The Ultimate Thanksgiving Resource List: Recipes, Puzzles, Parades, and More

Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and the Internet’s chock-full of resources to make your Turkey Day even more satisfying. We’ve dug up some of the Net’s finest offerings for all of your family’s holiday needs. Sit back, dig in, and enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Recipes and Cooking Tips

When you’re hunting down Turkey Day recipes and cooking tips, The Food Network’s Thanksgiving section has everything you need in an easy-to-navigate format. AllRecipes.com also offers searchable recipes to spice up your family’s meal. The most useful service of all, though, may be Butterball’s Turkey Talk-Line. You can call 1-800-BUTTERBALL or e-mail talkline @ butterball.com all day on Thanksgiving to get one-on-one help from a trained expert. You may also want to check out the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service’s turkey preparations tips for some other useful info.

Thanksgiving Word Searches, Puzzles, and Games

There are plenty of options for you to challenge your kids’ brains when it comes to Thanksgiving. Check out About.com’s interactive Thanksgiving Word Search, which lets you play online and rescramble at your will. Parenting site Kaboose.com has several printable word searches and crosswords of varying difficulty levels. More printable puzzles await you at Printables4Kids’ Thanksgiving page. And Vocabulary.com offers both online and printable word searches, crosswords, and puzzles for you to use.

Thanksgiving Trivia and Other Scholastic Activities

Some other online trivia and scholastic activities for Thanksgiving:

• About.com Thanksgiving Trivia page: Plenty of Q&A and fun facts related to the holiday
• The Holiday Spot: Lots of good “did you know” type info for T-Day trivia
• U.S. Census Bureau Thanksgiving 2008 Facts: All the facts and figures you could ever need, courtesy of the Census Bureau
• QuizLand or QuizRocket: Interactive online Thanksgiving trivia games
• NASA’s Out of This World Thanksgiving: See how astronauts celebrate Thanksgiving from space
• Thanksgiving at the White House: Learn all about and watch the official White House Thanksgiving ceremony and annual turkey pardoning

Thanksgiving Quotes

Trying to find the right way to sum up the special weekend? Try any number of these quote sites for some well-spoken lines about the significance of Thanksgiving.

• The Quote Garden
• About.com Thanksgiving Quotes
• Humorous Thanksgiving Quotes
• The Holiday Spot Thanksgiving Quotes
• BrainyQuote Thanksgiving Quotes

The History of Thanksgiving

You won’t find a more detailed view of Thanksgiving history than what’s been prepared at The History Channel’s History of Thanksgiving. There, you can see videos, timelines, and explanations of all sorts of T-Day traditions past and present. The Encyclopedia Smithsonian also has a great profile about the first Thanksgiving celebration.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

What would Thanksgiving be without the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Coverage of this year’s parade starts at 9 a.m. Thursday (regardless of your time zone) on NBC. Performers include Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Diana DeGarmo, Gloria Estefan, Hall & Oates, the cast of Disney Channel’s High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, Barry Manilow, and Sarah McLachlan. You can find all sorts of info about the parade at the official Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade site, as well as at NBC’s Macy’s Parade page.

Thanksgiving Travel

Holiday travel doesn’t have to be hellish. Here are some good places to make sure your weekend plans don’t go haywire:

• FAA Air Traffic Control System: Find delays and issues at airports across the country
• TSA Travel Tips: The Transportation Security Administration’s latest list of what you need to know before hitting the friendly skies
• FareCompare’s Holiday Travel Checklist: Some good things to consider before starting your trip
• FareCompare: Interactive interface to help you find cheap last-minute flights
• Fodor’s Thanksgiving Travel Guide: More last-minute travel tips for the Thanksgiving holiday
• America’s Favorite Cities: See which destinations are going to be the most crowded for the holiday weekend

Other Online Thanksgiving Resources

• 10 Easy Ways to Find Black Friday Deals Online: Our own list of the Internet’s hottest resources for finding Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on the Web
• Support the Troops: Official government-sponsored ways for you to connect with troops overseas for the holiday
• Public Service and Volunteerism: The government’s list of foundations for Thanksgiving donations and volunteer efforts

Happy surfing, and have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!