250 Thanksgiving Pictures and Images

On this page you will find 250 free Thanksgiving pictures to use to celebrate the holiday and to send to friends and family. These images are for personal use*: in the classroom, to make crafts and holiday greeting cards, or to send in an email with your holiday wishes.

In 2016, American Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 24; the Canadian holiday is celebrated on Monday, October 10.

The Thanksgiving pictures on this page are organized into twelve groups. You can quickly find the pictures you want from this Table of Contents, or just scroll down to see everything in this collection.

TABLE OF CONTENTS – Jump to Section

Thanksgiving Images

"Happy Thanksgiving" Pictures

First Thanksgiving

Turkey Pictures

Funny Thanksgiving Pictures

Prayers of Thankfulness

Thanksgiving Clip Art

Thanksgiving Coloring Pages

Thanksgiving Images

These Thanksgiving images represent the holiday celebration in family homes across America. The festive holiday meal is a family tradition, and the centerpiece is a plump, roasted turkey presented on a fine platter.

These images include the traditional menu favorites such as colorful autumn harvest vegetables, fruit, and pumpkin pie. With autumn's chill in the air, the images also represent the warmth of hearth and home.

At the heart of the images is the family gathering and a time of giving thanks with prayer.

Cornucopias

Traditional Thanksgiving pictures often feature cornucopias filled with the fall harvest bounty. The cornucopia, also called a horn of plenty, is an ancient symbol of prosperity. Overflowing with fruit, vegetables, Indian corn, gourds, flowers, nuts and berries, it represents abundance.

Americans use this image in Thanksgiving pictures to represent the overflowing blessings to be grateful for during the harvest season.

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Thanksgiving Roasted Turkey Pictures

One common theme for Thanksgiving images is the roasted turkey served on a platter. Eating turkey for the holiday meal is a tradition carried over from the very first Thanksgiving meal, when the Pilgrims and Indians shot wild turkeys for the banquet.

Because it takes many hours to roast a turkey, it is presented with the hostess's pride of accomplishment.

At the holiday dinner table, the turkey is the main attraction.

Thanksgiving Pictures of Pumpkin Pies

The dessert menu for the traditional holiday feast includes pumpkin pie. Pumpkins are harvested in the fall and these large colorful vegetables provide cooks with ample ingredients for many family recipes. But the pumpkin pie is the all-time favorite and this is why it is featured in so many Thanksgiving pictures and images.

Pumpkins were served at the first Thanksgiving meal, but the Pilgrims didn't have wheat flour or sugar so there were no pies. Instead, they made pumpkin puddings sweetened with molasses and honey.

"Happy Thanksgiving" Pictures

These vintage and modern Thanksgiving pictures are filled with good wishes for happiness and blessings.

These are perfect for sending in an email to friends and family. Just right-click to copy and paste into your holiday greeting.

First Thanksgiving

The first American Thanksgiving was held on December 4, 1619, in Berkeley Hundred (Berkeley Plantation), Virginia. Thirty-eight English pilgrims arrived in America after a ten-week voyage under the leadership of Captain John Woodleaf.

The little English colony proclaimed in its charter that the day of the arrival on American soil would be remembered and celebrated every year as "a day of thanksgiving to God." The charter declared:

"We ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."

In the first Thanksgiving picture below, Captain John Woodleaf is conducting the prayers at the first Thanksgiving service. This very first Thanksgiving was not a festive meal; that came later with the arrival of another passenger ship of American settlers.

The traditional American Thanksgiving holiday feast is traced to the arrival of the Mayflower ship, which docked off Provincetown, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1620. The 102 English settlers aboard chose explorers to go ashore and locate a settlement site.

The Mayflower sailed southward and landed at a harbor about 40 miles south of present day Boston. It was here that the passengers and crew lived on board the Mayflfower during the winter of 1620. In the spring of 1621, the pilgrims established their permanent settlement and named it Plimoth. Plimoth became the Plimoth Plantation and is today known as Plymouth.

The Plimoth Colony reaped a bountiful harvest during the first year of planting in 1621, and held a feast to give thanks to God. The three-day event was attended by members of the neighboring Wampanoag Indian tribe, who had provided substantial assistance to the pilgrims.

At the Plimoth Colony's first Thanksgiving, the custom was established to thank others for their assistance, in addition to thanking God Almighty.

Wild turkey and venison are mentioned as part of this first Thanksgiving Day menu. There was no wheat in the new land, so pies were not made; but there were ample pumpkins and fruits for sweet puddings. Corn, cultivated for generations by the local inhabitants, was an ingredient of many dishes. Perhaps cornbread stuffing, found in so many Thanksgiving images, originated from this first Thanksgiving feast.

The pilgrims learned how to plant corn from the Native Americans, and corn became a major source of their sustenance. Sweet corn and Indian corn are common images in Thanksgiving pictures.

Samoset, one of the chiefs of the Wampanoag Indian Tribe, made contact with the Plimoth pilgrims in the spring of 1621. He arrived alone at the settlement and was stark naked except for a leather belt around his waist which held his bow and arrows.