Quick and Easy Thanksgiving Centerpiece Ideas

Making your own centerpiece for the holiday table can be quick and easy. You can use the beauty of the autumn foliage from your yard, a friends or a roadside stand with pumpkins, gourds, mums and more. There are beautiful artificial flowers, leaves and sprigs these days, it's hard to tell the difference.

The centerpiece I have made this year was very easy. As we are having a buffet style dinner, I chose a taller arrangement as more of a backdrop for the table.

Flower Arranging:

I started with an antique wooden sewing drawer, the rectangle shape is what I was looking for to start this arrangement.

I then cut a piece of floral foam to fit the bottom of the sewing box, as shown in the picture. I choose to use artificial foliage because I have a stockpile of it. After season sales let you pick up these pieces very cheaply.

I started with eleven stems of sunflowers, one larger in the middle and five smaller on each side. I then added some fall colored leaves, about six stems with three leaves on each stem. I tried to keep a balance on both sides, but not to perfect. I added two yellowish orange roses, one on each side of the large sunflower.

Then I more or less just started to fill in the arrangement, with rusty orange colored carnations, some stems of tiny orange flowers and a few green spikes. This arrangement can be down sized for a beautiful centerpiece.

If flower arranging isn't for you, you may want to try one of the ideas below.

Candles for a Centerpiece:

A beautiful centerpiece can be made by placing a table runner or a piece of Autumn colored material in the center of the table. Take three pillar candles (Autumn fragranced if possible) and put one in the middle of the material and one on each end. If you have three hurricane lamp covers they would add a nice touch to the centerpiece.

Take whatever you have around the yard to fill in around the candles. Leaves, acorns, black walnuts, pinecones, grapevines, bittersweet vines, small tree or evergreen branches would all be good choices.

Another great centerpiece with candles, is to take a large glass cake plate or relish tray and put an assortment of different sized pillar candles on the plate. Use one color or each a different fall color. Add a few rosehips, acorns or small pinecones on the plate to finish the centerpiece.

Nature Centerpiece:

Nothing can be as lovely as natures own offerings. Take a large hurricane lamp globe or glass pillar and set on top a bed of leaves or a beautiful doily. Fill the globe or pillar with layers of acorns, hickory nuts, small pinecones, rosehips, berries, herbs, seed pods, corn, sunflower seeds, pumpkin or squash seeds. You could even press a taper candle in the center.

Pumpkin Centerpiece:

Use three pumpkins, two small and one midsize. Cut off the tops and clean the inside of each pumpkin. Take the midsize pumpkin and set it on the middle of your table. Next take the two smaller ones and put each about six inches on each side of the larger pumpkin. Take some grapevine, bittersweet vines, strands of ivy, sprigs of berries or even some pretty autumn colored ribbon, and gently wrap in and out around the pumpkins. Get three pillar candles, one large and to medium to set inside of the pumpkins.

Any of these ideas can be changed by using a footed cake stand, baskets, large bowl or silver platter. You can spray pumpkins, gourds, nuts or pinecones golden orange.

Even a large bowl of fruit with a few leaves or acorns scattered around it can make a great centerpiece.