Two Thanksgivings in Texas? Do You Remember?

November 27, 2025 – Seventy years ago, Texas ended a quirky and often confusing chapter in its holiday history: the era of two Thanksgivings. For decades, Texas celebrated the holiday on a different date than the rest of the nation, making it the last state to officially recognize Thanksgiving on the federally designated fourth Thursday in November.

The mismatch began in the 1930s, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up by one week to lengthen the holiday shopping season during the Great Depression. Many states refused to go along and continued to observe the traditional last-Thursday date. Texas chose its own path — observing both. For years, state law declared the last Thursday Thanksgiving, while federal proclamations and many businesses followed Roosevelt’s new date, creating what Texans jokingly referred to as “Republican Thanksgiving” and “Democratic Thanksgiving.”

Roosevelt thought an earlier Thanksgiving would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would help bring the country out of the Depression. At the time, advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate

By the early 1950s, the double holiday had become impractical. Schools, government offices, and retailers faced scheduling headaches, and families often had to choose which Thanksgiving to celebrate. In 1955, Texas lawmakers finally aligned the state holiday with the federal one, ending the two-Thanksgiving confusion once and for all.

Today, most Texans have forgotten the odd tradition, but historians say it remains a reminder of the state’s independent streak — and its willingness, at times, to do things its own way.