# Why Aren't There Any Thanksgiving Songs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462 "2011-11-19T16:31:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/1 "2011-11-19T16:31:58Z")
You would think after a couple hundred years, with such a huge non-secular holiday like Thanksgiving, with family and friends gathering together, there would be at least a few old classics, a few new songs and some music to play to get you into the Thanksgiving mood. The only song I can think of is that children’s song, “Over the river and through the woods…”, but even that isn’t exactly a song about turkeys roasting in the oven and pumpkin pies and is probably more of a Christmas song. I just figure that most people in the US do something over Thanksgiving with friends and family, and you would think there would be a least a few traditional or new songs with a Thanksgiving theme. Do you know of any? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/2 "2011-11-19T16:39:34Z")
Good question, except that Thanksgiving (as we know it) is only about 150 years old, not “hundreds”. I can tell you the reason there won’t be any in the future-- we now apparently start celebrating Christmas immediately after Halloween. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/3 "2011-11-19T16:51:58Z")
“We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing…” What can I say, I went to elementary school before they secularized the holiday song selection. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/4 "2011-11-19T16:56:39Z")
[_The Turkey Song (Except for the Turkey)_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAIbwodgoU8) ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/5 "2011-11-19T16:59:22Z")
It seems like I’ve been told that “Jingle Bells” was originally written about Thanksgiving. And had about a dozen forgotten verses. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/6 "2011-11-19T17:01:56Z")
[Eat me!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIufyg09WnQ) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/7 "2011-11-19T17:03:39Z")
[Right you are](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_Bells) [Carols for a Cure Vol. 5](http://www.amazon.com/Broadways-Greatest-Gifts-Carols-Cure/dp/B0006Q3MUS) has the cast of Chicago singing a great rendition of the entire song. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/8 "2011-11-19T17:06:53Z")
Well, there aren’t really many old, traditional songs for Halloween, or Easter, or Valentine’s Day, or really any holiday I can think of besides Christmas (or maybe the 4th of July, if you count songs that are patriotic in general rather than being specific to the day). Adam Sandler’s [Thanksgiving Song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z27FKwupds) (“Love to eat turkey…”) Ray Davies’s [Thanksgiving Day](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgeFI_X4VLw) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/9 "2011-11-19T17:16:11Z")
Christmas is a season, and there are lots of public events associate with it. Thanksgiving is a one-off thing. A ginormous meal you have with your family, and that’s it. Nothing leading up to it. Maybe the National Anthem could count as we tend to watch a lot of football on that day, too! ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/10 "2011-11-19T18:13:36Z")
Loudon Wainwright III does a (somewhat dark) song about Thanksgiving. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/11 "2011-11-19T18:23:34Z")
Alice’s Restaurant is so long that it makes up for the lack of other songs ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/12 "2011-11-19T18:40:16Z")
Many hymns have been written about thanking God. Two often sung around this time are “Now Thank We All Our God” and “Come, Ye Thankful People Come”. The latter was sung by the Peanuts characters some years ago in a TV commercial. Brought a tear to my eye, believe it or not. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/13 "2011-11-19T18:44:26Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > It seems like I’ve been told that “Jingle Bells” was originally written about Thanksgiving. And had about a dozen forgotten verses. I see Annie and you already beat me to it, but I just stumbled upon that fact yesterday and thought I was going to get to mention it here. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/14 "2011-11-19T21:31:25Z")
Plus Thanksgiving is really just a national holiday, while Christmas is a global one. Sure, a few other countries have one, but it’s their own national holiday. So we have several nation’s worth of different music traditions to get our classic songs from. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/15 "2011-11-19T21:49:53Z")
[I thought this was a Thanksgiving song but it is a Christmas one.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7beP4ieZb8) Let’s make one up. Here’s my contribution. Sung to the tune of some damned fight song: We’re gonna eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat Eat, eat, eat. We’re gonna drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink Drink, drink, drink We’re gonna belch, belch, belch, belch, belch, belch, belch, burp Fart, fart, belch We’re gonna sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep Sleep, fart, sleep ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/16 "2011-11-19T22:53:35Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing…” > > What can I say, I went to elementary school before they secularized the holiday song selection. Yes! We sang that when I was a kid, too. Also “Come, ye thankful people come, raise the song of harvest home . . .” You know the line “Sing praises to his name, he forgets not his own?” I thought that meant he would forget his own name if we didn’t keep singing praises to it. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/17 "2011-11-19T23:15:02Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Christmas is a season, and there are lots of public events associate with it. > > Thanksgiving is a one-off thing. A ginormous meal you have with your family, and that’s it. Nothing leading up to it. Maybe the National Anthem could count as we tend to watch a lot of football on that day, too! Yes. Thanksgiving is the unofficial start of the Christmas season. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/18 "2011-11-20T00:03:58Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing…” While this has been appropriated by Thanksgiving and is now strongly associated with it, it was written to [celebrate a military victory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Gather_Together). The linked article lists these songs for Thanksgiving: “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” “For the Beauty of the Earth” “Over the River and through the Woods” “The Thanksgiving Song” “We Gather Together” “We Plough the Fields and Scatter” “Alice’s Restaurant” ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/19 "2011-11-20T00:14:00Z")
Well here’s [one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUnfB-3JQrI) I hadn’t heard before, wow. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462/20 "2011-11-20T00:16:35Z")
After attending my son’s Thanksgiving pageant this past week… I can safely say that there ARE Thanksgiving songs in existence. And you should be very grateful that you don’t hear them that often. I was subjected to “Every Turkey Can Tango” “Super Turkey” “The Turkey Dance” “I’m Glad I’m Not A Turkey” and other timeless (?) classics that weren’t memorable enough for me to take note of the title. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-thanksgiving-songs/603462.md?page=2)