← The Almanac

This Week · Hospitality · Thanksgiving

Hospitality: what does it mean to make someone welcome?

For littler ones: When someone new comes to your door, what makes them feel glad they came?

Hospitality — What does it mean to make someone welcome?

This week, with Thanksgiving coming, we're wondering about hospitality — what it really means to open the door and say, come in. Is it a warm room? A seat at the table? A plate passed your way before you even ask? It's a good thing to turn over in the car or at the table, because everyone at your house will picture a different door.

This week's stories

American

The Refugee Family's First Thanksgiving

A family who crossed a long way to a brand-new country, far from everything they knew, and the neighbors who set an extra place and made the strange new table feel a little like home.

American

The First Thanksgiving

The Wampanoag, on their own land, helping a cold and hungry band of strangers through a hard first winter — a welcome that came before any feast, and within a generation, the land that was theirs was gone.

Talk about it

  • When someone new comes to your house, what's the first thing you do to make them feel welcome?
  • The Wampanoag welcomed strangers who didn't speak their language or know their ways. What do you think made them decide to help?
  • Has there ever been a time you were the new one — somewhere you didn't know anybody? What did someone do, or what do you wish they'd done?

A new question every week.

Listen together in the app — short audio stories for kids 4–10, at bedtime, on the drive, in the drop-off line.

Join the family

Get the stories that built America in your inbox

New stories, the weekly Almanac, and family read-aloud picks. No spam — unsubscribe anytime.