Whether you’re planning a Thanksgiving meal with family or a Friendsgiving with best buddies, your conversation should be seasoned with warm thoughts. Here’s a collection of Thanksgiving wishes you can use to make a killer toast before the meal. Cheers! Or, use them for Thanksgiving card messages. Easiest of all, find one ready-made at Redbubble.
We’ve done the gobbling, er, Googling so you don’t have to. Here are funny sayings to smooth that awkward moment when your aunt brings up politics (gulp) or asks you when you’re going to cut your hair. The quotes will make you ponder the deep meaning of the season as you fall asleep in your deep armchair. And you’ll get a few laughs to carry you through whatever bumps the season brings.
Happy Thanksgiving Wishes
Thanksgiving is one holiday when it’s O.K. to pile on the sentiment along with the gravy. Let that special teacher or your mom know you appreciate them. Wish them a happy turkey day with these written hugs that are almost as good as the real thing:
- May you never forget your blessings. May they be etched in stone, while your troubles are washed away like sand. May they rain down on you, small and large, and always grow in number.
- May the happiness of this season wrap you like a blanket and last all year long. Wishing you the warm company of friends, the joy of family, and the bright wonder of the holiday season.
- May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump. May your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump. May your yams be delicious and your pies take the prize. May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off your thighs.
- May none of your true feelings accidentally slip out during the Thanksgiving meal. Watch the wine.
- May you enjoy Thanksgiving to the fullest with all the fruits of the season. May you savor the pie and potatoes, the turkey and trimmings, and forget about the extra pounds.
- Although our homes are far away, our hearts are always near. Wishing you a bright Thanksgiving. Let’s get together next year.
- Gratitude is the memory of the heart. Our footprints in the sand will fade, but our memory of the beach will last forever. Wishing you an unforgettable Thanksgiving.
- I count my blessings every day, and you’re one blessing I can always count on. Wishing you a Thanksgiving as happy as you’ve always made me.
- May peace surround you this Thanksgiving like the sunrise. May happiness fall on you like the sunshine. May your dreams be realized like the start of the new day.
- May we always have a kindly heart that loves to meet a need, for then we’ll have a host of friends who always say “Godspeed.”
Thanksgiving Messages to Friends
- A friend is someone who understands your past with all its stumbles and mistakes. They believe in your future 100% and love you, warts and all (well, not the warts so much.) Here are Thanksgiving messages for friends to remind them you’ll stand back to back for the long haul, pinky square.
- We may not have it all together, but together, we have it all.
- You’re the kind of friend who is also family. We have a double bond that will never be broken. Hand in hand and heart to heart, may we never be apart.
- As we celebrate the harvest this Thanksgiving, may you harvest love because of all the goodness you spread to others. In the end, the only harvest we carry with us is the love we share.
- Give thanks for each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night. For health and food, for love and friends, for everything Thy goodness sends.
- Friends are the family we choose. I’m so glad I chose you. Our adventures together are just beginning. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
- A good friend remembers what we were and sees what we can be. Some things only grow more beautiful over time, like our friendship. You have given your time to let it grow, time which you can never get back. It was all worth it, because look at us now!
- Imagine a Thanksgiving bursting with delicious turkey, pies, and dressing. That’s what you should do — imagine it so you don’t gain weight.
- This is a time to ponder the lessons of the past year. It’s a time to embrace the ones we love. It’s a time to be grateful for all we have. I’m most grateful for you, my friend. Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving.
- I love the waning moon reflected on the water. I love the brimming day spilling from the sun. But most of all I love your friendship. Our growing bond has just begun.
- Your friendship has cheered me like a merry fire. You hear the song in my heart and sing it to me when my memory fails. You’re a sturdy wall I can lean on and a haven when I’m lost. In this journey of life, I’m thankful to have a friend like you.
Thanksgiving Messages for Family
A family Thanksgiving is a mixed bag, from that cousin who won’t stop talking about clock repair to that minefield of politics and religion you’ll dance around. But it also cheers us with memories of good times. Family is the original social network, and these messages are for them.
- Family is like a branching tree. Although the branches grow in different directions, it has one root. Family means loving and being loved for life. That’s nothing to take for granted. I love our family, and you.
- Having somewhere to go is home. Having someone to love is family. Having both is a blessing.
- Friends come and go, but family is with you through thick and thin. That’s all I could ask of anyone. Let’s celebrate the closeness of our family on this Thanksgiving Day.
- Family is a place where life begins and the love never ends. You’re there for me always. For all the times I forgot to say so, thank you.
- My child, you may have outgrown my lap, but you’ll never outgrow my heart. Ask me how often you cross my mind. The answer is once, because you never leave it.
- This Thanksgiving I’m grateful to live in a country where freedom is prized. I’m grateful to be born into a family that gave me the freedom to live my dreams. Because of these blessings, the future is wide open.
- I know you’d be with us today if heaven wasn’t so far away.
- Your love is unconditional. It has no end, just like the food on this table today! I’m very thankful for your wide-open heart towards me, through all the years.
- Thanks for investing more in me than I could ever pay back. You’ll get a big return in my love and thanks.
- I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can’t, because when it comes to you, my heart has no bottom.
Thanksgiving Sayings
Thanksgiving sayings are short, pithy jewels of wisdom that are passed down in families, tribes or countries. They’re the old-timey version of a meme. They remind us there’s a bigger picture and we have more to be grateful for than we realize.
- Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot. —Hansa Proverb
- Do you want to feel rich? Try counting all the things you have that can’t be bought with money.
- Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. —Native American saying
- Creator, open our hearts to peace and healing between all people. Creator, open our hearts to respect for the earth and all the gifts of the earth. Thank you for the gifts of this day and every day. —Mi’Kmaq prayer
- “Enough” is a feast. —Buddhist Proverb
- If our hours are filled with yesterday’s regrets and fears for tomorrow, there is no today to be grateful for.
- If we’re constantly searching for that moment of big happiness, how many special little moments will pass us by?
- The grass is always greener on the other side, until you jump the fence and see the weeds.
- We have but one life. It’s up to us whether we spend it in laughing or weeping.
- Today I will make a choice: to live in gratitude for love that fills my heart. To rest in peace within my spirit. To listen to the voice of hope that whispers “all things are possible for you.”
Thanksgiving Quotes
A year can bring plenty of trouble, but if you turn that thought upside-down, there’s a lot of trouble you escaped as well. People who’ve been through the fire have passed down their wisdom about how important it is to be grateful even for the small stuff. Enjoy these Happy Thanksgiving quotes from the giants of our past and that popular poet, Anonymous.
- “Let us be grateful for the people who make us happy; they are charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” —Marcel Proust
- “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
- “So much has been given to me, I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.” —Helen Keller
- “Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” —G.K. Chesterton
- “As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?” —Anne Frank
Funny Thanksgiving Quotes
Even the happiest family gathering has its oddball members and eye-rolling moments. As you prepare to meet again this year, remember, there’s safety in numbers. Find a kindred soul at the party and have a few laughs in the corner with these Thanksgiving quips.
- “Thanksgiving Day. You can count on it to bring out the best in family dysfunction since 1621.” —Anonymous
- “God gave us our relatives; thank God we can choose our friends.” —Ethel Watts Mumford
- “I have many blessings, but on this day I’m most grateful for elastic waistbands.” —Anonymous
- “A huge ‘thank you’ to all the people who’ve come into my life and made it outstanding. I’d also like to thank those who walked out of my life and made it even more fantastic.” —Anonymous
- “This year, I’m thankful for my wonderful family. Oops, I forgot the main thing. It’s beer. I’m most thankful for beer.” —Anonymous
- “A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life, to be thankful for a good one.” —Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- “This Thanksgiving Day, we should be grateful above all for the fact that we were not born turkeys.” —Anonymous
- “Of course I brought a side dish. It’s three bottles of wine I’m not planning to share. I hope you don’t mind.” —Anonymous
- “The American Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” —Benjamin Franklin
- “After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” —Oscar Wilde
Now that you’re ready to be quotable, get in a thankful mood with this original Thanksgiving art from talented creative types at Redbubble. Or decorate your place with themed holiday decor that you’ll keep up all year, it’s so inspiring.
If you want to show up in that perfect t-shirt to make everyone smile, you’ll find that on Redbubble, too. There are even lighthearted gifts so you lift the mood to the Pranksgiving level if you want.
We’ll send you off with Thanksgiving wishes for merry fun, heartfelt cheer, and snaring the last piece of pumpkin pie. May you be showered with blessings and not get wet, and have a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Header image Thanksgiving by caksu