The White House’s history with Thanksgiving, and how the turkey pardon came to be

The history of White House Thanksgiving traditions date back more than 160 years to President Abraham Lincoln, who established the national holiday. 

During his time in office, Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for the celebration of Thanksgiving, triumphing over similar efforts of presidents who came before him, according to the National Park Service. 

The official designation of the annual national holiday is due, in part, to writer Sarah Josepha Hale. The NPS notes that in 1827 — as editor of “Boston’s Ladies Magazine” — Hale began writing essays calling for the national holiday. Finally, on Sept. 18, 1863, she wrote to Lincoln asking him to use his presidential powers to create the holiday. 

Lincoln obliged and a few weeks later, on Oct. 3, 1863 — during the height of the Civil War — he issued the Thanksgiving Proclamation. Ever since, the country has celebrated Thanksgiving Day. 

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But it wasn’t until after a bill passed by Congress on Dec. 26, 1941, that made the holiday fall annually on the fourth Thursday in November. 

Thanksgiving at the White House is usually relatively quiet and includes the tradition of pardoning lucky turkeys from their doomed fate of the dinner table. 

Presidential turkey pardons

The first turkey pardon ever issued is believed to have been by Lincoln as recorded by White House reporter Noah Brooks in an 1865 dispatch, according to the White House Historical Association. 

Lincoln had granted clemency to a turkey named Jack belonging to his son Tad Lincoln, that had originally been slated to be gobbled up at the family’s Christmas dinner in 1863. 

But the annual practice in which the White House sent pardoned presentation turkeys to a farm to live out their days did not occur until Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s, the WHHA says. In decades prior, presidents would occasionally receive turkeys from the poultry industry and decide not to eat them without an official pardon. 

The WHHA notes the practice of sending presentation turkeys to the president became a norm in 1981, and the pardoning ceremonies quickly became a national sensation. By 1989, the annual tradition materialized with President George H.W. Bush — as documented by the association — speaking to the pardoned turkey, saying the line his successors still reprise at ceremonies today: “He’s granted a presidential pardon as of right now.”

On Monday, President Biden issued the final two turkey pardons of his term, to Peach and Blossom, sending them to live out the rest of their lives at Minnesota’s Farmamerica as poultry ambassadors for agricultural students.

Gathering with family and friends

Aside from the turkey pardoning spectacle, presidents spend Thanksgiving in the same fashion as households across the country. 

The first documented Thanksgiving gathering at the White House dates back to Nov. 28, 1878, according to the WHHA. Then-President Rutherford B. Hayes held a large Thanksgiving dinner gathering with his family and private secretaries, singing hymns in the Red Room afterward and inviting African-American staff to enjoy their own Thanksgiving meal in the State Dining Room. 

The tradition has since withstood the test of time. Through economic hardship and times of wars, presidents have carved out time for family. The WHHA notes that President Woodrow Wilson’s first Thanksgiving meal during World War I on Nov. 29, 1917, was an economical one — and one without cranberries. 

In recent decades, presidents have taken to the tradition of celebrating the holiday outside the White House at their so-called “go-to” vacation spots. President Ronald Reagan in 1985 traveled to the family ranch in Santa Barbara, California. 

President-elect Donald Trump spent all but one Thanksgiving of his first term at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. President Biden has spent every Thanksgiving during his term with family in Nantucket, Massachusetts as the Biden family has for over 40 years.