Thanksgiving is sometimes called the 'biggest travel day of the year'. Millions of Americans get on planes, trains, buses and motorways to get back home to their families. Airports are absolutely packed the day before. The traffic on the roads can stretch for hours.
The Thanksgiving meal is famous. The centrepiece is a whole roast turkey, often a very big one - sometimes nearly 10 kilograms. Around it are bowls of mashed potatoes, stuffing (a kind of seasoned bread mixture), gravy, cranberry sauce, and roasted vegetables. For pudding, almost every table has at least one pumpkin pie - a soft, spiced pie that tastes a little like cinnamon and ginger.
Many American families have their own Thanksgiving traditions. Some go around the table and each person says one thing they are thankful for that year. Some watch the huge Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, where giant balloon characters - some as tall as a four-storey building - float down the street. Many families end the day playing a game in the back garden or watching American football together.
Thanksgiving is also the start of the long holiday season in the US. From Thanksgiving onwards, Christmas lights start going up, schools begin their winter shows, and shops fill with decorations. For many American children, the smell of pumpkin pie and the sight of a turkey on the table means the cosiest part of the year is here.