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84 free Friendsgiving trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free Friendsgiving trivia questions with answers. Ready to celebrate the spirit of friendship and gratitude? Our Friendsgiving trivia quiz is the perfect way to test your knowledge about this beloved modern holiday tradition. Whether you're a Friendsgiving veteran or new to the concept, discover fun facts and put your expertise to the test!
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Q 01Friendsgiving is especially popular in which community, many of whose members have strained family ties?
LGBTQ+ people
Friendsgiving is especially popular among LGBTQ+ people, for whom family gatherings can be fraught; it also thrives in cities full of transplants who cannot easily get home for the holiday.
Q 02The Washington Post said Friendsgiving lets participants do what to the holiday?
Curate it
The Washington Post wrote that Friendsgiving lets participants 'curate' the holiday: no inherited menu, no assigned seating, no relatives. The New York Times likewise called it more than a riff on Thanksgiving.
Q 03Friendsgiving is usually organised so that every guest brings a dish to share; what is that style of meal called?
A potluck
A potluck spreads the cooking across the guests, which is why the host of a Friendsgiving rarely has to roast everything alone.
Q 04The word 'Friendsgiving' was officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in what year?
2020
Merriam-Webster added the word in 2020, more than a decade after its first recorded use. Its own etymology note calls it a portmanteau of 'friends' and 'Thanksgiving'.
Q 05Merriam-Webster traces the first use of the word 'Friendsgiving' to what year?
2007
Merriam-Webster dates the first known use of 'Friendsgiving' to 2007, in an online post about an informal meal; friends-only Thanksgivings had been happening for decades before the name existed.
Q 06What type of ad campaign helped bring 'Friendsgiving' into national prominence in 2011?
A liqueur advertisement
A 2011 Baileys Irish Cream liqueur advertisement campaign gave 'Friendsgiving' its first big national exposure; NPR later pointed to 2011 as the year the term hit it big.
Q 07For most celebrants, how does Friendsgiving relate to the family Thanksgiving meal?
It is a second, separate gathering
For most people it is a second, separate gathering on top of the family meal, a shift from the early substitute version; a minority now skip the family dinner altogether.
Q 08Which bird did Benjamin Franklin call 'a much more respectable bird' than the bald eagle?
The turkey
Benjamin Franklin praised the turkey in a 1784 letter to his daughter Sarah Bache, calling it 'a much more respectable bird' than the bald eagle, which he faulted for stealing fish from other birds.
Q 09Which 1973 animated special has been called 'perhaps an early example of Friendsgiving'?
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973) centers on a meal of toast, popcorn, pretzels and jelly beans that Charlie Brown serves his friends, making it a friends-only feast long before the word existed.
Q 10Because Friendsgiving guests are forgiving, some cooks use the meal as a chance to do what before the family holiday?
Test-drive new recipes
Test-drive new recipes on friends first, since pre-holiday Friendsgivings are a free-for-all while meals on Thanksgiving Day itself usually replicate the classic dinner.
Q 11Arlo Guthrie's 'Alice's Restaurant Massacree', a Thanksgiving-Day radio staple, runs roughly how long?
About 18 minutes
'Alice's Restaurant Massacree' runs about 18 minutes (18:34), filling the whole A-side of Arlo Guthrie's 1967 album; it recounts Thanksgiving 1965 with Alice and Ray Brock at their deconsecrated church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Q 12What nickname did critics give FDR's 1939 Thanksgiving, moved a week earlier for Christmas shopping?
Franksgiving
Critics dubbed the relocated holiday 'Franksgiving'. November 1939 had five Thursdays, the last falling on the 30th, which alarmed retailers; the change split the states, some keeping the old date, until Congress settled the matter.
Q 13Think-tank writer Michael Hendrix argued Friendsgiving grew partly out of which trend among millennials?
Q 21Which 2 Broke Girls star appears with Malin Åkerman in Nicol Paone's 2020 comedy Friendsgiving?
Kat Dennings
Kat Dennings joined a cast including Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Jane Seymour and Chelsea Peretti; critics were unkind, with a 19% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it landed on Netflix in January 2021.
Q 22Friendsgiving began as an alternative to the family Thanksgiving for which group, typically city transplants who could not get home?
Young adults
Young adults far from home started it, most often in cities full of transplants for whom the trip back is logistically or emotionally hard; participation has broadened since.
Q 23Which NFL team has hosted a game on Thanksgiving Day every year since 1945?
Delayed household formation
Think-tank writer Michael Hendrix tied Friendsgiving to millennials' delayed household formation, calling it 'a table set with lonely millennials practicing traditions of their choosing'; others read the same phenomenon more warmly.
Q 14Green bean casserole was created in 1955 by Dorcas Reilly while working for which food maker?
Campbell's
Dorcas Reilly created green bean casserole in 1955 in the Campbell's test kitchen in Camden, New Jersey, built around Campbell's cream of mushroom soup; it became a Thanksgiving fixture after the recipe was printed on the soup label.
Q 15In 'Alice's Restaurant', what Thanksgiving 1965 errand for Alice and Ray lands Arlo Guthrie in trouble?
Taking their garbage to the dump
The dump was closed, so he tipped the trash off a cliff and was arrested for littering. That conviction later kept him out of the Vietnam draft, which is the song's punchline.
Q 16The first Swanson TV Dinner in 1953 was modelled on which meal?
Turkey with cornbread stuffing
Swanson's first 1953 TV Dinner was turkey with cornbread stuffing, peas and sweet potatoes in a compartmented aluminium tray inspired by airline catering; it sold for 98 cents, and desserts were not added until 1960.
Q 17From which state did Horace Vose supply the president's Thanksgiving turkey for 41 years from 1873?
Rhode Island
Horace Vose, a poultry dealer in Westerly, Rhode Island, sent the White House its Thanksgiving turkey from 1873 until his death in 1913; later the bird usually came from the home state of the National Turkey Federation's chairman.
Q 18Where did the Bidens host their Friendsgiving-style turkey dinner in 2022?
A Marine base
The presidential version came a decade after the term went mainstream. Presidents have also received an official Thanksgiving turkey every year since 1873.
Q 19In what year was the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade held?
1924
The first Macy's parade was held in 1924, with live zoo animals instead of balloons; it has run every year since except 1942-1944, when rubber and helium went to the war effort.
Q 20In what year did General Foods introduce Stove Top stuffing?
1972
General Foods introduced Stove Top in 1972, selling stuffing that cooked in minutes on the stovetop instead of inside the bird; Kraft, which later acquired the brand, reported selling about 60 million boxes each Thanksgiving.
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions have hosted on Thanksgiving every year since 1945; owner George A. Richards began the tradition in 1934 to draw attention to his new team, and it paused only from 1939 to 1944.
Q 24Canada's Thanksgiving is held on which day each year?
Second Monday in October
Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday in October, a date Parliament fixed by proclamation in 1957 after decades of annual proclamations; it is a statutory holiday in most provinces but optional in the Atlantic provinces.
Q 25Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line for panicked November cooks launched in what year?
1981
The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line launched in 1981, fielding about 11,000 calls in its first season; by the 2010s it handled more than 100,000 calls a season and hired its first male experts in 2013.
Q 26Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme is generally credited with introducing which three-bird holiday dish?
Turducken
Turducken is a deboned chicken inside a deboned duck inside a deboned turkey; Paul Prudhomme, the New Orleans chef behind K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, trademarked the name in 1986, though Hebert's Specialty Meats of Maurice, Louisiana also claims it.
Q 27Besides friends, who else commonly throws a Friendsgiving as a potluck holiday party?
Coworkers
Coworkers commonly hold a Friendsgiving as an office potluck, keeping the bring-a-dish format; participants in the classic version are usually close friends who live in the same area.
Q 28At a typical 21st-century presidential turkey pardon, how many turkeys are presented?
Two
Two turkeys are presented at a 21st-century ceremony: the National Thanksgiving Turkey and an alternate, kept in case the star bird becomes unavailable on the day; both are spared and live out their lives at a farm or park.
Q 29Giving Tuesday, charity's answer to Black Friday, falls how many days after Thanksgiving?
Five
Giving Tuesday falls five days after Thanksgiving: after the Thursday feast come Black Friday, the weekend and Cyber Monday. Launched in 2012 by New York's 92nd Street Y, it is when many charities open their year-end appeals.
Q 30Defending Friendsgiving from its critics, Reason magazine called it 'cultural flourishing, not cultural' what?
decay
Reason's 'cultural flourishing, not cultural decay' line answered critics who saw rot in the trend; The New York Times called it more than a riff on Thanksgiving, while one critic branded it ruling-class propaganda.