Ahhhh, Thanksgiving! That wonderful holiday that revolves around family, traditions and food. Love it! Of course, here in Canada, we celebrated our Thanksgiving approximately 6 weeks ago, in mid-October. But that’s something special about writing a blog – I get to celebrate twice! Once for my Canadian friends and again for my friends in America. So in honour of our neighbours down south, I’m making a last-minute Thanksgiving centrepiece, on a budget!
Decorating for Thanksgiving can be so much fun, but it can also be so much work and so much money. The good news is, with all the Christmas decorations in full force right now, you can generally get some really great Fall pieces at a big discount! Or better yet, you can make use of the Fall decor you already have and just add a few new touches to create a special centrepiece for your Thanksgiving table.
What You’ll Need
As I said, you can easily reuse seasonal pieces that you have throughout your house. And that’s pretty much what I’m doing, with a few extra details. Here is the list of supplies that I used for this particular centrepiece, but you can substitute based on what you have on hand, or your particular decorating style!
Small wooden flower boxes – I used two, as I wanted to create a longer centrepiece for my table
Floral Foam
Burlap Garland
Hot Glue Gun
Assorted leaves, pinecones and pumpkins
Candlesticks and taper candles – you can also use pillar candles if you prefer
Putting It All Together
This might just be the easiest project I’ve ever put together! Here are the steps I took to go from a table full of supplies to a centrepiece worthy of a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner!
Start with your base. I chose to use two smaller wooden flower boxes. You can easily replicate this centrepiece using a larger box, low basket or even a narrow serving dish! Because I do have other plans for these boxes, I decided not to glue them together. I held them in place using a large bulldog clip from my office. Not to worry, once you fill in all your leaves and trimmings, the clip is not visible in the least. If you want to create a centrepiece that you can use year after year, feel free to glue your boxes, and everything else, into place.
This is the way I held the two boxes together, allowing me to reuse them for another project!Once the boxes were clipped into place, I wrapped them in burlap garland, to create a more seamless effect. Simply measure around your box and cut a strip of burlap that is 2″ longer. This way, you will have some overlap to glue it into place. I used a small amount of hot glue along the top and bottom edges of the burlap. Again, I didn’t want to glue it directly on to the box, but it was enough to keep the burlap securely in place.
Next, I cut my block of floral foam into pieces that nearly filled each side. The foam was more to give some lift to the trimmings and to have a base on which to place the candlesticks. My candlesticks are not even 4″ tall, and placing them on the bottom of the boxes hid them completely!
After your candlesticks are in place, start filling in with leaves. Remember, this centrepiece does not need to be perfectly symmetrical – have fun with it! I just started tucking in leaves until I was satisfied with the fullness. Next, I placed pumpkins and pinecones, in order to really fill out the design. A few berries and cream-coloured tapered candles were the finishing touches.
Home Decor CAN Be Done on a Budget!
I absolutely love how this Thanksgiving centrepiece turned out! And the best part of all – I made it out of items that I already had on hand, and every single piece came from a dollar store or thrift store! Say what? Dining room decor from the dollar store? Yes! Traditional Thanksgiving dinners can get expensive, so why spend any more than you have to? Always start by looking through what you have and if you need to fill it in, check your local dollar store.
Now that your table is ready, it’s time to cook the turkey!
Happy Thanksgiving friends.
For other fun Fall decor ideas, be sure to check out these posts:
How to Style a Tiered Tray for Fall
How to Make a Quick and Easy DIY Reversible Fall Sign
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