I did some Google searching, and I found suggestions from people for all sorts of things:
Turkeys, Native Americans, Pilgrims, Puritans, Turkeys, Pie, even Snoopy, and someone called "Turk the Jerk"??
All of these are recognizable as icons of the Thanksgiving holiday, but all of them would have problems being a mascot.
- If the mascot is a Turkey, then you're either spending the whole holiday protesting eating turkeys, or you end up eating your mascot?
- If the mascot is a Native American or a Pilgrim then it kind of leaves out the newer immigrants that weren't part of the original Thanksgiving story.
- Pie? Well... that's my favorite choice probably, but I think you need something with a story around it.
- Snoopy's awesome of course, but the whole Peanuts is really for every season not just Thanksgiving.
- Turk the Jerk... yeah... not a very happy mascot, so we can skip him!
One of the results I found is buried in a collection of stories compiled in the early 1900s.
It's part of the public domain, and is published on-line through The Gutenberg Project.
Beetle Ring's Thanksgiving Mascot, By Sheldon C. Stoddard
It tells the story of a gruff small lumber town in the middle of winter, and a poor family who is struggling to make it through the winter.
The family falls on even harder times as the father gets injured, and the mother can barely afford to feed the baby, but she is still optimistic and throws out this line:
"Next Thursday's Thanksgiving. We've seen hard times, and we may see harder, but I never knew Thanksgiving to come yet without something to be thankful for--never."
That's a pretty good line for Thanksgiving really, and from a pretty good story about hard times.
The family is starving, poor and near freezing to death, but still optimistic about something good on Thanksgiving.
In the end the other townspeople embrace the family, and take on the little baby as their good luck mascot.
They are moved to a warmer place to stay for the winter, and everyone brightens up a little with thoughts of good luck and prosperity for the future.
The baby is never named, but they refer to her as "Peart", which I'm guessing is like "perty", slang for "pretty", but it's a good enough nickname?
So without further ado I present to you the official Thanksgiving Mascot as declared over 100 years ago:
Baby Peart, the Official Thanksgiving Mascot
(Or Peart, the Beetle Ring Baby)- She helps you remember to be thankful for your friends and family
- She reminds people to be optimistic about the future, no matter what!
- She brings good luck
- She would look great on a Thanksgiving card or a pin :)
Any graphic artists out there want to graphic up a little Thanksgiving baby girl for me? :)
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