Natural and Free Thanksgiving Decorations

Make your home look festive this Thanksgiving by bringing in the outdoors! Sure, you can go to the store and buy Indian corn and fake leaves and plastic squashes to decorate with, but why, when you can do it yourself and have a lot more fun? Autumn is filled with lively colors, no matter where you live.

To decorate your Thanksgiving table, serve a large winter squash, baked whole. When it's done, move it to a large plate or platter, then cut off about a third of the top and scoop out the seeds. (You can toast the seeds for snacks even after they've been cooked inside the squash.) Scoop out some of the flesh (don't scoop too deeply or the squash shell may collapse), scrape the flesh from the piece you cut out, mash it all up with a generous amount of butter and salt and return it to the squash shell. If you put the squash on a large enough plate, you can put leaves or small dried plants, nuts, other decorations around it. Don't forget a large spoon to dish it up!

Gather colorful leaves and use them to scatter on the table around bowls and platters, or put them on a platter or plate and cover them with clear plastic wrap. You can use this to serve cookies, bread or anything for your Thanksgiving dinner that doesn't need to be served hot. Finger foods are best so the plastic doesn't get torn with a serving utensil.

Fall bouquets are easy to put together and they make great Thanksgiving decorations. You can find "weeds" to make them from almost anywhere, except in a park or tidily kept lawn! Go out in the country if you can, and walk along the roadside. If you can't do that, look for a vacant lot. Look for a variety of colors and shapes to mix in a vase for the best decorative effect.

You can use flowers, too, after they've gone to seed. Leaves and seed pods from iris and daylilies, sunflowers, seed heads from columbine... look around and you'll be sure to find something. Put them in an elegant vase or funky jar or a simple can or whatever you like. Put the tallest ones in the center and the shorter ones to the outside. You don't have to do a proper arrangement to make it look good.

If you have children, put them to work making Thanksgiving pictures with white glue and seeds of all kinds on plain or colored paper or newspaper. If you have small children, you might want to help them make an outline, then let them fill in. Aything to do with the Thanksgiving holiday goes. Corn, turkeys, leaves, pumpkins, pilgrims... Tape the pictures to windows or walls in a great, bright array. (Sure, go ahead and do it yourself if you don't have children.)

Use an arrangement of small winter squash like acorn squash in a large bowl to add color and interest almost anywhere in the house - on the coffee table or piano, on a side table or kitchen counter or on an entrance table or shelf. If you have access to walnuts or pecans, add those to the bowl. Keep the squash away from heat sources and it will keep well for days and even weeks. You'll probably want to eat it before then, though!

Pumpkins, of course. Use them as decorations in a basket, piled on a table, on a counter or on the floor in a corner. They add the very essence of good food and Thanksgiving (think pies!). They add the exact shade of autumn orange and the wonderful thought of abundance. They're the perfect flair to finish it all in good taste in more ways than one.

The most wonderful Thanksgiving decorations don't have to be from a store.