November 22, 2012 - Happy Franksgiving (USA 1942)

[CaliforniaMama]

How about a bit of American political lore - sound like fun? Read on . . .

Way back when, between the two world wars, retailers and the public had an unspoken agreement: Christmas advertising would not start until after the Thanksgiving celebration. They had a very clear boundary about it back then, not like it is nowadays.

By tradition, the holiday fell on the last Thursday of November, but that was tradition, not law. It was actually up to each state to choose the date each year.

In 1939, however, the last Thursday was the 30th and the retailers were worried they didn't have enough selling days before Christmas. They appealed to the president to change the date and move Thanksgiving up a week so they would have more shopping days.
After a couple of years of fiddling, it turned out that it didn't really make any real difference after all.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made Thanksgiving a federal holiday falling on the fourth Thursday of November.

Wherever you are, whatever you do, I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to you!