It Is Called Turkey Day, After All

Let your cooking pull double duty this Thanksgiving – shine the decor spotlight on your culinary labor of love to create a warm welcome along with a delicious meal

By Mary Fons
CTW Features

Spread the holiday cheer this Thanksgiving with a delicious – and beautiful – feast! Image courtesy iStockphoto

It’s hard not to love Thanksgiving. The family, the friends, and the food all combine to make Turkey Day a pretty hard-to-beat celebration.

But decorating for this popular holiday can be tough. Should you really be using those paper turkeys again this year? If that corn on the cob pilgrim is looking a little worse for the wear, use some basic home-décor tips this Thanksgiving to get your house ready for the delights Thanksgiving will bring.

“I think it’s very important to give all your guests’ senses a good experience at your home,” says Salma Dressel, a interior decorator with Décor & You based in Clermont, Fla. “Having nice food smells throughout the house is very pleasant. And let the outdoor fall colors come inside – bring some fall-colored leaves inside in the form of artwork or a centerpiece. [Switch out] your existing plants with fall plants and decorate your table with festive fall colors.”

Speaking of that table, many decorators agree that if you focus on creating a beautiful spread for the main event (that’s the meal, of course) you might not need to spend as much time or money on anything else in the home – guests will be so busy admiring the table and eating the food, they probably won’t notice that there’s still a pumpkin in the living room leftover from Halloween.

There’s a lot you can do to make your table fit for a feast.

“You can decorate your table to celebrate Thanksgiving without overdoing it,” Dressel says. “A centerpiece with fresh fall fruits and colorful leaves is nice. Try to play tastefully around your centerpiece, making it the required focal point. Have all the colors surrounding it coordinate. For example, if your [dominant] color is plum, use orange and green accents all around your focal point, but leave the tablecloth light and plain. Dressel suggests a vanilla tablecloth as a nice background color for all your other fall-toned hues; on top of it, try sage green placemats with light orange napkins and maybe even use golden silverware.

"I've been hosting Thanksgiving feasts for 6 years now," says Anne Holub, a professional crafter in Chicago who produces homemade goods for Crafty Ladies. "I've found that simple is always best. Ever since I moved to Chicago, I've been lucky enough to be nearby to the best candle shop in the world, Waxman Candles. They make an enormous amount of candles in every size, from giant tapers to little votives, which are perfect for your holiday table. They make seasonal scents, too, so I can go in there and grab some votives that smell like cinnamon and pumpkin spices to fill my apartment with that 'I just cooked a delicious feast' smell, even if I didn't." Holub also recommends decorating with something that there's no shortage of for Thanksgiving – food. " My mom always put out little dishes or bowls of mints, nuts with crackers on the tables around the house. It's a nice way to spend the extra time before Thanksgiving grazing, without doing too much damage to your appetite.

“Plus, your guests won't revolt when the turkey takes three more hours than you anticipated. It's a holiday about bounty, after all, so having food spread throughout your house doesn't seem too out of character!"

Copyright © CTW Features