Thanksgiving is like a forgotten holiday. Wedged between Halloween and Christmas, it often gets overshadowed by enterprising party-goers and party-throwers who spend the bulk of their attention setting an itinerary for those other two holidays – and decorating for them.
Consequently, there are much fewer collective intellectual resources dedicated to furnishing ideas for decorating around Thanksgiving time.
Fortunately, we have a few cures.
Celebrate the Harvest
Thanksgiving decorating doesn’t have to be too involved – it’s a lot like regular fall decor and it’s basically Halloween decor without the spooky element.
Got some faux jack-o-lanterns still around from Halloween? Just turn them around so all you can see are the backs of the pumpkins!
If you live near a farm or farm stand, you can pick up a few decorative gourds, corn stalks, pumpkins, or hay bales and place them around your vestibules to set a more Thanksgiving-appropriate mood.
Another great way to decorate for Thanksgiving is with wreaths woven of natural materials like straw, twigs, and leaves. They can be used to decorate doors and walls both inside and out. It sounds basic, but in practice, it’s affordable and cute.
Use Your Curio Display Space
If you have a curio display and it currently has a bit of negative space, take advantage of it. A curio display is like a blank slate for interior decorating.
Get some of those Thanksgiving-appropriate harvest-themed items and place them on your curio display shelves. Some unique and appropriate decorative accents are acorn, pumpkin, and of course turkey-themed curios and decorations.
You can also get a few small Thanksgiving-themed decorative items; plates, mugs, glasses, cornucopia, and even plush pumpkins, and arrange them on your curio display.
Set Mood Lighting
Setting the mood with appropriate lighting is less about decorating for Thanksgiving and more about making a more appropriate setting for a comfortable, cozy interior.
We all know that the fall months usher in shorter, darker days, and while some people don’t appreciate the longer, darker hours, a warmly lit space can feel much more comfortable and welcoming.
Some curio display shelves, such as the Fancy Edge Corner and Fancy Plus Wide Display Shelves (available online at ShopFenlo.com) have integral LED lighting that can be used not only to draw attention and focus on your Thanksgiving-themed decorations but also for adding a little gentle ambient light to a setting.
Utilizing accent lighting to add a little extra warmth to a setting can make it feel more inviting, cozier, and brighter, especially when the weather outside is colder and the days are shorter.
Fall Colors
Simply shifting the tenor of the predominant colors in your home can make the setting feel more seasonally appropriate. Think about how you do everything over in black and orange for Halloween and red and green for Christmas. You can do the same for Thanksgiving will fall colors.
While Thanksgiving doesn’t have “dedicated” colors, you can hitch a ride on fall colors: warm neutrals, oranges, red, maroon, burgundy, and buff stray and yellow colors.
Add some throw pillows or plush throws to your seating, swap out the drapes, add an area rug to a space, or add some table runners, scented candles, or centerpieces in fall-themed colors to take advantage of this idea.
Get a Couple of Special Thanksgiving-Themed Decorations
Of course, when you run out of other options, you can still buy commercially available Thanksgiving decorations which can be used to put an accent on your setting.
Seasonally appropriate tablecloths, plush pumpkins, turkeys, table runners, doormats, plates and dinnerware, trays, and cutting boards, lanterns and candles, even little items, like pumpkin-themed salt and pepper shakers – can all lend an unmistakable air of the season to nearly any setting.
