Thanksgiving Stories for Kids — Personalized Storybooks

Thanksgiving, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, is the coziest holiday of the American calendar — a day set aside simply to gather, to feast, and to say thank you. Its story reaches back to the 1620s, when the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people shared an autumn harvest meal, and it has grown ever since into a celebration of gratitude that families across the United States — and American families around the world — hold close to their hearts.

The days before Thanksgiving fill the house with the best smells of the year. Grandparents arrive with folding chairs and old recipes, turkeys are brined and basted, and kitchens overflow with mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and pies — pumpkin, pecan, and apple. Children fold paper turkeys with traced handprints, watch the Macy's balloons inflate along the city streets, and help set the long table where everyone has a usual seat.

At the meal, families take turns sharing what they are thankful for — a new baby cousin, a lost tooth, a friend who moved back to town. After dinner come football on the TV, a walk around the block in the crisp autumn air, and slices of pie with whipped cream. Thanksgiving teaches children the quietest lesson of the holiday season: that the fullest feeling of all isn't on the table — it's the people gathered around it.