American Thanksgiving

Listen to these fun Thanksgiving stories for kids from the best-selling author Arnie Lightning! These Thanksgiving short stories are fun and entertaining to listen to and enjoy. Each story has a special lesson and gives a reason to show gratitude. The Thanksgiving jokes offer lots of laughs, too!

Discover the moving, true story of the Native American named Squanto, who is captured from his beloved Pawtuxet tribe, taken to Spain, and sold into slavery. Years later, Squanto regains his freedom and embarks on a miraculous journey back to his homeland where he teaches the Pilgrims how to survive the difficult early years in the Plymouth colony - culminating in the first Thanksgiving celebration.

Young listeners learn about the early traditions which have led to our present-day celebration of Thanksgiving.

We know the story of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags that taught them how to harvest the land. We celebrate Thanksgiving each year to commemorate their friendly interaction through feasts of our own. But the stories we know of the happy gathering in 1621 aren’t all that they seem.

Known as the Thanksgiving Address, this Native American good morning message is based on the belief that the natural world is a precious and rare gift - from the moon and the stars to the tiniest blade of grass.

The act of dedicating a time to be thankful preceded the Thanksgiving holiday. It even preceded what most think of as the “First Thanksgiving” in Plymouth. This act became an official holiday only after a committee introduced a resolution on the matter to the House and Senate in 1789. President Washington instituted the holiday, stating that it would be “devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”

Journey back to the very first Thanksgiving Day, when two societies came together to feast and honor the earth's bounty in peace.