Nature's No-Fuss Thanksgiving Centerpieces

Dress up your table with elegant, yet simple, no-fuss Thanksgiving centerpieces. Nature provides an endless bounty of materials to use in a variety of creative ways. Collect the materials from your front yard, garden, produce stand, or as I've needed to do, find inexpensive items at a craft store or thrift shop.

Giving Thanks

Gather round- to oval-shaped, flat rocks big enough to write on. Use any size tray, rectangular or circular, whatever will fit on your table. You'll need votive candles, votive holders, fine tip marker, or a small paintbrush and craft paint. Make this Thanksgiving centerpiece extra special and get the whole family involved. If you have little ones unable to write, have them draw a picture instead.

Ideas for what to write include simple words such as family, friends, fall, bounty, memories, home, harvest, giving thanks. Foods including, turkey, corn, gravy and pumpkin. Write the words for things that represent the season including pine cones, cornucopia and scarecrow. You can list family such as grandma, grandpa, aunt and uncle to feel closer to family who might not be there this year.

Fall Bounty

Use the bounty of autumn to make a colorful Thanksgiving centerpiece. You'll need a basket that's not too deep, fresh or fake flowers, fall leaves, two to three small squares of floral foam, twigs with berries, and autumn fruits and vegetables.

Arrange fall flowers such as mums, sunflowers, carnations and dahlias around the inside edge of the basket. Add splashes of color with pink asters, purple Russian sage, or white colchicum with their delicate cup-shaped blooms. Stick two berry branches into the floral foam and set them in the basket.

Put in fall fruits and vegetables such as persimmon, squash, miniature pumpkins, oranges, pears and Indian corn. For a basket that's deep, use overturned bowls or small pedestals to showcase the fruit and vegetables. Finish off the Thanksgiving centerpiece with leaves scattered around the outside of the basket on the table, stuck inside the basket between fruit and flowers, and a bright red bow.

Other ideas for items to include are; small pine cones, small Christmas tree ornaments and pine or cedar branches in place of the berry twigs.

Color Explosion

Spice up Thanksgiving with an explosion of color. Bright colors can complement the earthy fall tones you use in decorating. Blue and green jars filled with a bouquet of purple salvia, apricot miniature roses, and pale-pink zinnias, then filled with tan and white pebbles makes a spectacular Thanksgiving centerpiece. Flank it with two, small, colored bowls holding one taper candle in green and blue held in place with pebbles for the finishing touch.

Try other color combinations with greenery spray painted gold, paired with purple flowers. Pair light, sky-blues with peach tones, while apple-green is enhanced by pastel pink.

Try any one of these Thanksgiving centerpieces courtesy of nature to put on your table this year. They'll never know how easy they were to make, but will be impressed by your sense of style and creativity.