Thanksgiving Messages: What to Write in a Thanksgiving Card

Thanksgiving Day is the perfect time to remind one another of the many reasons there are to be grateful. This year, along with sharing with everyone around the dinner table, use some of the greetings here to send to the friends, family members, and co-workers who mean the most to you. Especially those family members who are far away or who can’t make it to your Thanksgiving table this year, it will mean so much to get a tangible reminder of your love and gratitude for them. These Happy Thanksgiving messages and well wishes for your personalized Thanksgiving cards will help you count your blessings this season.

Looking for thanksgiving messages or wishes for a specific person or sentiment? Jump to each section below:

thanksgiving card with photo

Happy Thanksgiving Messages for Family and Friends

Although sending out holiday cards is most closely associated with Christmas, there is certainly something special about receiving a Thanksgiving message from those nearest and dearest to you. These heartfelt messages will serve as the perfect introduction to your holiday season.

Go beyond the norm and craft a Thanksgiving blessing that will not only make your recipients smile, but also help you get back to what really matters during this time of the year. Mix and match the messages below or customize them with your own wishes for a humble seasons’ greetings to share around the table, in a greeting card or in your Thanksgiving party invitations.

  • Happy Thanksgiving!
  • Happy Thanksgiving Day!
  • Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
  • Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
  • May all the good things of life be yours, not only at Thanksgiving but throughout the coming year.
  • Our homes may be far apart, but our hearts are as close as always.
  • There have been times when I forgot to thank you for being there for me. I take this day to tell you how special you are and how great my life has become because of you. Have a memorable Thanksgiving.
  • Thanksgiving is more than the festivities, it gives us time to ponder upon what lessons we learnt and how we can spread happiness around, to look back at all the great memories and good people who came into our lives. We appreciate you so much. Happy Thanksgiving Day to you and your loved ones.
  • At this time of Thanksgiving celebration, our thoughts turn gratefully to you with warm appreciation. Our best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving.
  • Being a family means you are part of something very wonderful. It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life. No matter what. Happy Thanksgiving!
  • Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. Happy Thanksgiving to those closest to my heart.

Thanksgiving Wishes for Family and Friends

Express warm Thanksgiving blessings and elevate your sentiments with a few touching Thanksgiving wishes. Your thanksgiving wishes should be filled with gratitude and appreciation. These words will add charm to your message and give your recipient the important reminder and appreciation he or she needs, now and always. This Thanksgiving, send a message along with some gifts that will be cherished for a lifetime.

  • May the good things of life be yours in abundance not only at Thanksgiving but throughout the coming year.
  • May you enjoy a bountiful Thanksgiving, a joyous holiday season and healthful, Happy New Year.
  • A special greeting of Thanksgiving time to express to you our sincere appreciation for your confidence and loyalty. We are deeply thankful and extend to you our best wishes for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day.
  • One of the joys of Thanksgiving is wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season.
  • At this time of Thanksgiving we pause to count our blessings. The freedom of this great country in which we live. It’s opportunity for achievement. The friendship and confidence you have shown in us. For all of these things we are deeply thankful. Our best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving.
  • Thanksgiving for people is…The morning sun and the setting moon, The cheerful bird and the dancing mood, The silent waters and the playful dunes, But more than that I cherish you. Wishing you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day.
  • Gratitude is the heart’s memory. Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.
  • May your stuffing be tasty. May your turkey plump, may your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump. May your yams be delicious, and your pies take the prize, and may your Thanksgiving dinner stay off your thighs.
  • November is the time to be thankful, a time to remember and to embrace those who enrich our lives. I’m thankful for a lot of things, but I’m most thankful for you.
  • Because today is a special day, I want to let you know that I appreciate you every single day. Happy Thanksgiving wishes!
  • Thank you Mom and Dad for giving me food, shelter and unconditional love.
  • Thank you Mom for always making spectacular meals throughout the years! Thanksgiving won’t be the same without your special dishes.
  • A heartfelt thanks to you on this day, for being my guide, my teacher and my father. Happy Thanksgiving Dad!

thanksgiving quotes for fall photo book

Happy Thanksgiving Wishes For Everyone

If you are unsure of what to say to your card recipient, you can’t go wrong with short and sweet. Here are a few simple note-starters! These general Happy Thanksgiving wishes for everyone can be used to complete your message. 

  • Here’s a heartwarming thanks to you for the hope, peace and joy that you bring to my life.
  • Hope that you’re surrounded with the love of your dear ones on this festive season. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
  • I’m really glad that we’re family. Thanking God for having you in my life on this special day.
  • Thanksgiving wishes from across the miles from our house to yours. May your home be filled with laughter and happiness!
  • Sending you my warm wishes from home to home and from heart to heart to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving! May this day be a beautiful reminders of the wonderful things in life.
  • November is the time to be thankful, a time to remember and to embrace those who enrich our lives. I’m thankful for a lot of things, but I’m most thankful for You!
  • Wish you a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving!
  • Wishing you the gift of faith and the blessing of hope this thanksgiving day!
  • We gather on this day to be thankful for what we have, for the family we love, the friends we cherish, and for the blessings that will come. Happy Thanksgiving!
  • May your blessings be multiplied this year and throughout all your life. Happy Thanksgiving wishes to you!
  • Wishing you a harvest of blessings, good health and good times. Happy Thanksgiving day!
  • Here’s to enjoying the company of good friends and family. I wish you a happy Thanksgiving!
  • May you enjoy the feast and the company of your family on Thanksgiving day.
  • May you enjoy this celebration with your family full of laughter and peace. Happy Thanksgiving greetings!

Happy Thanksgiving Messages For Colleagues

Don’t forget to wish those you work with a bountiful holiday too. You’ll want to keep your Happy Thanksgiving card messages for colleagues professional but still carry out your charm with the words you select.

  • Working with you has always been enjoyable and inspiring! Happy Thanksgiving to you.
  • It’s a pleasure working with you. Happy Thanksgiving!
  • Thanksgiving is just one more day to say working with you has always been so wonderful.
  • I’m thankful for all that you do.
  • In this time of Thanksgiving, I want to express my appreciation for you. Working with you has been an amazing opportunity for me. I appreciate your high standards, persistence and fine sense of humor. Happy Thanksgiving.
  • I am not sure if my best friend can fill the shoes of my best colleague at work. But I am sure that you-my best colleague can easily fill the shoes of my best friend. Thanks for your support.
  • I consider myself very fortunate for having a chance to work with an expert of your caliber. Working with you was a great learning experience for me. I really value the knowledge and insight you have. Happy Thanksgiving.
  • On Thanksgiving, I don’t know how I can show enough appreciation, to a co-worker who has given me so much motivation. Thanks for being such an inspiration.
  • I never face Monday morning blues, because of fun colleagues like you. Thank you. I hope you enjoy your time at home with those close to your heart this holiday season.
  • It’s always nice to work with a well envisioned colleague. Your positive energy radiates into us. I am so grateful. Happy Thanksgiving.

happy thanksgiving wishes for cards

Thanksgiving Quotes

Between all the big day preparation and cooking that has to be started, it’s easy for all of us to get swept up in the festive chaos and lose sight of a thankful heart. Quotes serve as the perfect reminder and inspiration for all that we have to be grateful for.  Let the experts lend their hand, or should we say lend their pens, to assist in sharing Thanksgiving blessings.

The following quotes for Thanksgiving will help you reflect on everything you have to appreciate. Use them in your cards or tie them into your Thanksgiving party ideas. You can even add these quotes throughout your family’s custom photo books.

  • “Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are.” -Joyce Giraud
  • “The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” -Dalai Lama
  • “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” -Anonymous
  • “I love Thanksgiving because it’s a holiday that is centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.” -Marcus Samuelsson
  • “Forever on Thanksgiving day the heart will find the pathway home.” -Wilbur D. Nesbit
  • “Each day I am thankful for nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family, dreams that turned into reality and likes that turned into love. Most importantly though, I am thankful for you today and everyday.” -Anonymous
  • “You are my pumpkin pie. I love you and am so thankful to have you in my life.” -Anonymous
  • “Thanksgiving after all, is a word of action.” -W.J. Cameron
  • “Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.” -E.P. Powell
  • “Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make everyday a holiday in which you celebrate just living.” – Amanda Bradley
  • “Family isn’t always about the people in your life who are blood relations. It’s about the people in your life who want you to be in theirs. It’s about the people in your life who accept you for who you are, support you in the things you choose to do and no matter what, are there for you. It’s the people in your life who love you, respect you and who you can depend on. Now that’s family!” -Anonymous
  • “We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.” -Anonymous
  • “We have so much to be thankful for. One day a year hardly seems adequate…”-Anonymous

Inspirational Happy Thanksgiving Quotes

Use inspirational Happy Thanksgiving quotes in your card or invitations if you are looking to remind your recipients of just how much they have to be grateful for this holiday season.

  • “Gratitude can transform common days into Thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” -William Arthur Ward
  • “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” -Oprah Winfrey
  • “I am grateful for what I am and have. My Thanksgiving is perpetual.” -Henry David Thoreau
  • “If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” -W. Clement Stone
  • “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” -Melody Beattie
  • “Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.” -Anonymous
  • “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.” -Cicero
  • “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
  • “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
  • “I give thanks to my Creator for this wonderful life where each of us has the opportunity to learn lessons we could not fully comprehend by any other means.” -Joseph B. Wirthlin
  • “Dear Lord; we beg but one boon more: Peace in the hearts of all men living, peace in the whole world this Thanksgiving.” – Joseph Auslander
  • “God gave you the gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?” – William A. Ward

Funny Thanksgiving Quotes

If you know your card recipient will appreciate a good laugh, then you might want to add one of the following funny Thanksgiving quotes to your message. These funny Thanksgiving quotes can also be used as wall art for your Thanksgiving decor.

  • “An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.”-Anonymous
  • “Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.” -Erma Bombeck
  • “Toasted, roasted, baked and done! Hope your Thanksgiving is loads of fun.” -Anonymous
  • “This Thanksgiving I hope you’re able to avoid the tragedy of the different foods on your plate touching one another.” – Anonymous
  • “This Thanksgiving, cherish the time spent with your family as a reminder of why you moved very far away from your family.” -Anonymous
  • “Vegetables are a must on Thanksgiving. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.” – Jim Davis
  • “Black Friday: because only in America people trample each other for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.” -Anonymous
  • “Thanksgiving. Bringing out the best in family dysfunction since 1863.” -Anonymous
  • “Happy Day after Thanksgiving! Hope you didn’t forget to set your scales back 10 pounds last night.” -Anonymous
  • “Cooking tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out.” -Nicole Hollander
  • “I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.” -Erma Bombeck
  • “The Thanksgiving tradition is, we overeat. ‘Hey, how about at Thanksgiving we just eat a lot?’ ‘But we do that every day!’ ‘Oh. What if we eat a lot with people that annoy us then?’” -Jim Gaffigan
  • “Last Thanksgiving I shot my own turkey. It was fun. That shotgun going, BLAM! Everybody at the supermarket just staring. Why track them when I know where they are?” -Kenny Rogerson
  • “You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.” -Jay Leno

Final Thoughts on Thanksgiving Quotes

Your time and recognition will not be forgotten by anyone who receives a Thanksgiving blessing from you. This year, share your thankfulness by starting a holiday tradition everyone will love. If you are looking for a little something more, you can reference our comprehensive thank you quotes article and find the perfect thank you for anyone on your list.

When the big feast comes around, don’t forget what Thanksgiving is all about. Being thankful is an important part of being happy and sharing this joy with others will only elevate your holiday. Oh, and remember to give your compliments to the chef, it is Thanksgiving after all.