New England By the Numbers: Holiday Facts

Find out how many lights there are in Forest Park and other holiday facts

600,000

holiday lights in the “Bright Nights at Forest Park” display, Springfield, MA

41

Pilgrims signing the Mayflower Compact while docked in Provincetown Harbor (Nov. 11, 1620)

0

native wild turkeys in MA in 1852

22

number of years celebrating Christmas was a crime in Puritan Boston

3,000

estimated length in miles of all cranberries grown in the U.S. last year if stretched end to end

5,000,000

years turkeys (Meleagris) have existed

1816

year cranberries were first cultivated in Massachusetts

675,000,000

pounds of turkey enjoyed each Thanksgiving in the United States

5

fine in shillings charged against anyone caught observing “any such day as Christmas” in the Massachusetts Bay Colony