THANKSGIVING MESSAGE: WHAT TO WRITE FOR YOUR THANKSGIVING WISHES IN 2020

Looking for some guidance on how to write your Thanksgiving message? Thankfully (pun intended) you’ve found the right place! We’ve got everything from message examples you can customize for yourself as well as tips on how to go about writing your Thanksgiving wishes — all the things to include as well as avoid!    

Even with all the chaos 2020 has presented us with, there is still so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We’d even argue one of the greatest gifts this challenging year has given us was a new perspective on the things we’ve been taking for granted all this time! A new perspective on just how grateful we are for the simplest of things. And while many are still struggling this Thanksgiving, we hope you are able to take a moment and practice some gratitude for all the lessons 2020 has brought us. And if you’re in the mood for spreading some gratitude around, sending happy thanksgiving greetings cards is a great way to do just that.  

Thanksgiving Message Examples for Everyone

Let us not waste any time. Getting right to the point, here’s a list of some general Thanksgiving messages you can use in a card addressed to just about anyone.

• We are so grateful for you and your family! Sending you peace and warmth during this crazy time. 
• We all have so much to be thankful for! Sending you and your family a harvest of blessings this Thanksgiving. 
• Happy Thanksgiving! We know this year has been rough, but we see your strength and wish you all the best this Thanksgiving.
• May you enjoy the warmth of family this season and the harvest of the feast! Happy Thanksgiving!
• Sending you laughter, joy and lots of stuffing this Thanksgiving. 
• We hope you and your family have been able to get together this year and are enjoying a Thanksgiving feast together! 
• Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving from across the [Street, country, state etc.]. 
• What a crazy ride this year has been! We are so thankful for you and your family. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Wishes For Family And Friends

Whether you’re able to join your family this Thanksgiving or are having to socially distance, a loving Thanksgiving card will still go a long way in letting your loved ones know you care. 

• Wishing you a day of feasting, laughing and loving one another. Happy Thanksgiving! Grateful for each and every one of you!
•  Thankful to call you family — this and every year! Happy Thanksgiving.
• Sending you all my love from across the [country, state, world etc.]! I/we am so grateful to have you all in my life and wish I could be there feasting with you all. Have some extra pumpkin pie for me.
• It’s been one hell of a year and I cannot be more grateful for you all as you stuck by me each and every step of the way. Happy Thanksgiving!
• I am beyond thankful to have you all in my life, this and every year! Sending my love!
• Your family is a true blessing in my/our life! Thanking my lucky stars this season that you are all well and healthy. Happy Thanksgiving!
• What a year! I am stunned at the level of support you’ve shown me/us and am beyond grateful for you. Happy Thanksgiving!
• Hope you and your family enjoy a delicious feast! Grateful that everyone is well and healthy!
• Thinking of you this Thanksgiving season and wishing you all peace and love.

Thanksgiving Traditions

In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends. Turkey, a happy thanksgiving messages  staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. Today, however, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird—whether roasted, baked or deep-fried—on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.

Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and towns across the United States. Presented by Macy’s department store since 1924, New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the largest and most famous, attracting some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile route and drawing an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters.

Beginning in the mid-20th century and perhaps even earlier, the president of the United States has “pardoned” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year, sparing the birds from slaughter and sending them to a farm for retirement. A number of U.S. governors also perform the annual turkey pardoning ritual.

Thanksgiving Controversies

For some scholars, the jury is still out on whether the feast at Plymouth really constituted the first Thanksgiving in the United States. Indeed, historians have recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America that predate the Pilgrims’ celebration. In 1565, for instance, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilé invited members of the local Timucua tribe to a dinner in St. Augustine, Florida, after holding a mass to thank God for his crew’s safe arrival. On December 4, 1619, when 38 British settlers reached a site known as Berkeley Hundred on the banks of Virginia’s James River, they read a proclamation designating the date as “a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

Some Native Americans and others take issue with how the Thanksgiving story is presented to the American public, and especially to schoolchildren. In their view, the traditional narrative paints a deceptively sunny portrait of relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people, masking the long and bloody history of conflict between Native Americans and European settlers that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands. Since 1970, protesters have gathered on the day designated as Thanksgiving at the top of Cole’s Hill, which overlooks Plymouth Rock, to commemorate a “National Day of Mourning.” Similar events are held in other parts of the country.

Thanksgiving’s Ancient Origins

Although the American concept of Thanksgiving developed in the colonies of New England, its roots can be traced back to the other side of the Atlantic. Both the Separatists who came over on the Mayflower and the Puritans who arrived soon after brought with them a tradition of providential holidays—days of fasting during difficult or pivotal moments and days of feasting and celebration to thank God in times of plenty.

As an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty, moreover, Thanksgiving falls under a category of festivals that spans cultures, continents and millennia. In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans feasted and paid tribute to their gods after the fall harvest. Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on their shores.