Most are free-to-use (ie public domain or copyright-free) meaning the words can be copied and sung to at least one tune with no concerns about copyright or performance licensing - sometimes in a limited setting.
A small selection of hymns that are still copyright may also be included, if they are particularly appropriate.
Seasonal note
Thanksgiving is a northern-hemisphere holiday, with roots in the traditional religious Harvest Festival, but greatly adapted to the particular cultural and social situation.In the USA, it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, and is a secular holiday. It is usually regarded as remembering a celebration in 1621 at the Plymouth Plantation when the Pilgrims (religious refugees from England) invited the indigenous Americans to a feast to celebrate the successful harvest, and to thanks them for their help after the harvest failure the previous year. However there were other "thanksgiving" events in American history which also contribute to the appropriateness of a national day of thanks in this season of the year. These include September 8 1565 (feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin), when Native Americans and Spanish settlers in Florida held a feast and celebrated Mass, and an event in 1598, when Spanish explorer Don Juan de Oñate requested the friars to say a Mass of Thanksgiving before he formally claimed the land north of the Rio Grande for the King of Spain.
In Canada, some people attribute modern Thanksgiving to 1578 when an explorer, Martin Frobisher, held a celebration but to give thanks for surviving the perilous journey from England amid storms and icebergs. Other link it more to Harvest celebrations from France. Today it is marked on the second Monday in October.
The diverse background to the holiday means that a range of different hymns may be suitable for church services on or close to Thanksgiving day.
- Virtually all hymns or Harvest Festival services are appropriate.
- Patriotic American or Canadian hymns
- Hymns focussed on thanking God - either something specific, or for simply existing and being known to human-kind.
Free-use hymns for thanks-giving
- A Thanksgiving (I Thank Thee O my God)
- Come ye Thankful People ComeCount Your Blessings
- Dakota Hymn (Many and Great)
- Father of Mercies in Thy Word
- Father Whate'er of Earthly Bliss
- For All The Blessings of the Year
- For the Beauty of the Earth
- For the Fruit of His Creation
- For Thy Mercy and Thy Grace
- From all That Dwell Below the Skies
- Give Thanks to God Most High
- Give Thanks to God the Lord - Petersen
- Give Thanks Unto the Lord Jehovah
- God of our Fathers Whose Almighty Hand
- God Opens Wide His Hand
- Great God of Nations Now to Thee
- How Good it is to Thank the Lord
- In Our Day of Thanksgiving
- Lord we Thank Thee for the Pleasure
- My God I Thank TheeNow Thank we All Our God
- O Give Thanks to Him Who Made
- O Lord all Glorious Life of Life
- O Praise ye the Lord Praise Him in the Height
- O Render Thanks to God Above
- O Thou Whose Bounty Fills my Cup
- Over the River and Through the Woods
- Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven
- Praise to the Lord the Almighty the King of Creation
- Sing to the Lord a Joyful Song
- Sing to the Lord of Harvest
- Songs of Praise the Angels Sang
- Songs of Thankfulness and Praise
- Thank Him for the Sunshine - public domain in the US, possibly not elsewhere
- Thou Gracious Power
- To Thee Eternal Soul be Praise
- To Thee O God we Render Thanks
- We Gather Together
- We Lift Our Hearts In Thanks Today
- We Thank You Lord - Petersen
- With Grateful Heart My Thanks I Bring
- Whole Hearted Thanksgiving to Thee I will Bring
Free-use patriotic hymns (American)
- All Praise and Glad Thanksgiving - Farrell
- America the Beautiful
- God Bless Our Native Land
- O Say Can You See by the Dawn's Early Light
Thanksgiving hymns for children
- For Thy Gracious Blessing (a round)
- If You’re Thankful and You Know it - a variation of "If you're Happy ..."
Hymns which may still be copyright
- All My Days - Murray/Schutte
- Father, We Thank Thee Who hast Planted - Tucker
- Give Thanks to the Lord - Schutte
- Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart - Smith
- God, Whose Giving Knows no Ending - Edwards
- In Thanksgiving and Love
- In the Lord I'll be Ever Thankful - Taizé / Berthier
- Let All Things Now Living - David
- Lift up your Voice- Fawcett
- Lord it is Good - Talbot
- Once Again
- Song of Thanksgiving - Norbert
- Thanks be to God Most High
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