As we all celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends and family this week, we think about what we are thankful for.

Some history: The Thanksgiving holiday tradition traces its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in the state now known as Massachusetts. A good harvest prompted the 1621 Plymouth feast and Thanksgiving. While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.

We gathered some fun facts about the Thanksgiving holiday:

• President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3rd, 1863.
• Harry Truman is often credited with being the first president to pardon a turkey, but that’s not quite true. He was the first to receive a ceremonial turkey from the National Turkey Federation and had it for dinner. John F. Kennedy was the first to let a Thanksgiving turkey go, followed by Richard Nixon, who sent his turkey to a petting zoo. George H.W. Bush is the president who formalized the turkey pardoning tradition in 1989.
• Butterball answers over 100,000 turkey-cooking questions via their Butterball Turkey Hotline each November and December.
• The football tradition on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1934.
• The Wednesday before Thanksgiving has become known as “Drinksgiving.” Bars experience a huge boom the night before the holiday.

As we gather for the holiday, we thought it would be nice to share five country music songs that sing about being thankful.

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• Keith Urban (2000) - "But For The Grace of God"

  Keith wrote the song along with Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s. It was released in November 2000 as the third single from his self-titled American debut album. He became even more grateful than the song implies when it became Urban’s first number-one hit on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.

• Garth Brooks (1990) - "Unanswered Prayers"

  Garth told us a while back that the song is based on a true story. He said, “Man, ‘Unanswered Prayers’ was a big part of my heart that went out on that record. It is a true-life thing that happened to Sandy and myself. In October of ’89, I saw my old high school flame. And I can say this now at the time I couldn’t.”

  Brooks added, “For the first two years of my married life, I really thought the girl that was for me was still that girl that was in high school. And now, man, just the realization that what you have is the best for you and the best you could ever do in your lifetime. It sure makes you sleep well at night.”

• Blake Shelton (2010) - "God Gave Me You"

  Christian artist Dave Barnes initially did the song. Blake was inspired to record the song after hearing it and deciding to propose to his then-girlfriend, Miranda Lambert. The video of this song starts out with Miranda talking about how strong their relationship was the night before their wedding. The couple married in May of 2011 and sadly divorced in July of 2015. He, of course, is now married to Gwen Stefani.

• Tim McGraw (2004) - "Live Like You Were Dying"

  This incredible song tells the story of a man in his early forties who gets the news that he has an unspecified, life-threatening illness. He experiences a profound shift in perspective on what is most important in life. This song is often associated with McGraw’s father, Tug McGraw, who was hospitalized with a brain tumor on March 12, 2003. It was revealed that he had cancer. He died on January 5, 2004.

• Kelsea Ballerini (2022) - "What I Have"

  This song, co-written by Ballerini, is a song to thank those in her life who made her dreams come true. It was featured on her 2022 Subject To Change album. She sang the song when she recently played an arena show in her hometown in Knoxville, Tennessee, saying how grateful she was for every person in the room that night. The chorus lyrics say, “‘Cause I got a roof over my head / I got a warm body in bed / I’m doing alright right where I’m at / With what I have.”

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