I don’t do reblogs unless they’re tightly linked to the sort of insanity I indulge in here, but Dream Big, Dream Often‘s “36 Little Known Facts about Thanksgiving” is a good introduction to unexpected aspects of the holiday. I’m not sure he really reaches 36, since he starts by lettering his list, then starts a second time, still using letters. then starts at third time at 1. But we’re among friends, so who cares? It’s worth a read.
Notes from the U.K.
Exploring the spidery corners of a culture and the weird stuff that tourist brochures ignore.
Notes from the U.K. 
Well after that I feel an apology due for the ancestors and their behaviour. However I think the Swedes should also apologise for changing the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade in to the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade – lost a bit of magic there I feel ..
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Gimbles? That’s Macy’s, thank you very much. As a kid, I thought it was the Macy’s Day Parade until my mother explained that no, it was Thanksgiving Day. I’m not sure I entirely believed her–that’s how welded the Macy’s name was to the parade back then.
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Pardon my faux pas. Wasn’t Gimbels the store from Miracle on 34th Street?
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And my apologies for getting touchy about it. The traditional New York way to say “I’m keeping that information to myself” was “Does Macy’s tell Gimbel’s?” So yes, you’re probably right about the movie, although I couldn’t swear to it.
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No worries, it’s just it mentioned it was Gimbels in the article. “In 1920, Gimbels department store in Philadelphia held a parade with about 50 people and Santa Claus bringing up the rear. The parade is now known as the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade and is the nation’s oldest Thanksgiving Day parade.d”
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Somehow 6abc Ikea Thanksgiving Day Parade just doesn’t the resonance.
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Macy’s is the store on 34th St. We joke about this because the first time my daughter wanted to shop there, I couldn’t find it. Gimbels is mentioned in the movie when Santa sends a woman to buy an item there that Macy’s didn’t have.
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Okay, I know how you’ve spent the last dozen or so Christmas seasons.
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Call me old fashioned, but for me, no matter what they call it, it will ALWAYS be Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
They may have sold the rights to name the thing, but they’ll never sell the hearts of all us who watched it in our formative years…
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Funny how powerful those early impressions are, isn’t it?
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That had to be everything I ever wanted to know about Bird-Day, and then some! ;)
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