Traditional Thanksgiving Poems and Songs for Kids

As Thanksgiving Day approaches, you can prepare your family for the spirit of Thanksgiving by visiting some traditional poems and songs for kids. Use this collection of Thanksgiving poems and songs to read aloud at your Thanksgiving meal, give to your kids for copywork in the month of November, or come up with your own creative ways to use them at your family gatherings. Another great way to use the following poems is to print them out and display them in your home.

Along with poems and songs, you can introduce your kids to important themes of gratitude and contentment through inspirational Thanksgiving stories and picture books like these.

The True Thanksgiving Story Book List for Kids

7 Favorite Thanksgiving Homeschool Read-Aloud Books

List of Thanksgiving Poems and Songs

The New England Boy’s Song About Thanksgiving Day by Lydia Maria Child
Thanksgiving Day by John Kendrick Bangs
The Harvest Moon by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Pilgrims Give Thanks by Marjorie Lindsey Brewer
Father We Thank Thee by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thanksgiving by Joyce Kilmer
We Gather Together by Adrianus Valerius
Come Ye Thankful People Come by Henry Alford
For the Beauty of the Earth by Folliott Pierpoint
A Thankful Fable by Oliver Hereford
I Ate Too Much Turkey by Jack Prelutsky
A Thanksgiving Dinner by Maude M. Grant

Inspirational Historical Thanksgiving Poems

The New-England Boy’s Song About Thanksgiving Day by Lydia Maria Child

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,
To grandfather’s house away!
We would not stop
For doll or top,
For ‘t is Thanksgiving Day.

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,
With a clear blue winter sky,
The dogs do bark,
And children hark,
As we go jingling by.

Over the river, and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play–
Hear the bells ring
Ting a ling ding,
Hurra for Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river, and through the wood–
No matter for winds that blow;
Or if we get
The sleigh upset,
Into a bank of snow.

Over the river, and through the wood,
To see little John and Ann;
We will kiss them all,
And play snow-ball,
And stay as long as we can.

Over the river, and through the wood,
Trot fast, my dapple grey!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound,
For ‘t is Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river, and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate;
We seem to go
Extremely slow,
It is so hard to wait.

Over the river, and through the wood–
Old Jowler hears our bells;
He shakes his pow,
With a loud bow wow,
And thus the news he tells.

Over the river, and through the wood–
When grandmother sees us come,
She will say, Oh dear,
The children are here,
Bring a pie for every one.

Over the river, and through the wood–
Now grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurra for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurra for the pumpkin pie!

Thanksgiving Day by John Kendrick Bangs

For all the gracious gifts in harvests fair
In things material whose goodly share
I richly prize;
For man’s abundant wealth that lies in sight,
And for the sense of power and of might
With which to meet my foe, and fight the fight,
My thanks arise.

But for the richer gifts of Love and Peace
That bring the soul a sense of sweet release
From pressing care;
For mercies shown; for greater growth of soul;
For light when clouds of deadly dark uproll
To point the way to some more lofty goal,
And lead us there;

For broader human sympathy; for tears
Of Brotherhood to ease another’s fears,
And cheer his way;
For seeing eyes; and shoulders fit to bear
The burdens of our fellows in despair,
And right good will to help them in their care
When times are gray;

For men of heart and soul inclined
To honors of a lowlier, meeker kind,
With grace endued;
Who seek all dire injustices to mend,
To guide the hopeless to some hopeful end,
Not this alone, but all my days, I spend.

The Harvest Moon by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their aerial neighborhoods of nests
Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
Of Nature have their image in the mind,
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close,
Only the empty nests are left behind,
And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

The Pilgrims Give Thanks by Marjorie Lindsey Brewer

Just look upon the land and see the yield
Of pumpkins, corn, and squash in every field.
The shocks of corn are glistening in the sun
With coats of frost on every one.

Come, let us have a feast with praise
To God, who blessed the crops we raise.
Have Massasoit and all his men
Bring deer and visit us again.

Together, we will roast the meat—
Wild turkey, venison we’ll eat.
Some pumpkins, corn, and hoe-cake bread
Will grace the board when thanks are said.

A last, we have our feast prepared.
We thank our God for how we’ve fared,
For crops that He has helped us grow
And for the seed we have to sow.

Our Horn of Plenty overflows
With product from the land we chose.
We give our thanks to God above
For all His care and help and love.

Father We Thank Thee by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

For blue of stream and blue of sky,
Father, we thank Thee.
For pleasant shade of branches high,
Father, we thank Thee.
For fragrant air and cooling breeze,
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,
Father, we thank Thee.
For rest and shelter of the night,
Father, we thank Thee
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

Thanksgiving by Joyce Kilmer

The roar of the world is in my ears.
Thank God for the roar of the world!
Thank God for the mighty tide of fears
Against me always hurled!

Thank God for the bitter and ceaseless strife,
And the sting of His chastening rod!
Thank God for the stress and the pain of life,
And Oh, thank God for God!

Traditional Thanksgiving Songs

Even a young child will appreciate these hymns of lofty cheer which remind us of God’s provision throughout the year.

We Gather Together by Adrianus Valerius

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be;
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Come Ye Thankful People Come by Henry Alford

Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home:
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied:
Come to God’s own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field,
Fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown,
Unto joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade, and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear:
Lord of harvest, grant that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day
All offenses purge away;
Give His angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come
To Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin;
There, forever purified,
In Thy presence to abide:
Come, with all Thine angels, come,
Raise the glorious harvest home.

For the Beauty of the Earth by Folliott Pierpoint

For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies:
Christ, our God, to Thee we raise
this, our sacrifice of praise.

For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flow’r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light:
Christ, our God, to Thee we raise
this, our sacrifice of praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above;
For all gentle thoughts and mild:
Christ, our God, to Thee we raise
this, our sacrifice of praise.

For each perfect Gift of Thine
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and Divine,
Flowers of earth, and buds of Heaven:
Christ, our God, to Thee we raise
This our Sacrifice of Praise.

Comical Thanksgiving Poems

These next funny Thanksgiving poems will be fun to read over and over. Young readers may enjoy trying to memorize them.

A Thankful Fable by Oliver Hereford

It was a hungry pussy cat,
upon Thanksgiving morn,
And she watched a thankful little mouse,
that ate an ear of corn.
‘If I ate that thankful little mouse,
how thankful he should be,
When he had made a meal himself,
to make a meal for me!
Then with his Thanks for having fed,
and thanks for feeding me.
With all his thankfulness inside,
how thankful I shall be!’
Thus mused the hungry pussy cat,
upon Thanksgiving Day.
But the little mouse had overheard
and declined (with thanks) to stay.

I Ate Too Much Turkey by Jack Prelutsky

I ate too much turkey,
I ate too much corn,
I ate too much pudding and pie,
I’m stuffed up with muffins
and much too much stuffin’,
I’m probably going to die.

I piled up my plate
and I ate and I ate,
but I wish I had known when to stop,
for I’m so crammed with yams,
sauces, gravies, and jams
that my buttons are starting to pop.

I’m full of tomatoes
and french fried potatoes,
my stomach is swollen and sore,
but there’s still some dessert,
so I guess it won’t hurt
if I eat just a little bit more.

A Thanksgiving Dinner by Maude M. Grant

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!

Sharing these inspirational Thanksgiving poems is a wonderful way to spread good cheer around your kitchen table. As you feast on cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and other piles of good things, nourish your soul as well with these poems and songs this Thanksgiving season.

Happy Thanksgiving!