Thanksgiving Touches for Your Home

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year. Friends and family gather to renew friendships, share time together and celebrate the season with a traditional Thanksgiving feast (and maybe a touch football game). Hosting a Thanksgiving celebration can be a lot to take on, so don't fret about how to decorate your home as well as plan and cook the meal.  Add some simple Thanksgiving touches to your home decor and then  you can concentrate on the food.

Start with Fall Colors

Build your home's Thanksgiving decorations around a fall color scheme of golds, yellows, reds, browns and greens. One easy way to add fall color to your home is to place appropriately colored throws or small blankets on the arms or backs of chairs. Display bright red cranberries in a clear glass vase, or provide more neutral but natural color by doing the same thing with pecans or acorn in their shells.
Alternatively, picturesque bare branches can be arranged in a vase, tied together with fall colored ribbons.

Arrange Your Thanksgiving Dinner Table

The table is the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving decorating. One way to minimize your stress level is to follow this easy plan. Keep the decoration simple, keep it low (so it won't impede conversation) and don't use anything with a scent (candles, potpourri) that will compete with your dinner.

To give your table that Thanksgiving look, start with a neutral colored table cloth then simply add a table runner in gold or yellow to bring in the Thanksgiving feel. Complete the look with neutral cloth napkins but napkin rings color coordinated with the runner. Add low standing (and inexpensive) light to your table using tea lights or votive candles in clear glasses.

With freshly fallen leaves, some bare branches and glue gun, create a simple, seasonal center piece. Glue the leaves and some small branches to a larger branch, add some candles in glasses to the middle and finish up with some brightly colored Indian corn or small gourds.

Make Some Finishing Touches

Give your home a welcoming scent by placing some cinnamon in a warm oven. Or, place scented candles (pumpkin pie, pecan pie, nutmeg) around your home so your guests will slide into the Thanksgiving mood. Just be sure you don't put any of these scented candles near where you will be eating because the scents could overwhelm your dinner.

If you have a fireplace, light it or turn it on. The sight of a crackling fire gives everyone a warm, comfortable feeling. If you don't have a fireplace, you can still stack some logs or pine cones in a large basket to give your home a fall feel.

Finally, you can give your home a true Thanksgiving touch by placing wheat sheaves tied with Thanksgiving/fall colored ribbons in the corners of your rooms. 

Murray Anderson is an experienced freelance writer with over 800 articles published on the web as well as in print magazines and newspapers in both the United States and Canada. He writes on a wide range of topics and is a regular contributor to DoItYourself.com. He can be contacted at murand@lycos.com.