Thanksgiving Dates Table
| Year | Thanksgiving | Travel Wednesday |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Thu Nov 26 | Nov 25 |
| 2027 | Thu Nov 25 | Nov 24 |
| 2028 | Thu Nov 23 | Nov 22 |
| 2029 | Thu Nov 22 | Nov 21 |
| 2030 | Thu Nov 28 | Nov 27 |
| 2031 | Thu Nov 27 | Nov 26 |
| 2032 | Thu Nov 25 | Nov 24 |
| 2033 | Thu Nov 24 | Nov 23 |
| 2034 | Thu Nov 23 | Nov 22 |
| 2035 | Thu Nov 22 | Nov 21 |
| 2036 | Thu Nov 27 | Nov 26 |
Thanksgiving is pinned to a rule, not a date: the fourth Thursday of November. That single line of statute law (fixed since 1942, after Franklin Roosevelt's Franksgiving experiment) means the holiday slides between November 22 and November 28 - and this decade shows the full range: 2029 and 2035 land on the earliest possible date, November 22, while 2030 stretches it to the latest, November 28. The table below computes every date through 2036 straight from the rule, plus the travel Wednesday before each one.
The Wednesday column is not decoration: the day before Thanksgiving is one of the heaviest US road-travel days of the year, and knowing it a decade out is the difference between booking early and paying peak. After the table, the counter ticks to whichever Thanksgiving comes next.
How to use
- Read your year's row: the Thanksgiving date, its weekday (always Thursday - that is the rule), and the travel Wednesday before it.
- Use the counter to plan this year's cooking backward from the date - the turkey needs days of thawing, not hours.
- Check the stats for the decade's extremes: November 22 is as early as it ever lands (2029, 2035); November 28 is as late (2030).
Frequently asked questions
Why is Thanksgiving always on Thursday?
Two layers of history under it. The holiday had drifted between late dates by presidential proclamation until December 1941, when Congress set it as the fourth Thursday of November - effective from 1942 - partly to end the Franksgiving confusion Roosevelt's earlier date-shift had caused. Since then the rule has never moved, and a fourth-Thursday rule always lands between the 22nd and the 28th.
Can Thanksgiving fall on November 30?
Never. The fourth Thursday is at most the 28th: a month starting on a Friday or Saturday pushes its first Thursday late enough that even the fourth one stays inside the 28th. November 30 is always at most the fifth Thursday - the bonus one some Novembers carry.
What is the Franksgiving story?
In August 1939, Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving a week earlier (to the third-from-last Thursday) to stretch the Christmas shopping season during the recovery from the Depression. Twenty-three states followed, twenty-two kept the old date, and for three years Americans celebrated on two different Thursdays depending on the state line. Congress ended the split in 1941, fixing the fourth Thursday from 1942.
Why does the travel Wednesday matter?
Because it is the real peak: the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is perennially among the busiest road-travel days in the United States, and flights out that day price like a holiday because they are one. If you can leave Tuesday or cook locally, the table gives you a decade of Wednesdays to design around.