18 Nov 4 Tips to Create a Meaningful Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Can any of us believe Thanksgiving is here?? If you’re like me, you’re mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted from a busy fall and the ongoing world turmoil.  I can’t even watch the news anymore. I’m so ready for a break, to kick back for a relaxing autumn holiday with family and friends. And boy, do we finally have some pretty fall weather and color here in Austin this year. We’re not hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, 2023, so I’ve updated this wonderful post that I wrote a few years ago about how to create a beautiful Thanksgiving table centerpiece. Not just any centerpiece, but a meaningful Thanksgiving table centerpiece with a twist. I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, let’s talk about self-care. I’ve decided to take the entire Thanksgiving week off to truly relax and be present with family and friends. Plus I’ve been cleaning out my studio for the umpteenth time to prepare for our annual holiday party.

Here are a few important “self-care” needs I have to share because maybe you have them too. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded that taking care of ourselves first is paramount before we can help others.

Here’s my Top 10:

1. “try” and stay off Social Media
2. not listen to the news
3. get out in nature and enjoy the pretty fall weather
4. play board games with my family
5. eat pie
6. take a long walk with a friend
7. go see a movie
8. take a long nap
9. read a great book and magazines
10. get back in my studio and create.

 

What do YOU want to do this Thanksgiving weekend?

 

The last one is very important to me because I never make enough time in my life to do the things I enjoy doing, like creating my art. Besides filling orders, but getting in my studio to play with all the wonderful textiles and ribbon, full of color and texture, that I love so much. (Good thing I’ve been focused this weekend on cleaning up and reorganizing my studio.) Since it’s my business to make and sell luxury pillows, I’m trying to schedule regular studio hours to also be creative and experiment and I only can do that if I have a clear work space.

Doing the 2019 and 2020 One Room Challenges has definitely fed my creativity over the years,  but here’s something you can try this Thanksgiving to nurture yours.

Are you up for the challenge?

 

Now, let’s get creative!!

A few Thanksgiving’s ago I read in one of my favorite award-winning blogs, Hadley Court, by Leslie Hendrix Wood, about taking personal and meaningful items from your home and creating a table centerpiece that tells your family story. The post was written by Leslie Carothers featuring inspiring tips from other designers. Read the post HERE.  To my surprise, I actually did it one year. And this was long before I started to spread my design wings into the 2019 spring and fall One Room Challenges.

I’d like to share my process of creating a Thanksgiving table centerpiece to help inspire you to try it this Thanksgiving. I think it’s a fun project to do with your kids too. My daughter was busy baking a cake but I asked her to take a peek and give me advice (she’s such a fantastic stylist!). All she had to say in her understated way was, “Mooooom, what ARE you trying to do?!?” I guess I hadn’t quite mastered centerpiece design yet! ?

Gratitude

The really cool thing about creating this table centerpiece is having to think of what collections, mementos from your home that you can use in your display to tell your family story. I eventually got the hang of it and you can too!

In the Thanksgiving tradition of being thankful in your life, the most important tip I took to heart was to honor the special people in your life by selecting a memento that represents them somehow.

That really spoke to me, because that’s what I try to bring to life and share through the pillows I create, to tell a story through the materials I select. The real challenge for me was assembling it into a centerpiece and not a pillow, as I do NOT consider myself a “crafty” person.

Read on, and you’ll see what my selections meant to me and give it a try. I’d love to see what you come up with, so please share it with me!

But first, I want to give thanks to you for following my blog, taking an interest in my work, and wanting to read my long-winded babblings (boy, that hasn’t changed in 3 years, has it…lol!) about design, travel, life and more. It means a lot to me that you’re on this journey with me, thank you!!

What can you use in your home as a base?

 

Step 1

First step is to figure out your base. Find a vase, platter or bowl to create your centerpiece in (or on) to best tell your family story?

That one was pretty easy for me. I selected a large family heirloom silver tray with my grandmother’s initials on it, DKJ, for Dorothy Keely Jones. It had a beautiful shape, was my father’s mothers, had sides to contain my display, and I didn’t worry that it was tarnished. It would have taken forever to polish it, and it was going to be covered up anyway, so I let the patina add its charm.

Think about mementos, family heirlooms, that you’ve collected over the years

 

Step 2 

Next, think about your family, what mementos or collections you’d like to put into the tray or vase or basket. What items will you select to honor or remember special people in your life? With our parents and grandparents deceased, I knew I could find something meaningful.

This is where I had the most fun! I walked around the house and chose different items that represented different people in my family.

• my mother’s crystal hurricane candlesticks
• my husband’s mother’s antique blue and white pitcher to serve as a flower vase

 

How these crystal hurricane covers have made it down through the generation unscathed is remarkable to me, so I keep these in my China cabinet for safety and only bring them out for the holidays.  This cream and sugar set below was too small so I had to find another option.

When color and texture become the perfect answer

 

Step 3

Then, as you walk around your home, keep thinking with an open mind, about your design.  I kept trying to think, what do I have on hand that works in a floral arrangement besides flowers, that would also have special meaning?

I couldn’t believe it when I remembered and noticed all the treasures I had put in the vintage Chinese vases I bought in NYC at Bunny Williams Treillage store before it closed. Everything in the vase was full of color and texture and absolutely perfect for an arrangement!

I not only had peacock feathers from my dear friend, Austin milliner, Laura Del Villaggio of Milli Starr, but I also had pussy willows from my best friend Andrea Vanhoven.  Pussy willows also happened to be one of my favorite bushes at my childhood home. And on top of that, the real piece de resistance was I had real turkey feathers that my son gave me from his very first Texas hunt. I’m not kidding! A lot of meaning packed a punch in items from this one vase!

Time to think outside the box

 

Step 4

Lastly, I also tried to think outside of the standard floral arranging box and you should too.  I came up with several other very cool items I would not normally have thought of.

Here are a few I chose:

• My niece’s wooden candle holders from her wedding,
• My mother’s small glass paperweights,
• A Chinese snuff bottle I bought in Wuhan China when we adopted our daughter,  and
• A wonderful demitasse teacup and saucer of my mother’s that had music on it. She was an opera singer, so that connection fit perfectly into my family’s story centerpiece.

 

My niece’s wedding candleholders were wooden branches with their nuptial initials carved on the bottom. The tea candles didn’t quite fit, so I re-purposed the holders into flower bud vases.

 

Voila – the finished result

Phew! It all came together and looked beautiful on my mother’s antique cut-linen tablecloth we use every Thanksgiving.

When cats become part of the project

There was only a slight interruption in the process. We all know how cats LOVE to be the center of attention, right? Particularly our cat Zabel found a way of being part of the Thanksgiving table centerpiece project too. It was hilarious!

Oh yes, he looks so innocent here below, right?

“What me?  I’m not interrupting your project….I just want to make sure the water’s fresh, that’s all.” – Zabel

He was trying to drink the water out of the wooden candle holders that I turned into bud vases. Geesh!!  So much so,  that I had to get him his own gold-rimmed crystal drinking bowl, and park it on the table right next to where I was working so that he could feel part of the process.  (Don’t worry, I brushed the table off afterward. Cats have a way of being everywhere, so whenever there’s flowers or candles, you can expect Zabel on the table!)

Well, at least he was happy and so was I. We had a wonderful cozy Thanksgiving with a small contingent of family (as our older children were in their respective homes), a meaningful centerpiece that told part of our family story, and a damn good cocoa cake made from scratch by my daughter.

I couldn’t believe how fun this project was!  How meaningful it was to create a table centerpiece with special items from our home connected to missed family members, and dear friends, who couldn’t be with us.

To read the blog post that inspired my Thanksgiving centerpiece, please read Leslie Carother’s beautiful post for Hadley Court “OUR TOP 3 TIPS FOR CREATING MEMORABLE THANKSGIVING TABLESCAPES”. I hope it will inspire you to “Get Creative”  as much as it did me one year!

I’ve learned a thing or two since creating this Thanksgiving table centerpiece (above) in 2016. Here is a tabletop I styled (below) for the 2019 fall One Room Challenge and created the floral centerpiece for my Breakfast Nook Makeover.  To learn more about the fall Challenge and my Breakfast Nook read the Big Reveal HERE.

Enjoy some photos below from 2016 and I wish you and your family a wonderful blessed Thanksgiving!

Please PIN this image so other families can join in the fun of discovering meaningful treasures in their home for a festive table centerpiece for Thanksgiving. You can also do this for Christmas or any other holiday.

At times like these, in our crazy world, it’s so important to come together and be grateful for how blessed and lucky we are to have a home, a family, and a bountiful meal. And one last note, be kind and love all those different from you.

I dedicate this updated 2023 Thanksgiving Day post to all the families that are dealing with intolerable suffering due to these tragic wars. God bless you all! From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

XO PG