Which U.S. president was first reported to spare his presented Thanksgiving turkey?

John F. Kennedy was the first president reported to spare his presented Thanksgiving turkey.

On November 19, 1963, Kennedy received a large turkey at the White House and decided not to eat it. He reportedly said, “We’ll let this one grow,” and the bird was returned to the farm. The moment occurred only three days before Kennedy’s assassination.

Contemporary newspaper reports described Kennedy’s action as a pardon, but Kennedy himself did not use that formal term. The distinction matters: presidents before him had received turkeys, and some may have spared birds informally, but Kennedy’s 1963 decision is the first widely reported instance connected with the modern tradition.

The practice was not yet a standardized ceremony. Richard Nixon also spared some turkeys, and during Jimmy Carter’s administration, First Lady Rosalynn Carter arranged for birds to go to petting zoos. Ronald Reagan later used “pardon” as a public joke in 1987, while George H. W. Bush made the annual pardon a permanent tradition in 1989.