When Is Thanksgiving? The Date, and Why It Moves

Thanksgiving is one of the few major US holidays that is not tied to a fixed calendar date. Christmas is always December 25 and the Fourth of July is always July 4, but Thanksgiving is defined by a weekday rule, so the number changes every year. It is also a federal holiday, which means courts, most government offices, banks, and the stock market close for the day. Below is the exact date for the next several years, the rule that sets it, the history behind why it moved, and the mix-ups that trip up the most searches.

The rule: the fourth Thursday of November

US Thanksgiving is not tied to a number like the 24th or the 25th. Instead it is defined by a pattern: take the month of November, find its Thursdays, and count to the fourth one. That Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, and it is a federal holiday. Because November has 30 days, the fourth Thursday can fall no earlier than the 22nd and no later than the 28th.

1. Look at a November calendar and find the first Thursday of the month.
2. Count forward: first Thursday, second, third, then the fourth.
3. That fourth Thursday is Thanksgiving Day.
4. The earliest it can happen is November 22 (when the 1st is a Thursday) and the latest is November 28 (when the 1st is a Friday).

This is worth practicing once, because it is the same kind of weekday-counting logic used for other floating holidays such as Labor Day, the first Monday of September, and Memorial Day. If you ever need to work out how far away the date is, you can count the days between two dates or let a countdown tool do it for you.

Thanksgiving dates for the next several years

Because the fourth Thursday moves, the simplest way to plan ahead is to read the date straight off a table. Here are the US Thanksgiving dates for the coming years.

Notice the swing: in 2029 Thanksgiving is as early as it can be (the 22nd), and in 2030 it is as late as it can be (the 28th). That six-day range is exactly why a fixed date never works and why so many people search for it fresh each autumn.

Why the fourth Thursday, not the last?

This is the single most common point of confusion, and it is a real one. For decades Thanksgiving was observed on the last Thursday of November by presidential tradition, dating back to Abraham Lincoln in 1863. In most years that made no difference, because November usually has four Thursdays and the fourth is the last. But some Novembers have five Thursdays, and there the two rules split apart.

The change came in 1939. Facing a Depression-era economy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving one week earlier to lengthen the holiday shopping season, setting it on the fourth Thursday even though that year the last Thursday came later. Retailers had lobbied for the change since the shopping season was widely understood to start after Thanksgiving, and an extra week of sales mattered during the Depression. The switch was controversial: some states followed Roosevelt's earlier date, others kept the traditional last Thursday, and for two years the country effectively had two Thanksgivings depending on which state you lived in. To settle it, Congress passed a joint resolution fixing Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November, and Roosevelt signed it into law on December 26, 1941. You can read the background on the National Archives Thanksgiving history page.

US and Canadian Thanksgiving are different holidays

Another frequent mix-up: the United States and Canada both celebrate Thanksgiving, but on different days and in different months. They are separate national holidays with separate histories, not the same event observed twice.

Canadian Thanksgiving falls roughly six weeks earlier, closer to the northern harvest. So if you see two Thanksgiving dates in a calendar app, that is not an error, it is the two countries side by side.

What closes on Thanksgiving Day?

Thanksgiving is one of the eleven federal holidays listed by the US Office of Personnel Management, so it affects far more than family dinner plans. Knowing what actually shuts down helps you plan mail, banking, and travel around it.

• Federal offices and courts. Closed, along with most state and local government offices.
• Post office. The US Postal Service does not deliver mail or open retail counters on Thanksgiving Day, per the OPM federal holidays schedule.
• Banks and the stock market. Banks close nationwide, and both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are closed for the full trading day.
• Schools. Public schools are closed, and most take the Wednesday before and the Friday after off as well, creating a school break of four or five days.
• Retail. Large retailers vary. Many big-box stores that used to open Thanksgiving evening for early Black Friday deals have scaled that back in recent years and now open Friday morning instead, though this changes from company to company each year.
• Restaurants. Most sit-down chains close, but some, especially those built around a Thanksgiving buffet, open specifically for the day. Always check the individual location.

Common mistakes and points of confusion

Most Thanksgiving date errors come from a handful of predictable slips. Knowing them means you will never book the wrong Thursday.

• Assuming it is a fixed date. Thanksgiving is not always November 24 or 25. It is the fourth Thursday, so the number changes every year.
• Confusing fourth Thursday with last Thursday. In a five-Thursday November these are a week apart. Always use the fourth.
• Mixing up US and Canadian Thanksgiving. The US date is in November; Canada is the second Monday of October.
• Forgetting the four-day weekend. The Friday after (often called Black Friday) is not a federal holiday, but many workplaces treat it as a day off, giving a Thursday-to-Sunday break.
• Counting from the wrong end. Count Thursdays forward from the start of November, not backward from the end.

Good to know: history and meaning

Thanksgiving traces its popular origin to a 1621 harvest feast shared by the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag people, though days of thanks for a good harvest were a common colonial practice well before that. For decades afterward, individual states and presidents proclaimed their own thanksgiving days on scattered dates, with no single national holiday. That changed largely due to Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor who campaigned in print for a unified national Thanksgiving for close to 20 years. Her letters helped persuade President Lincoln, who proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War, setting the precedent that later presidents followed almost every year until the 1941 law locked the date in place. Today the holiday centers on a large meal, gratitude, family gatherings, and, for many, the unofficial start of the winter holiday season.

US Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, fixed by a 1941 act of Congress, so the date drifts between the 22nd and the 28th each year.

Because the date shifts, the easiest way to answer "how long until Thanksgiving" is to let a tool count for you. It handles the fourth-Thursday rule and the changing year automatically, so you do not have to recount Thursdays every November. You can also compare it with other seasonal countdowns, like the run-up to Boxing Day on December 26.

To sum up: US Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday of November, which means November 27 in 2025 and November 26 in 2026, always landing between the 22nd and the 28th. Remember it is the fourth Thursday and not the last, keep it separate from Canada's October holiday, and reach for a countdown whenever you want the exact number of days left.