Looking for a beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece… and fast?
Here are four quick ideas that are pretty to look at but don’t require a lot of effort or money to pull off.
Candles and Nuts
Gather up pillar candles from around your house. Groupings of three or five work best. Place them in the center of a cake stand. If you don’t have a cake stand, don’t worry. This idea also works with a round platter or even a dinner plate. If you want some heighth, turn a cereal or soup bowl upside down and center the plate on top of the bowl first. After your candles are in place, sprinkle mixed nuts in their shell all around.
Variation: In this next photo, I used green pears and cranberries with the nuts to give it more color. Oranges, pomegranates, persimmons or other seasonal produce would also work nicely. To add another layer of interest and some dimension, you can also put some leaves down first, then the candles, fruit and nuts. For spring or summer, I used hydrangea leaves from my backyard with lemons, oranges and grapes. In the fall, I use pressed leaves. The beauty of this idea is that it is really versatile.
It goes without saying, but please, never, ever leave a burning candle unattended.
Fall Berry Garland
It doesn’t get much easier than this. Just lay a fall berry or leaf garland down the center of the table and place some votive candles around it. I bought this one from Hobby Lobby two years ago during their 66% off fall clearance.
Sticks and Beans
Don’t laugh. I saw these dried seed pod sticks on the side of the road. Then I proceeded to stop the car and pick them, neverminding the people who were driving by my wondering what I was doing. (My two boys must think their mother is more than a little crazy at times. I chalk it up to watching too many I Love Lucy reruns as a kid).
OK, back to the centerpiece. I filled a tall round vase I already had with dry white navy beans, then stuck the sticks in the vase. That’s it. If you don’t have dried seed pod stick-thingies where you live, no worries. Any branches from your backyard (or the side of the road) would work. Just make sure no one is looking first!
A Wreath and A Topiary
This one might just be my favorite. All I did is lay a wreath down in the middle of my table and put a topiary I already had in the center. This literally took me 30 seconds to do. A couple of votives was all it needed for a simple, but elegant Thanksgiving table.
Do you have a favorite? How you take one of these ideas and make it completely your own?
Make Mine Vintage 