Thanksgiving Crossword Puzzle - Free

Here's a free Thanksgiving crossword puzzle, a fun way to exercise your brain. Solve the puzzle online or print it out.

To solve it online, click the Solve Online button under the picture of the puzzle. This opens the crossword in a pop-up window.

This puzzle is part of the free online brain games collection. For a list of all my free crosswords, visit the Easy Printable Crossword Puzzles page.

Thanksgiving Crossword Puzzle Instructions

If you like this Thanksgiving crossword puzzle, check out the other word games on this site, including Hangman Classic and the free online word searches collection.

HOW TO PLAY. Using your memory and logic skills, use the provided clues to figure out the words hidden in the puzzle. The hidden words are arranged in a criss-cross grid, where the word overlap each other at common letters.

For the online version of the Thanksgiving crossword, click any row or column to highlight it and display the clue. The clue is shown at the top of the puzzle.

If you have a guess for the answer for the clue, type it in the grid. As you work on the puzzle, you can go back and change any of the words you've typed in previously.

To print the crossword to solve it on paper, click the gear icon in the upper right of the puzzle window. Then click the "Printable Version" option to display the printable crossword.

To see the full solution for the Thanksgiving crossword online, choose the "Show the Puzzle Solution" option in the gear menu.

The puzzle solution is also provided with the printable version. The solution appears on page 2.

Best of luck solving the puzzle!

Interesting Facts About Thanksgiving

Here are some interesting facts from Worldstrides.com about the Thanksgiving holiday to put you in the mood to solve this puzzle:

• The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 over a three day harvest festival. It included 50 Pilgrims, 90 Wampanoag Indians, and lasted three days. It is believed by historians that only five women were present.

• The tradition of football on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1920.

• The average number of calories consumed on Thanksgiving is 4,500!

• Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3, 1863. Sarah Joseph Hale, the woman who wrote "Mary Had A Little Lamb," convinced Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday after writing letters for 17 years.

• Turkey wasn't on the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish were likely served, alongside pumpkins and cranberries (but not pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce!).

• Harry Truman is often credited with being the first president to pardon a turkey, but that's not quite true. He was the first to receive a ceremonial turkey from the National Turkey Federation, and he had it for dinner.

  John F. Kennedy was the first to let a Thanksgiving turkey go, followed by Richard Nixon who sent his turkey to a petting zoo.

I enjoy solving crossword puzzles. It was a lot of fun coming up with the words and clues for this Thanksgiving crossword puzzle.

Crossword puzzles train memory, word skills, and logical reasoning. Solve puzzles like this often to give your brain a boost!

Published: 04/10/2020
Last Updated: 06/11/2020