Thanksgiving Quotes for Kids

Thanksgiving Day is perhaps the best time to talk to your kids about family values and tradition. Kids love to participate in Thanksgiving celebrations, from decorating and helping mash the potatoes, to creating cards and sitting with the family for the feast.

These Thanksgiving quotes for kids can help reinforce your value system in a fun, interactive way. You can use them to adorn your Thanksgiving dinner table, plan a 'treasure hunt,' or write each quote on a piece of paper for them to read aloud before dinner.

Linda G. Paulsen, Ballad of the Mayflower
Hey, Ho, Dee-o, Dee-o! The Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock; Hey, Ho
Simple people, strudy stock; Hey, Ho
To be free they crossed the sea,
Thanked the Lord on bended knee; Hey, Ho, Dee-o, Dee-o!"

Cicero
"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues."

William Wordsworth
"All that we behold is full of blessings."

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

Ralph Waldo Emerson
For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird, and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!

Melody Beattie
"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. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."

Frank A. Clark
"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."

Meister Eckhart
"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."

Cindy Margolis
"My favorite meal is turkey and mashed potatoes. I love Thanksgiving, it's just my favorite. I can have Thanksgiving all year round."

Courtland Milloy
"Nothing purchased can come close to the renewed sense of gratitude for having family and friends."

Bobby Jindal
"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."

Thornton Wilder
"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

Harry A. Ironside
"We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction."

George Canning
"When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?"

John Greenleaf Whittier
Ah! On Thanksgiving day...
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?