Free Thanksgiving Stories, Videos and Arts and Crafts for Children

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Updated November 2022

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. This year (2022), Thanksgiving Day falls on the 24th of November. (Explanation adapted from Wikipedia)

The following children’s stories, activities and videos are ideal for Thanksgiving. They can be used at home or in a classroom or Sunday School setting and will help children not only enjoy themselves but also remember the true meaning of the season.

Stories, Books and Presentations
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• NEW! Thank God for Autumn (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• NEW! Praise at Work - ​Bible passages on praise and thanksgiving for children.
• NEW! Giving Thanks (Bilingual English/Spanish) - A booklet for little children
• An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, by Louisa May Alcot (audiobook)
• ​Practicing Gratitude: Thanksgiving Devotionals for Children - A book for children with 23 illustrated daily devotionals for children. Also available for free in epub/mobi format.
• ​My First Words: Thanksgiving (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• ​My Thanksgiving Prayer - A cute book for little children.
• The First Thanksgiving (Bilingual English/Spanish). Also available for free in epub/mobi format.
• The Origins of Thanksgiving (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• Pilgrims and Indians (Bilingual English/Spanish). Also available for free in epub/mobi format.
• Five Senses Thanksgiving (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• Moral Values: Gratitude (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• Pray a Way Thankfulness  - Thanksgiving prayers for children. These can be printed and given to children, put up on the wall and/or memorized.
• So Much to be Glad For  - Devotional for preschoolers and young children.
• A Little Children’s Book About Gratitude (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• A Little Children’s Book About Thanksgiving (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• The Thanksgiving Special - A Thanksgiving story for older children and teens.

Bible Stories and Coloring Pages on Thankfulness

• The Power of Praise  - Dramatized story from 2. Chronicles 20 in comic form. The true story of how Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, won a battle over three larger, more powerful enemy armies through praise. 
• Jesus and the Ten Lepers - Bible story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. Click here for a different downloadable version of this story.
• Jesus and the Ten Lepers: Flannelgraph
• Jesus and the Ten Lepers: Be the Artist
• Psalm 100 (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• Psalm 148 - A Creation Praise (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• Psalm 150 Coloring Book (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• Crazily Cool Card Set: Praise and Thankfulness - Set of four Bible verse coloring pages for children.
• Thanksgiving Bible Verse Coloring Pages - Great Bible verses to learn for the Thanksgiving season with cool pictures to color.

Activities

• My Gratitude Journal - A one-week printable gratitude journal for children, with daily writing prompts.
• Thanksgiving Bingo for children - A simple Thanksgiving bingo game for little children. 
• Thanksgiving MiniWorld for Kids - With this set, you can create a small scene to commemorate the first Thanksgiving. (note: this item isn't free but is very reasonably priced and is offered by an artist who provides a host of free activities, coloring pages and other greet resources for kids)
• Printable Thanksgiving Activities for Children - A 20 page booklet including color by number coloring pages, word searches, word scramble, mazes, dot to dot, matching and more.  
• William Bradford and the First Thanksgiving - Activity Book (Meant to accompany the video by the same name; link for watching this video for free online is listed below.)
• The First Thanksgiving Coloring Book (Bilingual English/Spanish)
• Thanksgiving Coloring Pages
• Five Senses Thanksgiving Coloring Book (To accompany the story listed above)
• Thanksgiving arts and crafts for preschoolers
• Thankfulness Tree

Videos/Songs

• NEW! ​Psalm 148 - A Creation Praise
• NEW! Cherub Wings: Gratitude Attitude - a fun show with stories and songs about thanksgiving and gratitude. 
• William Bradford and the First Thanksgiving - The story of the how and why the Pilgrims first came to America, how they survived and the friendship between them and the local Indians who helped them learn how to adapt to a new land.
• The Story of Thanksgiving  - For preschoolers and young children. A short, humorous version of the story of Thanksgiving as told by Plymouth Rock.
• Herbert and Bert Thanksgiving - Short video clip; ideal for young children but great for older children as well. Helps children remember that Thanksgiving is about more than eating turkey; it is about being thankful for our blessings on every day of the year.
• Thank You for My Eyes  - Children's music video from the "Kiddie Viddie" DVD series.
• I Have All that I Need  - Children's music video from the "Fantastic Friends" music video series. While the examples in the song are a bit dated, the concept of being thankful for what we have is still valid and the song points this out in a clear, thought-provoking manner.

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