81 Thanksgiving Quotes and Who Said Them

Before writing this, we read eighteen of the Thanksgiving quote lists that rank on Google. Between them they hold more than 1,300 quotes, and not one of those lists links a quote to the place it was said or written.

That matters more than it sounds, because the same few lines get copied from list to list and a mistake travels with them. Cicero's line on gratitude turns up on twelve of the eighteen. A sentence usually credited to Marcus Aurelius comes from a 1914 magazine essay by Elbert Hubbard. A much-shared "Emerson" passage is from a 1910 book called The Science of Getting Rich.

So every attributed quote below links to its source, and where the circulating version differs from the original, you get the original. Lines we could not trace to the person they are credited to are left out, and the section on misattributed quotes explains what happened to them.

What makes a good Thanksgiving quote?

One that fits the job and belongs to the person whose name is under it. The job decides the length. A toast has to survive being said from memory with a glass in one hand, which in practice means a single sentence. A card can carry two or three sentences, as long as one of them is yours. A photo caption works best at about ten words, because most people read it at a glance.

The name matters because the quote is standing in for your own voice, and the wrong credit is exactly the detail one person at the table will know. It can change the meaning, too. Proust's line calling grateful people "the charming gardeners" of our souls is followed, in the original, by a sentence telling us to be even more grateful to the cruel friends who made us suffer. And a line often passed off as Lincoln's Thanksgiving message comes from his proclamation for a national day of fasting, where the very next sentence is "But we have forgotten God."

Short Thanksgiving quotes

For place cards, the small panel inside a card, and the caption under the one photo where everyone is looking the same way. Each runs about twenty words or fewer.

• "I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual." Henry David Thoreau, letter to H. G. O. Blake, December 6, 1856
• "The king and high priest of all festivals was the autumn Thanksgiving." Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oldtown Folks, 1869
• "They were poor in money, but rich in land and love." Louisa May Alcott, "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving," 1882
• "Gratitude is the sign of noble souls." Joseph Jacobs, the moral he wrote for the fable "Androcles," 1894. Usually credited to Aesop, but Jacobs's own notes say that tale "was dropped out of Æsop."
• "Nothing is more honourable than a grateful heart." Seneca, Letter 81, translated by Richard M. Gummere
• "I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new." Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Friendship," 1841
• "That is the idea of taking things with gratitude, and not taking things for granted." G. K. Chesterton, Autobiography, 1936
• "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." Willie Nelson, The Tao of Willie, 2006
• "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." Robert Brault, written in 1985 and reprinted in Reader's Digest in 1986
• "The family is one of nature's masterpieces." George Santayana, Reason in Society, 1905

Thanksgiving quotes about gratitude

For the moment before the meal, or a card to someone who carried you through a hard year. Several of these are longer in the original than in the trimmed versions that circulate, and the original is usually the better line.

• "For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues." Cicero, speaking of gratitude in Pro Plancio, 54 BC, translated by C. D. Yonge. The version on most lists condenses this.
• "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England, 1917
• "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Dinner," Sketches by Boz, 1836. Dickens set the middle clause off with dashes.
• "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, The Language of Letting Go, 1990
• "A sensible man takes pleasure in what he has instead of pining for what he has not." Democritus, fragment 231, translated by Charles M. Bakewell, 1907. Usually credited to Epictetus; see the misattributed section.
• "If a man had no more to do with God than to be thankful, that would suffice." Meister Eckhart, Sermon 27, translated by M. O'C. Walshe
• "Often, too, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow-man. Thus we have each of us cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flames within us." Albert Schweitzer, Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, translated by C. T. Campion, 1924
• "In normal life one is often not at all aware that we always receive infinitely more than we give, and that gratitude is what enriches life." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, letter to his parents from prison, September 13, 1943
• "Let us be grateful to the people who give us happiness; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls flower." Marcel Proust, Les Plaisirs et les Jours, 1896, our translation of "Soyons reconnaissants aux personnes qui nous donnent du bonheur, elles sont les charmants jardiniers par qui nos âmes sont fleuries."
• "The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find in every hour some heavenly blessings; only the iron in God's sand is gold." Henry Ward Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858
• "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasure." Thornton Wilder, The Woman of Andros, 1930. The 1930 text says "treasure," not the "treasures" most lists print.
• "Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions, and the more you express gratitude for what you have, the more you will have to express gratitude for." Zig Ziglar, a column written for the New Year of 2006
• "Continue / To let gratitude be the pillow / Upon which you kneel to / Say your nightly prayer" Maya Angelou, "Continue," the poem she wrote for Oprah Winfrey's 50th birthday in 2004
• "I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness - it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude." Brené Brown, interview with Gretchen Rubin, 2011

Thanksgiving quotes about family

For the card to the relatives you see once a year, and the caption on the photo with all of them in it. The comedians' lines are funnier at full length, so they are printed that way.

• "The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom of my family." Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Willis Jr., April 18, 1790. "Past" is Jefferson's spelling.
• "Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future." Gail Lumet Buckley, The Hornes: An American Family, 1986
• "Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." Jane Howard, Families, 1978
• "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." Desmond Tutu, The Rainbow People of God, 1994
• "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life." Richard Bach, Illusions, 1977
• "The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family." Lee Iacocca, Talking Straight, 1988
• "Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter." Brad Henry, State of the State address to the Oklahoma Legislature, 2005
• "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, translated by Constance Garnett
• "Happiness is: 1. Having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family; especially if they live in another city." George Burns, Dr. Burns' Prescription for Happiness, 1984
• "The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." Erma Bombeck, Family: The Ties That Bind... and Gag!, 1987

Buckley's line is the reason the group photo matters. Thanksgiving is one of the few days a scattered family ends up in one room: AAA projected that 81.8 million people would travel at least 50 miles over the 2025 holiday. The picture taken at that table is often the only one all year with everybody in it.

That photo is also the one we paint. Upload a single group shot of two to six people, choose an art style such as needle-felted wool, a golden-age storybook plate or a swirling post-impressionist oil, and the whole group is repainted with their real faces kept. It becomes a custom family portrait on a gallery canvas from $59, a framed canvas from $79, a jigsaw puzzle from $55 or a fleece blanket from $59. Our family photo ideas cover how to take the shot so it holds up.

Funny Thanksgiving quotes

Clean enough for the kids' table, and each one traced to the comedian or columnist who wrote it. Some of the most shared Thanksgiving jokes are missing on purpose: they could not be traced to the person they are credited to, or they turned out to be a sitcom line spoken in character. The misattributed section lists them.

• "What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?" Erma Bombeck, At Wit's End column, November 26, 1981
• "There never has been and never will be a reasonable correlation between the time it takes to prepare a dish and the time it takes to eat it. This is never more evident than at Thanksgiving." Erma Bombeck, syndicated column, November 25, 1993
• "Thanksgiving is that very special holiday when we take a break from our hectic everyday lives to spend quality time with our loved ones, rediscovering all the reasons why we don't actually live with them." Dave Barry, syndicated column, November 2004
• "Thanksgiving is the special time of year when we traditionally bow our heads and, in a moment of quiet reflection, ask ourselves whether it was medically necessary to eat those last four cubic yards of stuffing." Dave Barry, "Giving Thanks for Robo-Turkey," 1989
• "Thanksgiving is so called because we are all thankful that it comes only once a year." P. J. O'Rourke, Modern Manners, 1983
• "After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations." Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance, first staged in 1893, spoken by Lady Caroline
• "Most turkeys taste better the day after; my mother's tasted better the day before." Rita Rudner, Naked Beneath My Clothes, 1992
• "I stuffed the turkey through the beak. At the end I opened the oven and it was a pile of ashes." Phyllis Diller, interview with columnist Sheilah Graham, 1966
• "We are literally practicing eating. We chew gum with a swagger and purpose that says, 'Yeah, I got a big meal coming up. I'm training for Thanksgiving.'" Jim Gaffigan, Food: A Love Story, 2014
• "I have been campaigning to have the national Thanksgiving dish changed from turkey to spaghetti carbonara." Calvin Trillin, "Spaghetti Carbonara Day," Third Helpings, 1983
• "One of our most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as le Jour de Merci Donnant. [...] And so, on the fourth Thursday in November, American families sit down at a large table brimming with tasty dishes, and for the only time during the year eat better than the French do." Art Buchwald, the Paris column he first ran in 1953 and reprinted for decades
• "My mother and my father both were part Cherokee Indian. Of course my people didn't come over on the Mayflower but we were there to meet the folks when they landed." Will Rogers, on stage in Dallas in 1926, as The Dallas Morning News reported it

What did presidents say in Thanksgiving proclamations?

Mostly they asked for gratitude that shows up in what people do, and the best lines are short. George Washington's proclamation named Thursday, November 26, 1789. Abraham Lincoln's in 1863 set "the last Thursday of November," and presidents issued a fresh proclamation each year after that. In 1939 Franklin Roosevelt moved the holiday a week earlier, and on December 26, 1941, he signed the joint resolution fixing it on the fourth Thursday. Every line below is taken from the official text.

• "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor" George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1789
• "The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies." Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation of Thanksgiving, October 3, 1863
• "I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." Abraham Lincoln, the same proclamation. Secretary of State William Seward drafted it: Lincoln's secretary John Nicolay wrote that the manuscript "was written by Seward and is in his handwriting."
• "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, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1901
• "Let us, therefore, on the day appointed, each in his own way, but together as a whole people, make due expression of our thanksgiving and humbly endeavor to follow in the footsteps of Almighty God." Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1936
• "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, Thanksgiving Proclamation, released November 5, 1963, seventeen days before his death
• "On that day let us gather in sanctuaries dedicated to worship and in homes blessed by family affection to express our gratitude for the glorious gifts of God" John F. Kennedy, the same proclamation
• "This should be a day of giving as well as a day of thanks." Ronald Reagan, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1981

Thanksgiving quotes from books and poems

American writers were putting Thanksgiving on the page decades before it became a fixed national holiday. These follow the first editions where we could check the page scans, which is why a couple look slightly different from versions you may have seen.

• "There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it use to. Bless the day." O. Henry, "Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen," 1907. The first edition prints "use to"; later printings say "used to."
• "One day is there of the series / Termed Thanksgiving day, / Celebrated part at table, / Part in memory." Emily Dickinson, "Thanksgiving Day," Poems, Third Series, 1896
• "Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West, / From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest, / When the gray-haired New-Englander sees round his board / The old broken links of affection restored, / When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more, / And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before, / What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye? / What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?" John Greenleaf Whittier, "The Pumpkin," 1844
• "The roasted turkey took precedence on this occasion, being placed at the head of the table; and well did it become its lordly station, sending forth the rich odour of its savoury stuffing, and finely covered with the frost of the basting." Sarah Josepha Hale, Northwood, 1827
• "We have too few holidays. Thanksgiving, like the Fourth of July, should be considered a national festival, and observed by all our people." Sarah Josepha Hale, Northwood, revised edition, 1852. Often dated to 1827, but it is not in the 1827 first edition; it appears in this 1852 revision.

Bible verses for Thanksgiving

All from the King James Version, checked word for word, and each reference links to the verse. Many quote lists mix translations without naming them, so if a verse you know reads differently, it is probably from a newer translation.

• "O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." Psalm 107:1
• "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." Psalm 100:4
• "Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms." Psalm 95:2
• "This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24
• "I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works." Psalm 9:1
• "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18
• "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Philippians 4:6. "Be careful for nothing" is the King James way of saying "do not be anxious about anything."
• "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." Colossians 3:15
• "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" Ephesians 5:20
• "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17
• "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." 2 Corinthians 9:15

What did the people at the 1621 harvest actually write?

One paragraph, in a letter. Edward Winslow, one of the Plymouth colonists, described the harvest gathering in a letter to a friend in England dated December 11, 1621, printed in London the following year in the pamphlet now known as Mourt's Relation. Plimoth Patuxet Museums calls it the only eyewitness record of the celebration that survives. In the museum's modernized spelling, it opens:

• "Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors." Edward Winslow, letter of December 1621, 1622 printing

Winslow goes on to say that Massasoit came "with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer." About half of the 102 Mayflower passengers were still alive that autumn. The letter closes with the line that makes the best toast of the lot:

• "And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty." Edward Winslow, the same letter

William Bradford's history of the colony mentions turkeys, though he is describing the plenty of that autumn rather than the meal itself:

• "And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c." William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation

A yearly national Thanksgiving came more than two centuries later, largely through Sarah Josepha Hale, the magazine editor who had been pressing for it in print for fifteen years by her own count. Her letter to Lincoln put the request plainly, and his proclamation followed five days later:

• "This subject is to have the day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." Sarah Josepha Hale, letter to Abraham Lincoln, September 28, 1863

Giving thanks at a gathering is far older than 1621 in the Northeast. The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen or "Words Before All Else," dates back more than 1,000 years and is still spoken at the opening and closing of Six Nations ceremonial and governmental gatherings, according to the New York State Museum. An English version published in 1993 with the Six Nations Indian Museum begins:

• "Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue." Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, English version by John Stokes and Kanawahienton, 1993

Which famous Thanksgiving quotes are misattributed?

Eleven widely shared lines in the table below carry the wrong name, the wrong source or wording the person never used. Three of the best known: the Marcus Aurelius morning line is Elbert Hubbard's, the Emerson line about cultivating gratitude is Wallace Wattles's, and the silent-gratitude line credited to Gertrude Stein is G. B. Stern's. Each correction links to the source that settles it.

Each correction links to the scan, archive or published source it rests on.

We also left out these popular lines, because we could not trace them to the person whose name is on them:

• "Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more..." (credited to Oprah Winfrey)
• "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." (William Arthur Ward)
• "We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives." (John F. Kennedy; we found it only on quote sites, never in a speech or paper of his)
• "Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year..." (Johnny Carson; no dated monologue, only joke books)
• "An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day." (Irv Kupcinet; the line ran without a name in a 1978 newspaper ad)
• "Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul." (Henry Ward Beecher; it was in print without his name by 1854 and is missing from his collected sayings)
• "Family is not an important thing. It's everything." (Michael J. Fox)
• "When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength..." (Tecumseh; Wikiquote lists the passage as disputed)
• "Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants." (Kevin James; it is a scripted sitcom line spoken in character)

Thanksgiving toasts you can say out loud

Three from the page, then eight of our own.

• "Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast." William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act 3, Scene 1, a dinner guest reassuring his host
• "To the family, that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to." Dodie Smith, Dear Octopus, 1938, the toast at a golden wedding dinner in the play. The printed text has a dash after "family."
• "Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies, that make our lives delightful." Robert Louis Stevenson, Prayers Written at Vailima, a prayer he read to his household in Samoa

Ours:

• To the cook, who has been on their feet since six this morning. Sit down. We have the dishes.
• To everyone at this table, and to the people who could not be here this year.
• To the new faces at the table. We are glad you came.
• To everyone who sat in traffic to get here. You were worth the traffic.
• To the hands that made this meal and the people who drove a long way to eat it.
• To another year together, and to whoever carves next year, because it is not going to be me.
• To full plates, short speeches, and this one ending now. Happy Thanksgiving.
• Before we eat, one thing each of us is thankful for, going around the table. Short answers. The gravy is getting cold.

How long should a Thanksgiving toast be?

Under a minute, which is about three sentences. Thank the person who cooked, name anyone who could not be there, and raise the glass before the food goes cold. Dodie Smith's octopus line works because it is one sentence and says something true about families that everyone at the table recognizes. The longest toast at most tables is the one nobody asked for, so if it is yours, stop a sentence earlier than feels natural. When more than one person wants to speak, the going-around-the-table version, one thing each person is thankful for, does the same job and gets the kids talking.

Thanksgiving messages for a card or a text

Written for this page, so they carry no name. The version that lands is one of these plus a sentence only you could write: the pie they always bring, the drive they made, the thing they did for you this year. Don't talk yourself out of that sentence. In three experiments by Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley, people who wrote letters of gratitude underestimated how positive the recipients would feel and overestimated how awkward the recipients would find it.

• Happy Thanksgiving. I'm grateful you're in my life, and I don't say it often enough.
• Thinking of you today and hoping your table is loud.
• Happy Thanksgiving from our table to yours. Save me a slice.
• Thank you for this year. You made more of it good than you know.
• Wishing you a warm kitchen, a full table and a quiet evening after.
• Missing you at the table this year and counting you among the good things anyway.
• To the person who always brings the pie: thank you, for that and for everything else.
• Grateful for you today, and on all the days that don't come with gravy.
• Sending love from a long way off. Have a second helping for me.
• This year showed us who turns up. You did. Thank you, and happy Thanksgiving.
• For a neighbor: Thank you for the spare eggs, the borrowed ladder and the company. Happy Thanksgiving.
• For a teacher: Thank you for everything you have done for our kid this year. Enjoy the long weekend.
• For a coworker: Happy Thanksgiving. May your inbox stay quiet until Monday.
• For someone having a hard year: No need to reply. Just thinking of you today.

Thanksgiving captions for photos

Also ours. Short enough to read at a glance, and most of them suit the one photo a year with everyone in it.

• Everyone in one frame, which happens about once a year.
• The whole cast, finally in the same room.
• Proof that we all sat still for four seconds.
• Same table, one more chair than last year.
• The kids' table has been promoted.
• Three generations, one very long table.
• This year's headcount: everybody.
• Pie first. No regrets.
• Home is wherever the gravy is.
• We came for the turkey and stayed for the leftovers.
• Grateful, full, and slightly asleep.
• Thankful for this table and everyone who argued about the seating chart.
• Grandma's recipe, grandma's table, grandma's rules.
• Twelve attempts. This is the one where nobody blinked.

Thanksgiving quotes and lines for kids

Lines a young reader can say at the table, from poems written for children, then a few of our own and some fill-in-the-blank prompts for the going-around-the-table moment.

• "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." Lydia Maria Child, "The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day," 1844. Yes, grandfather's. Grandmother only appears near the end of the poem ("Now grandmother's cap I spy!").
• "It is very nice to think / The world is full of meat and drink, / With little children saying grace / In every Christian kind of place." Robert Louis Stevenson, "A Thought," A Child's Garden of Verses, 1885
• "The world is so full of a number of things, / I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." Robert Louis Stevenson, "Happy Thought," A Child's Garden of Verses, 1885

Ours:

• I am thankful for my family, my friends and the pie.
• Thank you for the food, and thank you to the people who cooked it.
• I am thankful for my bed, my books and my dog. (Swap in their own three.)
• Thank you, Grandma, for letting me help in the kitchen.

Fill-in-the-blank prompts:

• I am thankful for ___ because ___.
• The best thing that happened to me this year was ___.
• Someone who helped me this year was ___.
• Something I can do now that I could not do last Thanksgiving is ___.

If the thank-you comes as a drawing instead (the traced-hand turkey is a classic), we stitch a child's drawing onto a sweatshirt in real thread.

Does writing down what you are thankful for do anything?

In one well-known experiment, it did. Psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough had college students fill in a short form each week for ten weeks, listing up to five things they were grateful for, while other groups listed hassles or ordinary events. Compared with those groups, the gratitude group rated their lives as a whole more favorably, felt more optimistic about the week ahead and reported fewer physical symptoms, and they exercised nearly an hour and a half more per week than the hassles group. Their overall mood did not shift.

It is one study of college students, published in 2003, and not a promise. But it points the same way as the old habit of going around the table and naming one thing each, which takes about two minutes and makes everyone say something specific. The paper opens, fittingly, with a version of the Dickens line quoted above.

When the quote goes with a gift

The card and the present usually travel together, and the same rule applies to both: the specific thing beats the general one. For a family you see once a year, the most specific present there is may be a portrait of the family itself.

A made-to-order portrait needs time. To have one in hand before the Thanksgiving drive on Wednesday, November 25, order by Monday, November 9, 2026. A photo taken at the table on the 26th can still become a Christmas gift if you order by Monday, December 7. Our Thanksgiving gifts guide walks through both dates, and if the gift is for a child who spent October in a pumpkin patch, Autumn Harvest puts them at the center of it.

Before anything prints, you approve a watermarked proof, and you can ask for changes or walk away at that point. The photo is deleted within 24 hours of fulfillment, it is never used to train AI, and names are never sent to the image model. US shipping is free, and a defect gets a free reprint.

Frequently asked questions

If the table photo is also going on this year's holiday card, our Christmas card photo ideas cover the shot, and the quotes above cover what to write under it.