Thanksgiving may only come once a year but we can count our blessings ever day. Give thanks to friends and family with these inspirational Thanksgiving messages, poems and sayings.
Thanksgiving Messages, Poems and Sayings
The first ever Thanksgiving was celebrated by Pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans in Plymouth, America in November 1621. They gave thanks for the Autumn harvest and ate a feast of clams, lobster, ham, pumpkins, venison and waterfowl.
These days, a traditional Thanksgiving meal usually features turkey, cranberries, potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie on the dinner table. Families travel from far away to be together for the holiday season.
Thanks to the tireless campaigning of the writer Sarah Josepha Hale, Thanksgiving was established as a National Holiday. During the Civil War on October 3 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving.
It was originally celebrated on 26 November. There’s also a Canadian Thanksgiving Day, on the second Monday in October each year.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill that established Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in the month of November each year.
Here are our favorite Thanksgiving greetings, messages and quotes. You can use these at a Thanksgiving dinner or adapt them to use throughout the year.
Best Thanksgiving Messages
It doesn’t really matter how you say thank you, the important thing is to do so. If you’re stuck for inspiration, these Thanksgiving messages should certainly help! Check out these inspiring Fall quotes for more suggestions.
Be grateful for all that you have in life. Happy Thanksgiving Day!
For the bounty of the year; for the friends that we hold dear; for new blessings on the way, lets give thanks today.
Happy Thanksgiving to my dear family and friends. I am blessed to have you in my life.
May this harvest remind us of the abundance of nature and how blessed we are to experience it. Happy Thanksgiving Day.
Here’s to sharing the company of close friends and family on this Thanksgiving day.
May your home be filled with joy and happiness on this special Thanksgiving Day.
Happy Thanksgiving Messages
If you’re looking for the perfect way to express your gratitude this Thanksgiving, consider sending a card with one of these heartfelt messages.
Sincere thanks for your guidance, friendship and kindness. I’m thankful to have you in my life.
Thanksgiving is a time to reflect upon the lessons learnt throughout the year and to look forward to an amazing year ahead.
Warm thoughts of appreciation for you on this Thanksgiving Day.
Thank you for always being there for me. Wishing you a joyous Thanksgiving.
We gather today to give thanks for our family, friends and good health.
I want to thank you for your friendship and kindness. Happy Thanksgiving.
May the warm glow of Autumn surround you on Thanksgiving Day.
Best Thanksgiving Wishes
No matter what our individual circumstances may be, there is always something to be thankful for. By taking a moment to reflect on these words of wisdom, we can help make Thanksgiving truly meaningful.
We wish you a harvest of blessings and a lifetime of happiness and health.
Here’s hoping that your Thanksgiving and the days ahead are filled with joy.
I’m thankful for you every day, but especially today.
Wishing you all the happiness your heart can hold.
I count my blessings every day, and you’re definitely one of them.
Sending warmest wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope your Thanksgiving is as wonderful as you are.
Wishing you a bountiful Thanksgiving and a healthy, happy year ahead.
Best Thanksgiving Poems
If you prefer Thanksgiving poems to quotations or sayings, these are some of the most uplifting ones.
Count your blessings instead of your crosses;
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears;
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full years instead of your lean;
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth;
Count on God instead of yourself.
Anonymous
Over the river and through the wood,
To Grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river and through the wood,
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes,
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.
Over the river and through the wood,
Trot fast, my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound,
For this is Thanksgiving-Day.
Over the river and through the wood,
And straight through the barnyard gate!
We seem to go
Extremely slow,
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood;
Now Grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!
Lydia Maria Child
Take a turkey, stuff it fat,
Some of this and some of that.
Get some turnips, peel them well.
Cook a big squash in its shell.
Now potatoes, big and white,
Mash till they are soft and light.
Cranberries, so tart and sweet,
With the turkey we must eat.
Pickles-yes-and then, oh my!
For a dessert a pumpkin pie,
Golden brown and spicy sweet.
What a fine Thanksgiving treat!
Maude M. Grant
When all the leaves are off the boughs,
And nuts and apples gathered in,
And cornstalks waiting for the cows,
And pumpkins safe in barn and bin,
Then Mother says, “My children dear,
The fields are brown, and autumn flies;
Thanksgiving Day is very near,
And we must make thanksgiving pies!
Anonymous
Best Thanksgiving Quotes
Enjoy these thought provoking sayings and quotes about Thanksgiving. Many of them work for greetings throughout the year.
Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
Oprah Winfrey
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
William A. Ward
Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.
Eckhart Tolle
Grateful for each hand we hold, gathered round this table.
Mary Chapin Carpenter
When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.
Maya Angelou
Be thankful for what you have. Your life is someone else’s fairy tale.
Wale Ayeni
Forever on Thanksgiving the heart will find the pathway home.
Wilbur D. Nesbit
Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.
Anonymous
Happy Thanksgiving Quotes
As we countdown to Thanksgiving, here are some happy quotes about gratitude to remind us what this holiday is all about.
Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.
William Arthur Ward
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Melody Beattie
It is not happy people who are thankful. It is thankful people who are happy.
Anonymous
The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.
Norman Vincent Peale
I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.
Henry David Thoreau
We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
Friedrich Koenig
If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.
W. Clement Stone
Inspiring Thanksgiving Quotes
From famous authors and historical figures to everyday people, everyone has something to say about gratitude. These quotes remind us that even during tough times, there is always something to be thankful for.
So as we eat turkey and pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, let’s take a moment to express our gratitude for all the good in our lives.
It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.
David Steindl-Rast
Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.
Anonymous
Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.
Theodore Roosevelt
He who thanks but with the lips thanks but in part; the full, the true Thanksgiving comes from the heart.
J.A. Shedd
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
Willie Nelson
Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first or the last time, then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
Betty Smith
Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet. Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place. There is not, and there never has been a better time, or a better place to live in.
Phillips Brooks
O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.
William Shakespeare
Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.
E.P. Powell
When you love what you have, you have everything you need.
Anonymous
Perfect Thanksgiving Quotes
We must find the time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.
John F. Kennedy
If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.
Frank A. Clark
An attitude of gratitude brings great things.
Yogi Bhajan
Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.
Meister Eckhart
Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them is the true measure of our Thanksgiving.
W.T. Purkiser
Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.
Robert Caspar Lintner
What if today, we were just grateful for everything?
Charlie Brown
Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
Seneca
Funny Thanksgiving Quotes
After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.
Oscar Wilde
For those of you who cannot be with family this Thanksgiving, please resist the urge to brag.
Andy Borowitz
An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.
Irv Kupcinet
I can’t cook a Thanksgiving dinner. All I can make is cold cereal and maybe toast.
Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz
Let’s give thanks to our belts, which will work extra hard to keep our pants up today!
The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we can agree so vehemently about? I don’t think so.
Nora Ephron
I’m looking forward to seeing pie this Thanksgiving more than members of my own family.
Damien Fahey
It’s not too much food. This is what we’ve been training for our whole lives. This is our destiny, this is our finest hour.
Lorelai Gilmore
Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.
Erma Bombeck
Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year.
P.J. O’Rourke
Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.
Jim Davis
Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.
Kevin James
There is no Thanksgiving back in the old country where I come from. You know why? Because being thankful is a sin.
Craig Ferguson
You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.
Jay Leno
The thing I’m most thankful for right now is elastic waistbands.
Anonymous
Final Thoughts: Best Thanksgiving Messages
As you can see, there are a lot of different ways that you can go about conveying your Thanksgiving message this year. No matter what route you decide to take, make sure it comes from the heart and is genuine. And don’t forget to have fun with it too!
This holiday is all about coming together and celebrating everything we’re grateful for. If you enjoyed reading this article, be sure to check out our other quote articles.
We hope that you’ve found this selection of Thanksgiving messages, poems and quotations useful. Which of these is your favorite? How do you celebrate Thanksgiving in your home?
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