Thanksgiving Day is one of the most popular and significant national holidays in the United States, ranking at the top with Christmas and Independence Day.
Autumn or fall season starts officially right after Labor Day, usually during the first two weeks of September. The weather starts to cool down around this time, and the tree leaves change from green to fantastic gold, orange, and red. People in the Midwest don their plaid shirts and harvest time soon arrives with its abundance and bounty—what a perfect setting for a Thanksgiving picture, full of content and gratitude.
Thanksgiving has evolved through the years from its humble origins as simple prayers or rites of thanks for a bountiful harvest, to its modern form of gratitude for peace, prosperity, and happiness.
The Thanksgiving holiday has a long and proud history of tradition harkening as far back as 1621, with the first English colonists (Pilgrims of Plymouth) sharing their harvest feast with the Wampanoag people.
Happy Thanksgiving Quotes
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
Thanksgiving is more than “one dinner.” Thanksgiving is a time for celebrating everything you love.
Robin Kite
Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.
Gertrude Stein
I love November and the American tradition of Thanksgiving. But in reality, every day should be Thanksgiving.
Sharon Jaynes
Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.
John Wooden
What would happen in my own life if thanksgiving became the main thing for me?
John Juneman
Gratitude is a feedback loop that will show you where you are thriving.
Danielle LaPorte
Indeed, it is hard if not impossible to take God out of the picture when discussing the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
Stefan Saxin
In life, one has a choice to take one of two paths: to wait for some special day—or to celebrate each special day.
Rasheed Ogunlaru
You shouldn’t allow people who hurt you to occupy a fraction of your heart. Forgive and move on, especially in this season of thanksgiving.
Assegid Habtewold
Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant—a seed—this plants the giant miracle.
Ann Voskamp
Thanksgiving offers us an annual pause from the pace of life return to places we do not often visit and gather with people we do not often see.
Jay Milbrandt
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
So once in every year we throng upon a day apart, to praise the Lord with feast and song in thankfulness of heart.
Arthur Guiterman
Thanksgiving Inspirational Quotes
I’m a very positive thinker, and I think that is what helps me the most in difficult moments.
Roger Federer
I love Thanksgiving because it is a time of year when families come together. It is a time of year when the days are shorter, the nights are colder, but you feel warmed by the love of those around you.
Sarah Spencer
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
John F. Kennedy
When someone gives you a gift that he’s already sacrificed and paid for, you don’t try to pay him back; you just receive the gift with thanksgiving and spontaneously lavish love on the giver.
Ron Larson
Thankfulness creates gratitude which generates contentment that causes peace.
Todd Stocker
Giving thanks to you. My friends, neighbors, and family. Remembering that every day you fill my life with joy.
Allison Waggoner
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein
One of the most meaningful days of the year is Thanksgiving Day; a day full of gratitude and turkey surrounded by the love of family and friends.
Catherine Pulsifer
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
Eric Hoffer
….. everyone should have a heart of thanksgiving as soon as they open their eyes. If being able to take another breath and having the ability to open your eyes in the morning isn’t the biggest blessing, I don’t know what is.
Moe Alodah
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
Thornton Wilder
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
At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
Albert Schweitzer
The Pilgrims displayed another virtue, one they practiced every day and which stood at the heart of the First Thanksgiving. Cicero called it the greatest of the virtues and the parent of all the rest: gratitude.
Melanie Kirkpatrick
When I force myself to utter the awkward phrase, ‘I am grateful,’ I actually start to feel a bit more grateful…It’s basic cognitive behavioral therapy: Behave in a certain way, and your mind will eventually catch up with your actions.
A.J. Jacobs
For whoever comes into your home, whoever you invite, whoever invites himself, whoever needs to be invited, whoever’s there: Thanksgiving ought to be the best holiday of the year.
Sam Sifton
All sanity depends on this: that it should be a delight to feel the roughness of a carpet under smooth soles, a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh.
Doris Lessing
Thanksgiving creates abundance; and the miracle of multiplying happens when I give thanks – take just one loaf, say it is enough, and give thanks – and He miraculously makes it more than enough.
Ann Voskamp
Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.
Denis Waitley
Thanksgiving is the expression of gratitude, an acknowledgement of favors or divine goodness. It is an act of appreciation, often directed to God for all He has done or is doing in our lives.
Joseph A Iyongo
When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.
Shannon L. Alder
Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet…. There is not, and there never has been, a better time or a better place to live in.
Phillips Brooks
Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.
William Arthur Ward
There is no racial or ethnic involvement in Thanksgiving, and people who may be very distant from the Christian system can see the beauty and the positive spirit that comes from the holiday.
John Clayton
Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.
Eckhart Tolle
I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.
Henry David Thoreau
Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted—a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.
Rabbi Harold Kushner
The blessings of harvest time can be found at Thanksgiving.
Theodore W. Higginsworth
The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
Oscar Wilde
Famous Thanksgiving Quotes
… we can be thankful even for trials because they serve a greater purpose.
Jennifer McAlister
Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have—life itself.
Walter Anderson
We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.
Neal A. Maxwell
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
William Arthur Ward
In all things give thanks.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
I think that real friendship always makes us feel such sweet gratitude, because the world almost always seems like a very hard desert, and the flowers that grow there seem to grow against such high odds.
Stephen King
Of all of the food filled holidays, Thanksgiving reigns king in the United States.
Gia Scott
We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.
John F. Kennedy
He (God) encourages us to let our requests be made known to Him in a spirit of thanksgiving.
John Stange
Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.
Maya Angelou
Thanksgiving is good, but ‘thanksliving’ is better.
Author Unknown
Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Forever on Thanksgiving Day the heart will find the pathway home.
Wilbur D. Nesbit
Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last.
Lawrence Welk
Thanksgiving – Show appreciation for all God has given you.
Max Lucado
Too often, we forget to thank the people who are closest to us. They are easy to take for granted, and we can expend all our patience and niceties on strangers and have only leftovers to give our family.
Kent Brantly
Thanksgiving is a celebration of a harvest, and it is common all over the world.
Rodney Miles
Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.
Robert Caspar Lintner
Thanksgiving is the end of all human conduct, whether observed in words or works.
J. B. Lightfoot
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
God is glorified, not by our groans, but by our thanksgivings.
Edwin Percy Whipple
We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.
Neal A. Maxwell
This most of all is the message of Thanksgiving: everything really will be all right.
Sam Sifton
In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I invite you to be grateful, at Thanksgiving or any other time – for you.
Noelle C. Nelson
I am one of the happiest gals you know because I choose it every single day. I choose to practice gratitude; I choose to surround myself with things and people who support positivity.
Rachel Hollis
Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.
W. J. Cameron
‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.
Alice Walker
Thanksgiving is a season that is very much in accord with the themes and teachings of Jesus Christ.
John Clayton
Gratitude doesn’t change the scenery. It merely washes clean the glass you look through so you can clearly see the colors.
Richelle E. Goodrich
Quotes On Thanksgiving And Gratitude
The more my heart is parked in a place of thanksgiving and rejoicing, the less room I have for grumpiness.
Lysa TerKeurst
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
For every complaint you might say or think, try to replace it with words and thoughts of thanksgiving.
Rhovonda L. Brown
Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
Henry Van Dyke
Simple blessings are all around us. Once we receive them with thanksgiving and appreciation, we experience true joy.
Krystal Kuehn
The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.
Amelia Earhart
Have an “attitude of gratitude.” Be thankful for your health now. Don’t wait till Thanksgiving.
Joshua Tongol
Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning.
GZA
Every year at Thanksgiving time North Americans make a great show of their gratitude, most often expressed as gratitude to God.
Devin D. Thorpe
Happiness already exists in your life. All you need to do is tune into it. And you can start doing that right now.
Anthon St. Maarten
Thanksgiving is a time to give, a time to love, and a time to reflect on the things that matter most in life.
Danielle Duckery
You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
Thanksgiving is a fun, family holiday that is celebrated every year! Families get together and, in their own way, give thanks for the Blessings that they enjoy.
Leanne Annett
If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we’d all be much happier.
John Wooden
The best of all blessings is to give thanks for at a family gathering is the family and the gathering.
Pedro Carvalho
Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
William Wordsworth
Thanksgiving is an act. Hence, it is not enough to have the feeling in our hearts; it is important to express it so that the party to whom we are giving thanks sees and knows that we are truly grateful for the good that we have received.
Joseph A Iyongo
When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.
Dalai Lama
Don’t let autumn and its season of gratitude get lost in the blur of Christmas fanfare. Let Thanksgiving have its day – and its attitude – in your heart.
Author Unknown
When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.
Maya Angelou
Thanksgiving Day is a perfect day to share the love and companionship of family and friends at the Thanksgiving table.
Cheryl Leonard
If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.
Robert Quillen
What I love about Thanksgiving is that it’s purely about getting together with friends or family and enjoying food. It’s really for everybody, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from.
Daniel Humm
Everything changed when I switched from saying ‘I have to do this’ to ‘I GET to do this.’
Charlotte Eriksson
Thanksgiving Family Quotes
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, and represents food, family and moments of sharing and professing gratitude.
Sarah Moore
Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart.
Roy T. Bennett
Thanksgiving is coming to the life-altering understanding that truly precious things can’t be owned anyway. And the wonder of it all is not only realizing that we can’t own them, but it’s realizing that we don’t have to expend the energy in the maintenance of them in order to enjoy them.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
Willie Nelson
On Thanksgiving I will stop to give thanks that my family is safe and healthy, especially because I realize that, following the tragedies of this year, it is all too real a possibility that they might not have been.
Bobby Jindal
Happiness is a quality of the soul…not a function of one’s material circumstances.
Aristotle
Thanksgiving Day has a history attached to it. Like the Latin word “virtue,” it is a history which runs through the entire life of a people.
William Adams
An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of the superior personality.
Brian Tracy
Thanksgiving Origins
For a long time, historians believed that the first Thanksgiving took place in 1621 when the Wampanoag and Mayflower settlers of Massachusetts’ Plymouth Colony sat down for a three-day feast. The dinner, however, wasn’t the profound representation of peace that it subsequently came to be; rather, it was probably just an ordinary English harvest celebration.
The US Founding Fathers, most notably President George Washington, formalized it as a national holiday of prayers and thanks offerings on November 26th, 1789. In 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed every last Thursday of November as a National Day of Thanksgiving for all-inclusive states at the time and as a petition for the end of hostilities in the Civil War.
Finally, on December 6th, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a joint resolution by Congress to set Thanksgiving Day on every fourth Thursday of November. Since then, we have celebrated each Thanksgiving as such.
Thanksgiving Celebrations
Exactly how is Thanksgiving observed? On Thanksgiving, loved ones get together for a feast and other festivities in both Canada and the United States. Turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie are common ingredients in American traditional cuisine. Thanksgiving has a long history of being associated with parades and football games.
Thanksgiving starts the most wonderful time we refer to as the “Holiday Season.” It is a day for a private celebration with the family, and publicly with parades like America’s Hometown Thanksgiving Parade of Plymouth, Massachusetts, ABC Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade of Philadelphia, Bayou Classic Thanksgiving Parade of New Orleans, Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York City, and McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago. The day after Thanksgiving called Black Friday denotes the beginning of the Christmas season.
Sports are also a big part of Thanksgiving with the National Football League or NFL holding games traditionally since the 1930s. Basketball is also being played, but this is a recent development with the NBA starting to hold tournaments in 2006.
The day’s culmination usually entails a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner with roasted or deep-fried stuffed Turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet corn, cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, squash, and other autumn vegetables.
Of course, more important than the food is the tradition of being able to get together and celebrate with your loved ones. To say a prayer in gratitude as one for all the blessings that have been bestowed upon everyone.
Turkey And Thanksgiving
Exactly how is Thanksgiving observed? On Thanksgiving, loved ones get together for a feast and other festivities in both Canada and the United States. Turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie are common ingredients in American traditional cuisine. Thanksgiving has a long history of being associated with parades and football games.
In contrast to the cooking techniques that were later documented, it is unknown if the turkey was braised, roasted on a spit, or boiled in a big kettle at that harvest celebration. However, it’s possible that the leftovers from any birds that were roasted one day were placed in a pot and then cooked to create a gravy-like soup for the next day. A simple yet symbolic ritual is the cutting and serving of the turkey, done by the head of the family, usually the father. That symbolizes the traditional role of fathers in providing for and guiding the family.
Thanksgiving is such a homegrown American tradition, that we have prepared and compiled the best and most inspiring Thanksgiving quotes that will warm your hearts. We hope you find these good enough to share with your family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Evolution Of Thanksgiving Menue
According to old colonial cookbook recipes, the pilgrims most likely served stuffing at their early harvest feasts. The Pilgrims referred to stuffing as “puddings in the belly,” and they frequently included herbs, hard-boiled eggs, bread crumbs, cream, currants or raisins, sugar, spices, and nuts. However, since utilizing a spit did not result in even cooking, the conventional procedure of cooking the stuffing in the bird may not have been applied.
The most famous of the pies, serving pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, may have also been a crucial early American holiday tradition. Since the gourd was introduced to the pilgrims by Native Americans, it is possible that for the first Thanksgiving, since bread, sugar, and molasses were not readily accessible, the pilgrims ate boiled pumpkin with seasonings.
However, due to a lack of sugar, jellied cranberry sauce was unlikely to be served during early Thanksgiving. The berry, however, may have been mashed into meat sauces or combined with stuffings because it grew wild in New England bogs. Another more recent custom for Thanksgiving lunches is the serving of mashed potatoes and other foods.
Although the regional delicacies from New England, where the pilgrims lived, are frequently linked with Thanksgiving, there are many other foods served on the table. Additionally, many families provide food that is significant to their culture or clan. Many holiday dinner tables feature mac & cheese, while others serve tamales, an indigenous meal made of packed masa wrapped in leaves or husks. Today, the majority of Americans end their meals with a slice of pie, either sweet potato or pecan depending on where you are in the South, and some whipped cream.
However, it’s crucial for Americans to educate themselves on the holiday’s genuine history, which has been warped and molded over time along with societal transformations, regardless of what festive fare graces your table.
Thanksgiving Decoration Ideas
There’s no need to chase trends or constantly reinvent the wheel when it comes to Thanksgiving home décor, just as many Americans faithfully repeat the same Thanksgiving dinner each year in the spirit of tradition. But even the most ardent traditionalists enjoy parodying the old favorites now and then. There are countless ways to riff on fall color schemes and iconic Thanksgiving decorations to suit your tastes and the design of your home, just as there are countless ways to stuff a turkey or alter a sweet potato side dish.
Use The Thanksgiving Spirit
Thanksgiving decorations don’t have to be limited to the dining room or front porch. You can decorate with ceramic and metallic pumpkin accessories perched on the desk and a pumpkin perched on the rug (real or velvet versions would work equally well here). It’s a seasonal reference to the coming of fall and Thanksgiving that can extend the holiday cheer well through Christmas.
Decorated Corners
The unexpected spaces in your home can be decorated to keep your Christmas décor feeling new and casual. An upright piano can be used as an unexpected Thanksgiving shrine along with a vase of greenery, some ornamental pumpkins made of natural materials, and an old-fashioned mirror.
A Dramatic Centerpiece
You can use a golden Thanksgiving table setting beginning with a striking centerpiece crafted from a large bunch of pampas grass. She finished the appearance with her mother’s old-fashioned glasses, turkey-themed dishes, glistening golden pears, and votive candles.
Tinted Candles
Punched tin votive candles create a striking minimalist centerpiece with straightforward, effective Christmas messaging and the cozy glow of candlelight.
Harvest Wreath
Decorative white pumpkin storage jars, a couple of candlesticks, and a casual wheat stalk wreath create a casual country atmosphere.
DIY Deocration Ideas
Here is a video which thoroughly explains some DIY decoration ideas.
Recap
On November 24, you can share these sayings with your dinner guests, whether you’re searching for a joke to break the ice before everyone sits down to eat or a quote to help you feel festive for the season (and maybe even the upcoming winter ones). If your family is Christian, you might use some of these quotations as a Thanksgiving blessing or prayer along with additional Thanksgiving Bible verses. For a memorable meal opening, pair one of these quotations with an equally profound Thanksgiving poem. Whatever sayings you decide to share or post on Instagram next to your homemade dish, this collection of the best Thanksgiving quotes will serve as a helpful reminder of what is the true meaning of the holiday.
Thanksgiving is such a homegrown American tradition, that’s why we have prepared and compiled the best and most inspiring Thanksgiving, quotes that will warm your hearts. We hope you enjoy them enough to share them with your family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
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