"Thanksgiving ... This is the great family festival of New England - the season of home gatherings.  Sons and daughters, scattered far and wide, then turn instinctively toward the old homestead, and the fireside of their childhood is again made glad by their presence and that of their little ones.  Etiquette requires fat turkeys, well roasted, a plenty of pumpkin pies, unbounded hospitality, genuine friendliness, and cheerful and thankful hearts."

Samuel Robert Wells,
How to behave : a pocket manual of republican etiquette, 1853.