So, What’s the Deal With the Presidential Turkey Pardon Anyway?

It's a Thanksgiving tradition that I've always thought was hokey and never really understood the origin of and didn't really care to research it until my curious five-year-old started asking questions.

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One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that our lessons tend to go in a bunch of different directions based on the curiosity of our son. While doing a lesson plan about the origin of Thanksgiving, my son asked me why we eat turkey and then he asked how turkeys are selected for Thanksgiving dinner and without thinking, I replied something along the lines of "well, some turkeys are actually pardoned."

You can imagine what kinds of questions me saying the word "pardoned" led to. And now, my son knows more about the presidential turkey pardon than he probably could have ever dreamed of, as do I, and guess what? You're also about to get an education.