Create a Thanksgiving Centerpiece

The table is truly the most important decoration for your Thanksgiving dinner, where the family gathers and spends the memorable part of the holiday. A Thanksgiving centerpiece can really make your table and meal seem even nicer.

• Take Advantage of the Season: Autumn is a beautiful time of year, with highlights of beautiful browns, rich rusty reds, auburns, and golds. Leaves, flowers, and branches capture the natural beauty of the season. So are pumpkins, gourds, and Indian corn. Also consider pinecones, acorns, Oranges and cranberries can add extra color.
• Be Creative: Look outside the box. Walk around outside, at the grocery store, or at the local craft store. Look for fall colors, but think outside of the norm.
• Start with the Bigger Items: Start with a big pumpkin, gourd, or pinecone. Arrange the bigger items first, and then arrange the smaller items around those. Remember that the eye usually first focuses on the larger, more colorful items, so make sure they are placed where you want the eye to go first.

Still having trouble coming up with your own ideas? Search the web or craft store, and you're bound to find examples that you can copy. Here are a few specific ideas:

• Cornucopia: Find a cornucopia basket at any craft store, and fill it with colorful pumpkins, gourds, leaves, and flowers. Or fill with colorful fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Candles: Arrange smaller items, like leaves and pinecones, around some large candles. Maybe even wrap a satin ribbon around the bottom of the candles.
• Bowl of Pumpkins: Fill a pretty bowl with some smaller colorful pumpkins or gourds.
• Pumpkin Vase: Cut the top off of a pumpkin and hollow it out (the more "goop" that is cleaned out, the longer the pumpkin will stay good). Next, put foam or sand in the pumpkin, and fill the "vase" with flowers. You can either buy potted flowers or a plant, or stick fake flowers into the foam to keep them in place. Some things to fill the pumpkin with are mums, leaves, wheat shoots, cinnamon sticks, or even twigs.

Don't Stress! Remember that it won't be the end of the world if you can't figure out the "perfect" centerpiece! Just try to be your creative and do your best, and that should work just fine. Also, most of the time, Thanksgiving Dinner is usually just with family or close friends, who will love you no matter what your table looks like. Besides, they're probably more worried about the food anyway!