Thanksgiving Cryptogram

A Thanksgiving line in a letter-swap code: type your guesses in the boxes, or print it with its answer key.

Thanksgiving Cryptogram

Name Date

Every letter stands for another letter, and no letter stands for itself. Work out the code to read the message.

2 of 17 letters filled in

,,

Solve it to see who said it.

Type a guess in any box and every box with the same code letter fills in. Arrow keys move between boxes.

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Letters given at the start

0 of 42 quotes solved

Keep track of the code here:

CodeABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Letter

Answer key

I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks

William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night.

CodeCDEFGHIJKMQSTVWYZ
LetterISVUBKEOWTCAHRNMD

Next step Unscramble Thanksgiving wordsPut your own thank-you message in code

All 42 quotes

Over the River 8

  • Over the river, and through the wood, to Grandfather's house away! We would not stop for doll or top, for 'tis Thanksgiving Day. Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and Through the Wood (1844).
  • Over the river, and through the wood, to Grandfather's house we go; the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow. Lydia Maria Child, The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day (1844), better known as Over the River and Through the Wood.
  • Over the river, and through the wood, to have a first-rate play. Hear the bells ring, "Ting-a-ling-ding!", Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day! Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and Through the Wood (1844).
  • Over the river, and through the wood, trot fast, my dapple-gray! Spring over the ground like a hunting-hound! For 'tis Thanksgiving Day. Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and Through the Wood (1844). A dapple-gray is a gray horse with darker spots.
  • Over the river, and through the wood, with a clear blue winter sky, the dogs do bark, and children hark, as we go jingling by. Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and Through the Wood (1844).
Show all 42 quotes (37 more)

Over the River, continued

  • Over the river, and through the wood—and straight through the barnyard gate, we seem to go extremely slow, it is so hard to wait! Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and Through the Wood (1844).
  • Over the river, and through the wood—now Grandmother's cap I spy! Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done? Hurrah for the pumpkin pie! Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and Through the Wood (1844). The last verse.
  • Over the river, and through the wood—oh, how the wind does blow! It stings the toes and bites the nose as over the ground we go. Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and Through the Wood (1844).

Pumpkin Pie and Corn 9

  • Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West, from North and from South come the pilgrim and guest John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pumpkin (1844).
  • And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie! John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pumpkin (1844). The last lines.
  • No richer gift has Autumn poured from out her lavish horn! John Greenleaf Whittier, The Corn-Song. The horn is the horn of plenty.
  • Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling, when wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pumpkin (1844). He is speaking to the pumpkin.
  • Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better e'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter! John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pumpkin (1844). The present is a pie.
  • We better love the hardy gift our rugged vales bestow, to cheer us when the storm shall drift our harvest-fields with snow. John Greenleaf Whittier, The Corn-Song. The hardy gift is corn.
  • What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye? What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie? John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pumpkin (1844).
  • When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune, our chair a broad pumpkin,—our lantern the moon John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pumpkin (1844).
  • When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, glaring out through the dark with a candle within! John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pumpkin (1844). A jack-o-lantern.

Harvest and Autumn 10

  • As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints, in Excursions.
  • Gone are the birds that were our summer guests, with the last sheaves return the laboring wains! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Harvest Moon. A sheaf is a bundle of cut grain and a wain is a wagon.
  • Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft the red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; and gathering swallows twitter in the skies. John Keats, To Autumn (1820). The last lines. A red-breast is a robin.
  • In the other gardens and all up the vale, from the autumn bonfires see the smoke trail! Robert Louis Stevenson, Autumn Fires, in A Child's Garden of Verses. A vale is a valley.
  • October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints, in Excursions. He is writing about the year.
  • October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints, in Excursions.
  • Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom-friend of the maturing sun John Keats, To Autumn (1820). The opening lines.
  • Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all! Flowers in the summer, fires in the fall! Robert Louis Stevenson, Autumn Fires, in A Child's Garden of Verses.
  • To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core John Keats, To Autumn (1820).
  • Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too John Keats, To Autumn (1820).

Thanks and Dinner 8

  • Come, now, if you want roast turkey and onions, plum-puddin' and mince-pie, you'll have to do as I tell you, and be lively about it. Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving. Tilly to her brothers and sisters.
  • I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night.
  • I can roast a turkey and make a pudding as well as anybody, I guess. Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving. Tilly, left in charge of the dinner.
  • I think it's real fun to have Thanksgiving at home. Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.
  • It was speedily whisked out of sight, and all fell upon the pies, which were perfect. Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.
  • Meantime Tilly attacked the plum-pudding. Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.
  • Sage and onions and apple-sauce go with goose, but I can't feel sure of anything but pepper and salt for a turkey. Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.
  • Thanks in old age—thanks ere I go, for health, the midday sun, the impalpable air—for life, mere life Walt Whitman, Thanks in Old Age, in Leaves of Grass. Ere means before.

Proverbs for the Table 7

  • Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Traditional English proverb. We miss people more when they are away.
  • Enough is as good as a feast. Traditional English proverb. Having what you need is as good as having plenty.
  • First come, first served. Traditional English proverb.
  • Half a loaf is better than no bread. Traditional English proverb. Be glad of what you have.
  • Home is where the heart is. Traditional English proverb.
  • The more the merrier. Traditional English proverb. A gathering is more fun with more people.
  • There is no place like home. Traditional English proverb.

How this list was compiled: Every line was matched word for word on 2026-09-30 against the text it comes from. Project Gutenberg plain-text editions (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/N, where N is): 9574 and 9580 Whittier, poems; 23684 Keats, Poems Published in 1820; 9846 Thoreau, Excursions; 25609 Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses; 1365 Longfellow, Complete Poetical Works; 1322 Whitman, Leaves of Grass; 100 Shakespeare, Complete Works; 27567 Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving. Lydia Maria Child's verses were matched the same day against the text in the English Wikipedia article Over the River and Through the Wood, and the proverbs against Wikipedia's List of proverbial phrases (https://en.wikipedia.org/). Verse is printed as running text with line-opening capitals lowered. Every named author died before 1929; the years were read from the Project Gutenberg catalog pages and Wikipedia. The one-line notes and proverb meanings are our own. Licence: own work

How it works

Each Thanksgiving cryptogram hides a line about the holiday or the harvest: Over the River and Through the Wood, a poem in praise of pumpkin pie, a proverb for the table. Two letters are given to start.

Read the full guide

Thanksgiving lines in five groups

Over the River has 8 verses of Lydia Maria Child's 1844 sleigh-ride poem. Pumpkin Pie and Corn has 9 lines by John Greenleaf Whittier, who asks what calls back the past like the rich pumpkin pie. Harvest and Autumn has 10, from Keats to Thoreau. Thanks and Dinner has 8, six of them from a Louisa May Alcott story, and Proverbs for the Table has 7.

Where to start

Every Over the River verse opens with the same seven words, so once you know one verse the others start half solved. In the rest, a lone code letter is A or I, and a three-letter word seen twice is often THE.

  • For a younger group, type a short proverb they know by ear, such as The more the merrier, into the cryptogram maker.
  • Whittier's poem carves wild, ugly faces in a pumpkin with a candle within: a jack-o-lantern.

Questions and answers

Can I print a Thanksgiving cryptogram with its answer?

Yes. Print puzzle gives a sheet with the coded line and an A to Z tracker grid, and the answer key on a second page. Untick Print the answer key too, in More options after a solve, to leave it off.

Where do the lines come from?

From authors who died before 1929, matched word for word on 30 September 2026: Project Gutenberg texts for Whittier, Keats, Thoreau, Stevenson, Longfellow, Whitman, Shakespeare and Alcott, and the verses quoted in Wikipedia for Over the River and Through the Wood.

Is it Over the River and Through the Wood or Woods?

Wood, in the text these verses were checked against, and the sleigh goes to Grandfather's house. Lydia Maria Child published the poem in 1844 as The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day.

Does every puzzle use the same code?

No. Each press of New puzzle shuffles a new key in which no letter stands for itself, so a line you have met before comes back in a different code.

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