Thanksgiving hymns for church and the family table

Long before Thanksgiving was a national holiday, Christians sang their thanks to God at harvest time. These hymns grew out of that habit: songs about fields and seasons, daily bread, and a God who keeps his promise of seedtime and harvest (Genesis 8:22). They suit the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a community Thanksgiving service shared by several churches, a church supper, or a family that wants to sing grace together on Thursday.

The best-known Thanksgiving hymns are easy to sing in a crowd. “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” and “Now Thank We All Our God” have strong, familiar tunes; “We Gather Together” is the one many Americans remember from childhood; and “For the Beauty of the Earth” works as well with children as with adults. Further down the page are hymns of gratitude for any season of the year, and harvest hymns that thank God for the fields and the rain.

Every hymn here is in the public domain in the United States, taken from a hymnal printed before 1931, so you can print the words for a bulletin, put them on the screen, or make copies for the dinner table. Use “Print all lyrics” to make one sheet with every hymn on this page. Hymns marked “▶ Play along” have a free accompaniment you can play from a phone or laptop if no pianist is available.