Ragamuffin Day: When Kids Dressed in Costumes and Begged for Treats on Thanksgiving

Before Thanksgiving became about football and turkey comas, it was America's original trick-or-treat holiday. From the late 1800s through the 1950s, children dressed up in ragged costumes, masks, and cross-dressed outfits, then went door-to-door begging for pennies, candy, and fruit. They called it Ragamuffin Day, and it was wildly popular in New York City and other urban areas.

Kids would dress as hobos, beggars, and characters in tattered clothes, shouting "Anything for Thanksgiving?" at neighbors. Some wore elaborate homemade costumes and masks, while others just turned their clothes inside out and smudged dirt on their faces. The tradition was so big that Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was originally created in 1924 to give ragamuf ...