By Presidential Order, Every Monday Is Now Christmas

Thanksgiving is a decidedly American holiday. Ever since George Washington put pen to paper making it so, Thanksgiving is the time of year when Americans sit down to feast and give thanks for their good fortune.

In 1939, Americans had so much to be thankful for they did it twice. First on November 23rd, and then a week later on November 30th.

Well, maybe it wasn't gratitude that drove Americans to carve two turkeys in one year: 1939 was, after all, a year replete with a creeping World War and a slow economy. In fact, it was the poor economy that drove Franklin Delano Roosevelt to push Thanksgiving forward a week to November 23rd. By making the switch he hoped to give consumers more time to shop for the holidays.

The trouble was, not everyone got the memo, and even those who did were occasionally upset. Some sat down for stuffing on the 30th in protest. Others, like Shelby Bennett, encouraged FDR to go ahead and make a few other changes to the calendar while he was at it like making every Monday a Christmas or making it "strictly against the Will of God to work on Tuesday."

Despite protests from citizens and calendar-makers across the country (really), and despite outright boycotts from twenty-three states, FDR proclaimed the holiday one week early for the next two years until Congress interceded in 1941.

To read more on this, and to see more letters sent to FDR on his decision, stop by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and have a look around.