10 Ways Natural Gas Helps Power Your Thanksgiving

November is upon us and the holidays are right around the corner. But have you ever stopped to think about how natural gas helps power one of America’s favorite holidays? Probably not. So in case you were wondering, here are 10 ways natural gas helps power your Thanksgiving!

1.  Probably the most obvious for many of us: Gas ovens. How else to cook that fabulous Thanksgiving turkey, not to mention the pumpkin pie?
2. Anti-freeze. You want to make it over the river and through the woods to  grandmother’s house this year. But if your car won’t start in the cold weather, you could be stuck at home. Anti-freeze is most commonly made from ethylene or propylene, both natural gas byproducts.
3. Crayons. Keeping the kids busy while you pull together the Thanksgiving feast is made a little easier with crayons. One of the main ingredients in crayons, polyethylene, is a natural gas byproduct.
4. Macy’s® Thanksgiving Day Parade. Really? Yes, it’s true. Without oil and natural gas, there wouldn’t be any polyurethane to make floats and those giant balloons – or the helium to fly them.
5. A big part of the Thanksgiving Day festivities is watching football. But did you know that the bladder inside a football, the thing that makes it possible to inflate it, is made from a synthetic material derived from natural gas? Remember that on trivia night!
6. A warm and cozy house. Would Thanksgiving be any fun in a freezing cold home? Probably not. Natural gas is one of the leading ways to heat your home, keeping everyone content and happy while they’re coloring or watching football.
7. Maybe you live in Arizona or Florida or California. In warmer climates, many people take to the golf course on Thanksgiving Day, the perfect social distancing sport in the COVID era. The golf ball, which (duh!) is essential for the sport, is constructed of plastic and rubber materials, both of which are created from natural gas.
8. Refrigeration. Where to store the leftovers after Thanksgiving? In the refrigerator, of course, many of which are powered by…you guessed it…natural gas. And the turkey may have spent some time in the freezer before the big day.
9. We want to look good when we’re meeting the new boyfriend’s parents for the first time on Thanksgiving. Some of us are born beautiful. But for those of us who could use a little polishing, there’s make-up. Lipstick, mascara, blush, and many other commercial makeup products are made from petrochemicals derived from natural gas.
10. Cranberries. Without the role natural gas plays in fertilizer production, irrigation, harvesting, and shipping, it could very well be a cranberry-less Thanksgiving, unless of course, you build your own cranberry bog in the backyard.