When is Thanksgiving Day?

Days until Thanksgiving Day

The countdown uses your device’s date, so it is right in your time zone; on the day itself it says so. The calculator at the top counts the same days from today and adds the weeks, months and business days in between.

How the date is set

Thanksgiving Day has no fixed day of the month: it is the fourth Thursday in November, so it always falls between November 22 to November 28. The fourth-Thursday rule was fixed by law in 1941 and first applied in 1942; Thanksgiving is one of the legal public holidays in 5 U.S.C. § 6103.

Thanksgiving is a federal holiday: federal offices, post offices and banks are closed, and the stock markets close for the day and open for a shortened session on the Friday after.

Planning around Thanksgiving Day

Many people take the Friday after as well for a four-day weekend, and the Wednesday before is one of the busiest travel days of the year. Count back from the date above to plan the turkey: a frozen bird needs about one day in the refrigerator for every 4 to 5 pounds to thaw.

Canada celebrates its Thanksgiving earlier, on the second Monday in October.

Why the date changes every year

Because the day is tied to a weekday, its date shifts each year: Thanksgiving is November 26 in 2026, November 25 in 2027 and November 23 in 2028. The earliest possible date is November 22 and the latest November 28. When Thanksgiving falls late, the holiday shopping season between it and Christmas is shorter by up to six days, which is why retailers watch the calendar closely. Cyber Monday follows on the Monday after Thanksgiving, between November 26 and December 2.

The table above lists the dates from the next one on, so you can plan several years ahead — for a family trip, a school calendar or a work schedule — without counting Sundays and Mondays by hand.

To count the days to any other date, use the days between dates calculator; to find a date a number of days from now, the date calculator or 90 days from today.