Thanksgiving is one of America’s most beloved holidays, giving families a chance to share a meal together and reflect on all the things for which they are grateful. The first Thanksgiving dates back to Plymouth, MA in 1621, and each U.S. president declared a yearly celebration of the holiday until Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Thanksgiving into law permanently in 1941. But even though Thanksgiving is centered on family and gratefulness, it’s still become a highly commercialized holiday. That’s apparent from the fact that the next day is Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, and a few days later is Cyber Monday, which brings scores of online deals. Last year, consumers spent a little over $300 per person during the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Luckily, though, it doesn’t cost too much to make a Thanksgiving feast for your family – around $53 on average for 10 people. To help Americans find the best places to go for Thanksgiving without breaking the bank, WalletHub compared the 100 largest U.S. cities based on 20 key metrics. Their data set ranges from the cost of Thanksgiving dinner and share of delayed flights to volunteer opportunities per capita and forecasted precipitation. Check out our top 5: 5. Gilbert, AZ Downtown Gilbert - Istock/DenisTangneyJr Set in Arizona’s “Valley of the Sun” just a stone’s throw from Phoenix and the rocky San Tan Mountains, Gilbert is the biggest small town you’ll ever meet. Gilbert has a vibrant dining scene and offers something for even the most discerning palate. Patios abound and locally sourced ingredients deliver a uniquely Arizona flavor. Gilbert’s diverse and eclectic mix of retail shops and stores make for great discoveries for yourself or a friend. Meet the local makers and support their craft. There are a lot of prominent places to visit and things to do on Thanksgiving in Gilbert. If you are looking for places to eat then you should go for buffets and Thanksgiving dinners in Gilbert, they serve you a feast and make it a scrumptious celebration. Apart from dinners, you can explore some interesting and unique Thanksgiving events in Gilbert, one of the major and annual events definitely would be the Thanksgiving parade. Indulge in this mind blowing experience where there is food, fun and family. If you don’t want to go conventional then you can even opt for races, dinner cruise, yoga classes and more. Gilbert is packed with action from sports to the theater. Mural-clad brick walls, glowing benches, a solo gopher, waterways art, and a color-changing water tower are a few creations found in the Heritage District. Experience the local Broadway theater, historical museum, and gallery to feed your cultural side. 4. Raleigh, NC Downtown Raleigh - Istock/Mark Howard When it comes to food and drinks, the Raleigh area is home to some of the best-kept secret eateries dishing out and serving up some truly awesome experiences. Downtown Raleigh restaurants are offering dine-in or carry-out Turkey Day meals and treats, so there's no need to worry! Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina, is one of the South’s most vibrant, eclectic cities – where eclectic meets traditional and historic meets modern. Centrally located along the USA's eastern coast, the city forms part of North Carolina’s famed Research Triangle, a wellspring of education, research and technical innovation. You’ll discover outstanding arts and culture (earning the city the nickname “Smithsonian of the South”), a renowned culinary landscape (including the James Beard Foundation's 2019 Best Chef in America, Ashley Christensen) and a music scene that inspired “Rolling Stone” to call Raleigh one of the top eight emerging music cities in the USA. If you get there early in the week (Nov 19th) be sure to check out Raleigh's best (and biggest) annual traditions—the ABC11 Raleigh Christmas Parade! An event truly made for the whole family. The Raleigh Christmas Parade, the largest such parade between Atlanta and Washington, D.C., marches through downtown Raleigh for more than two hours, drawing nearly 80,000 visitors to the streets to see marching bands, dancers, classic cars, superheroes and Santa Claus. 3. Las Vegas, NV Courtesy Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Bureau Las Vegas is a city that was made for entertainment, carved out of the Mojave Desert with escape in mind. Millions of people visit Las Vegas annually to relax, dine, shop, see performers, experience the nightlife and, of course, enjoy a go at the gaming tables. November is a prime time to visit Vegas, with perfect weather, lots to see and do, and some of the best Thanksgiving dining you could ever hope for. With an impressive collection of world-class restaurants — many from highly esteemed and decorated chefs — Vegas is one of the best cities in the world for dining. Experiencing the destination's dining scene on a holiday is even better, as special menus and seasonal items get added into the mix. Vegas also begins to celebrate the holiday season, so you’ll have the treat of seeing the Las Vegas Strip all lit up with holiday decorations. You can also enjoy the Music/Club Scene as the crowds will be smaller but the clubs will still be open – and usually with a lower cover price. 2. Orlando, FL Orlando Christmas Lights - Istock/Monisha Malli Sridharan If you’re spending Thanksgiving in Orlando, be prepared for a cornucopia of fun things to do. Whether you want to hit the theme parks, plan out your Black Friday shopping or find an amazing foodie feast. Thanksgiving in Orlando is an extravagant affair, with bountiful dining options around every corner. Buffets are a big thing for Thanksgiving, as are gourmet brunches, lavish lunches, and opulent dinner events. An array of restaurants at Disney World offer special menus over the Thanksgiving weekend. You’ll find turkey-inspired options at Disney Springs and across all 4 Disney parks. If you don’t fancy heading out you can stock up on fresh produce and cook a Thanksgiving dinner in the comfort of your vacation home. There are plenty of other entertainment options too, with special events, parties, and celebrations happening all over the city. Also, many department stores open late into the evening for the start of the door-busting Black Friday sales. You can also head over to Disney World for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party which features shows, parades, and special fireworks. Epcot’s Candlelight Processional also kicks off around Thanksgiving time. It features rousing music concerts, nightly fireworks, and a re-telling of the Christian nativity story by a line-up of celebrity narrators. 1. Atlanta, GA Atlanta Thanksgiving Marathon - Courtesy of atlantatrackclub.org Georgia has a diverse and abundant list of things to do any time of the year, but especially around the holidays. Shopping, thrills and festive light displays await you. Start a new Thanksgiving tradition with your family this year by lacing up your running shoes or simply watch from the sidelines at this annual, festive Thanksgiving Day half marathon and 5k. Don’t feel like cooking? Check out restaurants that serve delicious Thanksgiving dinners. After the turkey has been tackled and the food coma averted, it’s time to get out and enjoy all that Atlanta has to offer this holiday weekend. From iconic holiday events to music and more, the possibilities for fun are endless in Atlanta. To see additional rankings and methodology click here.

It’s the spookiest time of the year, when superstition runs rampant and treats always come with the potential for a trick. But like with anything else, the more you know about Halloween, the less scary it seems. Did you know, for example, that ringing doorbells and lighting candles are thought to ward away witches, ghosts and evil spirits? And how frightening can haunted houses really be when charities operate 80% of them? Even if you’re not prone to spooking, there’s always something interesting to learn about Halloween. For instance, 20% of people plan to put costumes on pets, and 86% of parents admit to stealing candy from their kids. And that’s just the beginning. To ease your fears and help you gain a new appreciation for this hallowed holiday, WalletHub explored a wide variety of facts about Halloween, analyzing the occasion from all angles. Istock/SolStock 10 Facts About Halloween for 2022: $10.6 Billion: Projected Halloween spending in 2022.$3.6 Billion: Halloween costume spending in 2022.$3.1 Billion: Halloween candy spending in 2022.34% of parents think 13 or 14 is old enough to trick-of-treat alone.67% of Americans plan to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters.86% of parents admit to stealing candy from their kids.$5.82: Average retail price of a pumpkin (up 13% from 2021).$300+ Million: Annual revenue from ticket sales for haunted attractions, 80% of which are run by charities.$11 Million: Direct property damage caused by Halloween house fires each year.72% of Americans say they would consider purchasing a haunted house to live in (but less than half would pay full market value for it). For more Halloween facts or see the infographic click here!

A steady flow of water runs through the bottom of Georgia’s Providence Canyon, but unlike other canyons, that’s not what carved it out of the earth. Formed by enslaving plantation owners who improperly managed the land about 200 years ago, it’s now a state park with hiking and camping options. Known as “Georgia’s Little Grand Canyon,” it’s been a popular spot since Covid. If you’re in the southeast U.S., you don’t have to travel far to feel like you’re in the American West. Providence Canyon is a geological wonder of its own. Located about 150 miles southwest of Atlanta near the Alabama border, the canyon sits in one of Georgia’s least-populated counties. It’s named for the Providence Methodist Church, which was swallowed by the newly forming canyon gorges in the 1800s. A new church was constructed across the road after the chasms started to form. From observation decks near the parking lot, you can see the islands of remaining ground-level earth with a few pine trees that dramatically drop off into the canyons below. But to really experience Providence Canyon, you’ll want to take a hike along the canyon floor. Walking down into the gullies is like entering another world. After a short tree-lined descent, you’re on a flat plane looking up at the layered pink, yellow, and purple canyon walls. You’re now more than 100 feet below where you started. Istock/SeanPavonePhoto The ground has eroded away so much that it’s hit the water table, so rain or shine, there’s a stream of water pulling silty soil along the floor of the canyons. You’ll want to wear ankle-height hiking shoes and be prepared for that iconic Georgia clay dirt to get on your shoes, pants, and inexplicably other parts of your clothes or body where you didn’t expect to find it. From the main loop trail, you can fork out into individual paths to nine canyon walls. A backcountry trail through the shallow creek leads to the primitive campsites. The canyons were formed in the early 1800s, after the Muscogee (Creek) indigenous people were forced from their land and plantation farms growing cotton took over the area. The plantation model of agriculture, reliant on enslaved labor, didn’t take precautions to prevent erosion. They couldn't have been prepared for how quickly and dramatically the land would change. Year after year, the cotton and other crops washed away along with clay and topsoil every time it rained. Within 20 years, enough of the ground had sloughed away that gullies four feet deep had formed. This erosion continued over time, and the gullies are now as yawning as 150 feet deep and 350 feet wide. The canyons are still evolving today. Every year, rain and erosion wear away another two to five feet of land. Their sandy sides are fully exposed, so there’s not much the park staff can do to stop it from continuing to slough off. Most of the erosion these days is horizontal, widening the gullies: the canyon floor now has pine trees and other vegetation that keeps the soil from running off, and there’s not much deeper it could go. In the 1930s, the local paper in nearby Columbus, GA, started to make Providence Canyon a national park, hoping to bring tourists driving in to see “the natural wonder and beauty. . .instead of having it principally a discussion of erosion.” But despite the newspaper campaign emphasizing the “natural wonder,” its unnatural origins kept Providence Canyon off the national parks list. Georgia made it a state park in 1971, and it’s presented as the human-created formation that it is. Although Providence Canyon wasn’t naturally formed, it reveals parts of the natural world that are normally hidden. There are 43 different shades of sand that create sunset-like patterns along the canyon’s walls. The shades come from four base colors created by minerals in the soil. In addition to the classic red Georgia clay, which gets its pigmentation from iron, there’s white from kaolin, yellow from limonite, and purple from manganese. Istock/Jacqueline Nix Above the canyon walls, there are other unnatural features: walk up the loop trail and you’ll emerge to the ridgeline where a small collection of cars has been slowly reclaimed by nature. The cars date back to the ‘50s, and only the rusted-out bodies remain — no glass, no tires. Leaves cover the interior, and root structures grow in the tire wells. The park managers have determined that it would be more harmful to the wildlife to remove the cars than to leave them as they are, slowly becoming a part of their surroundings. The canyons are a reminder that everywhere on earth has been shaped by humans in one way or another. Whether by plantation farming practices or pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere or moving plants from one continent to another, human life has completely altered the planet. Providence Canyon just makes that impact more visually obvious. It’s a state park for the Anthropocene, and a fantastic day trip.

Fair warning: These Halloween celebrations are not for everyone. With screams, (fake) blood, and surprises worthy of a Hollywood thriller, these haunted attractions are perfect for those who like to be scared out of their wits at least once each October. (If being terrified isn’t your thing, you may want to check out these fall activities or indulge in some gorgeous leaf peeping instead.) 1. Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA Delirium at Halloween Nights - Courtesy of Eastern State Penitentiary A weekend or overnight to Philadelphia this time of year may offer the most terrifying Halloween thrill in America. Eastern State Penitentiary was closed long ago for its horrific treatment of inmates, and the fright fest they put on each fall is even scarier the that. With 5 different hauntings from Creepy clowns to vampires and even a 3D haunting - be prepared for a sleepless night! 2. 13th Hour Haunted House, Wharton, NJ 13 Hour Haunted House - Courtesy of 13thhour.com This haunted house in New Jersey gets high marks for re-creating the feel of an actual run-down old house. You don’t feel as if you are visiting a theme park attraction, and that makes the ghosts, ghouls, and zombies all the more terrifying. 13th Hour offers a variety of experiences, including one in which you throw hatchets in the dark with glow in the dark hatchets and targets. And, 13th hour is also famous for its “escape room” experience. 3. Blood Manor, Tribeca, NYC Blood Manor - Courtesy of BloodManor/Photo Credit BPS Productions You don’t have to leave NYC to experience a haunted house. Blood Manor, in TriBeCa, is one of the hottest tickets in town. Some of the ghouls and zombies have a decidedly "downtown" goth vibe and look as if they shop at the iconic Trash & Vaudeville punk/both boutique in the East Village to be honest. Be sure to check out Lights Out, where you explore the manor in complete darkness with nothing but a glow stick to light your path. This is only offered on 2 nights so be sure to book tickets. Other attractions are a wake for a character named Baby Face, and a Killer Clown room that I, for one, will not be entering. 5. Reapers Revenge, Blakely, PA The Lost Carnival at Reapers Revenge - Courtesy of Reapers Revenge This haunted house will torture you with five intense attractions featuring clowns, cannibalistic mutants, and hayrides that will have you sweating with fear as you venture deeper into the realm of Reaper’s Forest. Consistently voted one of the top 10 haunted attractions in the US every year. After experiencing these nightmares you will want to sleep with the lights on for a long time!