I had Thanksgiving at my house last year, and I’m planning to do it again this year. Last year was the first year I was interested in other people’s posts about what they were cooking, and I took notes: one person’s baked mashed potatoes recipe, another person’s roasted root vegetables recipe, another person’s pumpkin pie recipe. I liked being in the kitchen and thinking of how very many of us were ALSO in the kitchen, all making the same sorts of foods.
One of the upsides of hosting Thanksgiving is that I can buy a few accessory pieces: I have enough place settings of my grandma’s china, but I could use some new decorative things for the center of the table, some pretty paper napkins, more salt-and-pepper shakers. I’m not rushing it: everything went fine last year without those things. But it’s fun to have a gap to fill. At a consignment shop I found a good price on a serving dish in my grandma’s pattern; before, I would have thought, “Oh, it’s great, but I’ll never have a chance to use it!” This time, with Thanksgiving dinner in the future, I got out my wallet.
And when I saw acorn placecard holders at the store, instead of thinking, “I never use placecard holders,” I thought “Hey! I could use placecard holders! To hold placecards!” So it has been pleasant, is what I’m saying.
I’m considering going with a bit of an acorn THEME. I remember from last year that there wasn’t much room for a centerpiece, so I was thinking of something more like little tiny stuff: some pressed leaves, a few of those cute tiny pumpkins and squashes (which I then don’t have to find space to store), and maybe some of these tiny acorn candle holders (photo from Williams-Sonoma.com).
Or it seems like this beaded garland (photo from Pier1.com) could weave among the dishes without taking up too much space. (Or, maybe there would be a little round bead in the way of every single dish anyone tried to put down.)
I haven’t seen any Thanksgiving/harvest napkins I like this year. It appeals to me to buy an assortment—one each of every fall color (photo from CrateAndBarrel.com). We could use them the rest of the year too, then.
Oooh, or I hadn’t seen these before. (Photo from Amazon.com.) I like those too. I don’t want to spend that much, though. I think I’d rather get a couple of packs of solid color napkins and alternate the two colors around the table.
I looked through pages of Thanksgiving salt-and-pepper shakers, and these squirrel/acorn ones (photo from Amazon.com) were the only ones I liked. I’m beginning to think that I don’t really like anything Thanksgiving-themed: I haven’t liked many turkeys, pilgrims, or cornucopias. I think maybe I will end up leaning toward more of an autumnal concept: acorns, leaves, gourds.
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Do you have Thanksgiving at your house? How do you decorate the table?
If you bought the solid-colored napkins, you could then buy cute Thanksgiving-themed napkin rings to put on them. More gap!
I used to have Thanksgiving at my house, but for the last few years my husband has had to work on Thanksgiving, so it’s a bit of a non-event. When I hosted, I set it up as more of an informal buffet kind of thing since my house is very small. I’d cover the dessert table with these very pretty dish towels I got at Williams-Sonoma.They have giant paintings of turkeys on them that look nicer than they sound. I’d put the dishes on stands that were at different levels so it looked a little different from a bunch of stuff plopped on the table.
I was kind of hoping to see a photo of your table this year if you feel like you don’t mind. I like all the stuff you’re picking out for the holiday.
shin ae | October 31st, 2012 at 3:14 pm
My husband’s family has a traditional centerpiece that is a pineapple with a felt turkey head attached. The pineapple top becomes the turkey feathers, and then you can eat the pineapple! You can google Pineapple Turkey Centerpiece to get a better idea. (Although none look half as good as I remember ours being!) The closest internet image I could find is at the bottom of this post:
http://perennialpassion.blogspot.com/2006/11/turn-pumpkin-into-turkey.html
phancymama | October 31st, 2012 at 4:31 pm
I like to put out cream candles in clear vases and then fill the vases with cranberries. It’s nice because you can leave them out once the Thanksgiving Holiday is over - it’s a good transition to the Christmas season (just might need to get another candle). For centerpieces on the dinner and buffet tables, I like to keep things low and use glass cake plates and I take apart a 3-tiered glass dish and arrange greenery with small pumpkins and gourds. It’s simple but very festive! All of this matches the standard solid green, blue and gold napkins and placemats I have that match our china.
chrystal | November 4th, 2012 at 8:48 pm