Over the River and through the Wood

"The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day", also known as "Over the River and Through the Wood", is a Thanksgiving poem by Lydia Maria Child, originally published in 1844 in Flowers for Children, Volume 2.

Although many people sing "to grandmother's house we go," the original edition shows that the author's words were "to grandfather's house."

The poem was originally published as "The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day" in Child's Flowers for Children. It celebrates the author's childhood memories of visiting her Grandfather's House. Lydia Maria Child was a novelist, journalist, teacher, and poet who wrote extensively about the need to eliminate slavery.

The poem was eventually set to a tune by an unknown composer. The song version is sometimes presented with lines about Christmas, rather than Thanksgiving. For instance, the line "Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!" becomes "Hurrah for Christmas Day!". As a Christmas song, it has been recorded as "A Merry Christmas at Grandmother's". Although the modern Thanksgiving holiday is not always associated with snow (snow in late November occasionally occurs in the northern states and is rare at best elsewhere in the United States), New England in the early 19th century was enduring the Little Ice Age, a colder era with earlier winters.

The original piece had twelve stanzas, though only four are typically included in the song.

The following verses appear in a "long version":

A children's book, Over the River—A Turkey's Tale, recasts the poem as a humorous tale of a family of turkeys on their way to a vegetarian Thanksgiving; the book was written by Derek Anderson, and published by Simon & Schuster in 2005.

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