to need to spend 10 hours on the treadmill to burn those calories off.

Believe it or not, America’s favorite dish to pass around the table is turkey. Their least favorite, cranberry sauce. Depends on who you ask, because in my family, we make cranberry sauce from scratch. I’m up for the debate and willing to pass the recipe along.

America's Favorite Thanksgiving Dish according to WalletHub (WalletHub)

When you’re cooking, be mindful. 4 times as many home cooking fires occur on Thanksgiving as on a typical day.

We’ll keep this on a lighter note.

The way you’re going to feel after the holiday meal is… SLUMPED. That’s the word we’re looking for.

We’re getting closer to the official start of the holiday shopping season. If Santa’s list is big this year and you haven’t started shopping, here’s your reminder to grab the shopping cart and open your wallet. The average person’s spending over the 5-day Thanksgiving period is $321.

If you’re a football fan, I recommend cheering on the Lions on Thanksgiving. In fact, the Lions and Cowboys have played every Thanksgiving since 1966.

Go Lions!

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell looks on from the sidelines during an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Miron) (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Will your home be as quiet as a mouse or will you raise ruckus expressing what you’re grateful for? Say Dan Campbell and I assure you it’ll have the whole house on their toes. But keeping it classy, maybe it’s family, your health or life.

Grab the wine, beer or whiskey! What are you toasting to this year?


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