Editor’s Note: Looking for Thanksgiving Day centerpiece inspiration? Click through the gallery above and read the explanations below to learn more about the decorative possibilities for your holiday table.
Story highlights
Produce, especially pumpkins, work well as centerpieces
Candles, ceramics and dried gourds will not wilt on the table
Take a cue from autumn hues: Orange is ideal for a fall tableau
Great Pumpkins
A white-pumpkin shell becomes the vase for an arrangement of roses, daffodils, ranunculuses, calla lilies, tulips, and hypericum berries in fall colors – yellows, peaches, and shades of orange. Smaller pumpkins and votive candles in orange-glass holders fill out the centerpiece.
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Leaf-Covered Candles
Lemon, mountain laurel, and rhododendron leave delightful impressions on homemade wax candles.
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Autumn Centerpiece
A quick trip to the market yielded this fall centerpiece, an informal arrangement of kumquats, squashes, and a bell pepper in a ceramic compote. Use whatever orange fruits and vegetables you find, such as baby pumpkins, carrots, persimmons, and, of course, oranges.
Pumpkin Candles
A molded candle can light up a room even after the flame is out. These arrangements draw from the natural beauty of the season, whether the candles are whimsical or realistic. They’re ideal as a fall centerpiece.
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Wilt-Proof Centerpieces
A cluster of towers made from stacked patterned ceramics forms a graphic, sculptural centerpiece that will decorate your table day in and day out – no green thumb needed. If you don’t have an extra set of dishes lying around, you can buy great inexpensive rice bowls at an Asian outlet or pick up mixed sets at flea markets.
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No-Stitch Cross-Stitch Candles
You don’t need to spend hours to re-create the designs of early American samplers. We used a paint pen to “stitch” designs onto glass, imprinting leafy motifs on large candleholders for a centerpiece and monograms on votive holders for favors.
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A Harvest Table
Transform a variety of dried gourds into tableware by hollowing them out and piling them high with pears and walnuts as centerpieces; fill others with candles in glass votives, and still more with salt and pepper.
Tableau Decorations
We anchored tapers inside mini pumpkins to make easy yet elegant centerpieces.
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