How Many Days Until Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving in the United States is always the fourth Thursday of November, which means the date moves around from year to year — it can land anywhere from November 22 to November 28. The live counter below finds the next one for you and shows exactly how many days are left.
When Is Thanksgiving and Why the Fourth Thursday?
Unlike fixed-date holidays, Thanksgiving follows a weekday rule: the fourth Thursday of November. Note that this is not the same as the last Thursday — in years when November has five Thursdays, the fourth one falls a week before the last. The rule keeps Thanksgiving inside the November 22-28 window every year, which is why the famous shopping weekend that follows it also drifts.
The rule is the result of an actual political fight. Presidents from Lincoln onward had proclaimed the last Thursday of November, but in 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it a week earlier to stretch the Depression-era shopping season. After two years of states celebrating on different days — newspapers called the earlier date "Franksgiving" — Congress settled the matter in 1941 by fixing the fourth Thursday in federal law.
How Thanksgiving Became a National Holiday
The holiday traces its founding story to the 1621 harvest feast shared by the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag, but for two centuries afterward thanksgiving days were occasional and locally declared. The push for a single national date came largely from editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who campaigned for decades before Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War.
The modern shape of the day filled in over the next century: the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924, NFL football on Thanksgiving dates back to the league's earliest years with Detroit's annual game starting in 1934, and the presidential turkey pardon became an annual set piece in 1989. The menu — turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie — has been remarkably stable since the 1800s.
More Countdowns
- Days until Christmas
- Days until Halloween
- Days until Thanksgiving
- Days until New Year's Day
- Days until Easter
- Days until Valentine's Day
- Days until St. Patrick's Day
- Days until 4th of July
- Days until Mother's Day
- Days until Father's Day
- Days until Summer
Counting toward a date that is not a holiday? Use the date calculator to add or subtract any number of days, or jump straight to a future date with pages like 30 days from today and 90 days from today.
Frequently Asked Questions
US Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday of November, so it falls between November 22 and November 28 depending on the year. The live counter at the top of this page shows the exact date of the next one.
The page finds the fourth Thursday of November for the current year, then counts whole calendar days from today to that date, midnight to midnight. If this year's Thanksgiving has already passed, it counts down to next year's instead.
Not necessarily. It is the fourth Thursday, which is only the last Thursday in years when November has exactly four of them. When November has five Thursdays, Thanksgiving falls a week before the last one. Congress fixed the fourth-Thursday rule in 1941.