Thanksgiving Table/Four Ways

I am sure you all are over Thanksgiving and on to Christmas decor but setting up this little website thing took A LOT longer than I thought. Christmas decorating seems to start earlier and earlier every year. At my home, Christmas has to wait until after Thanksgiving weekend. Family, food, fun and giving thanks to the Good Lord for all of our blessings define our Thanksgivings. No pressure of gift giving, no wrapping a ton of packages, no trees to decorate, just set a pretty table and cook up some yummy food. We have been cooking the same dishes for our Thanksgiving meal since my grandmother’s days. These dishes were created by my grandmother and mom and we look forward to them every year. Decorating the Thanksgiving table is the best part to me. This year I have decorated four tables, all a little different. The table and buffet in these pictures belonged to my grandmother and I was lucky enough to inherit them many years ago.

The first table is the most traditional and it’s definitely Green-On-Green-On-Green Yes, my favorite color in the world is GREEN. This table according to Jerry T. “is very busy”. Regardless, I still love it and yes, that centerpiece is BIG. I have been breaking the “centerpiece rule” for years, but I love the drama of something BIG and BEAUTIFUL in the center of the table.

I love using place cards or something like this mirrored name plaque that I got from JennandJulesDesigns on Etsy. The gourds on each side of the centerpiece are shaped like a swan. I’ve never seen gourds like this before and I’m hoping they will last until Thanksgiving. The green goblets were a Mexico find.

The dessert plates on this table reminded me of the song, The Ants Go Marching One By One. I saw them at Anthropologie three years ago and fell in love with them.

I have paired them with black chargers from Hobby Lobby, my china dinner plates, and a gold rimmed dessert plate from Pier1.

I changed out the foliage in the vases a couple of times but finally decided that I loved the green branches the best. What’s more elegant than black and gold and of course, green.

My next table was inspired by a picture I saw on the Instagram feed of modmaxglam. She is a very talented designer and she has a beautiful Instagram feed. If you’re not following her, you should. This post showed her fireplace with a row of white candlesticks on the mantle and bud vases with yellow roses. It was so gorgeous, it literally stopped me in my tracks!

Fast-forward two days. I was shopping at At Home and I saw candlesticks that were similar to the ones above. I grabbed eight of them and loaded them in the basket. I found some pinkish candles and thought I’m going to jump on the Blush Bandwagon and decorate my Thanksgiving table with these. I am in love with the way it came out. I painted some miniature white pumpkins pink and found pink wine glasses at Hobby Lobby.

I love the little bud vases that I got on clearance from Clayton Gray Home a couple of years ago. They have a slot on top for a name card and below that, a place for a flower.

I actually followed the “centerpiece rule” with this table. Simply white roses with a pink rim in a white olive tray. I’m pretty sure I will use these white candlesticks over and over. I love that they are different sizes and shapes. I also used initial charms around the wine glasses instead of place cards.

I am just so in love with this table. It’s very untraditional and different from what I usually do. I’m going to keep this one around until Thanksgiving day!

This year I plan on having a Kids Table for my grandkids. My oldest, Lani, is 21 but she is so easy going, good natured, and fun loving, she will make the best of sitting with her youngest cousins. These plates were hand painted by Rachel Kozlowski whose Etsy shop is RKArtwork. She also designed a line of dessert plates for West Elm. When I contacted Rachel, I explained to her that I wanted plates with all the woodland animals that I sometimes see around my home. I gave her specific colors to use and I think she did a beautiful job.

The tablecloth is a cow print fabric from Hobby Lobby. I used the cloth napkins as a fun neck embellishment for the animals. The pineapple shaped drink holders from World Market are perfect for preventing spills that are likely to happen with little kids.

The big jar in the middle of the table is filled with toys and candy. Every time the grandkids eat all of their meal, they get to pull something out of the treat jar. Yes, bribery works most of the time. I just LOVE spoiling my grandkids!

Here are some of my Past Thanksgiving Tables. My favorite is the one that was outside under a chandelier that we used for Abby’s wedding. We got lucky that year and had great weather. I managed to keep this table a secret until dinnertime. Everyone was pretty surprised to say the least.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,

The “Mama”