Beautiful Thanksgiving Centerpiece Ideas for Your Table Display

This stress-free Thanksgiving centerpiece makes a statement on a sage green table runner. Simply tuck pears, nuts, and fresh or preserved leaves in a large wire basket for an updated take on the cornucopia.

Editor's Tip: A great part of this display is its portability -- simply lift and set elsewhere to make way for the Thanksgiving feast.

A light palette of soft gray, cream, and shades of yellow updates a classic cornucopia. Dress up a crafts-store horn of plenty basket by whitewashing it with pickling stain and trimming the opening with a strip of cotton fabric tied on with embroidery floss. Line the inside with cream burlap and fill with squash, apples, pears, quince, and cipollini onions.

Editor's Tip: Set the cornucopia on a platter so you can move it easily to make room for the turkey.

This Thanksgiving buffet proves that presentation really does make all the difference. Drape harvest-theme table runners across a wood buffet table. Serve favorite Thanksgiving dishes -- from mouthwatering turkey to fluffy sweet potatoes -- in simple white serving dishes. Dress up the rest of the Thanksgiving table with a pair of earthy brown candles and use a pretty Japanese maple as a backdrop by setting it on the floor.

Editor's Tip: Give your famous cranberry fruit salad the attention it deserves by serving it in a footed glass vase.

Put acorns to use with this nutty basket. Hot-glue acorns (with and without caps) to a woven basket. When dry, line the basket with plastic or foil, and place florist's foam inside. Add five or six not-too-ripe pears using shish kabob spears to keep them in place. (Unripened pears generally keep for a week or more.) Fill with bold dahlia blooms and sprigs of crabapple, bittersweet, mountain ash berries, or any other fall foliage.

Editor's Tip: If the basket is a bright color, first paint it dark brown to blend with the nuts. Keep extra acorns on hand in case any fall off.

Soft white and golden hues dance in natural lighting at this alfresco Thanksgiving table. A vase filled with wheat adds texture to the centerpiece. Fill a tall cylindrical vase with dried white beans. Add a berried branch from a Golden Raindrops Crabapple tree to another vase to complete the setting.

Editor's Tip: Don't have a tall cylindrical vase? A wide round vase would hold more beans and wheat for a fuller centerpiece display.

Watch this video and learn how to make an easy and elegant wheat centerpiece for Thanksgiving.

A touch of copper turns garden-variety grasses into long-lasting elegant bouquets. Junk-drawer finds -- such as napkin rings, doorknobs, or copper plumbing fittings (sold in hardware stores for less than $1 apiece) -- make perfect holders for grasses. To get your grass bouquet (our tall bouquet is 'Evergold' sedge, and our short bouquet is 'Ice Dance' sedge) to stand upright, cut ends flush. The flat bottom should allow the bouquet to stand on its own. If still unbalanced, slide a copper fitting around the base to provide support.

Rely on the old for fresh Thanksgiving decorations. Dust off your vintage collectibles, or search flea markets and antiques stores for interesting finds. Here, a glass bowl on an overturned silver mold teams with a canning jar. Adding pecans, wheat shocks, and ears of Indian corn gives the centerpiece a harvest flair.

Instead of a cornucopia basket, opt for a found object to hold fall bounty. Here, a large metal antique scoop (lined with a fall-hued handkerchief) replaces the traditional conical basket for an eye-catching display.

For a fresh-from-the-pumpkin-patch table runner, arrange a line of miniature pumpkins or gourds in the center of the table and weave double-faced ribbon around them. Top with a bittersweet stem for a blaze of color.

Compose a striking table display with a collection of silver compotes. Choose dishes of varying heights and fill with nuts, small pinecones, or other items found in the grocery store aisles.

Bittersweet branches and colorful gourds bring seasonal splendor to a simple candle centerpiece. Tip: Arrange all of this on a platter or tray so you can move things easily to change the tablecloth.

Incorporate different textures for a visually appealing centerpiece. This arrangement relies on a birdseed filler, which supports an arrangement of cattails. The square vase is wrapped with a length of raffia to complete the natural tableau.

Branch out from the typical Thanksgiving color palette and dress your table in earthy tones of brown with touches of green and blue. A chocolate brown tablecloth anchors the visual display, which includes blue canning jars with fresh greenery and tall, green tapers sitting in containers of tan and white pebbles.

It doesn't get much easier than a pretty vase of flowers surrounded by pumpkins. To make this casual centerpiece, surround a vase of flowers with a mix of orange and white pumpkins of various sizes. Prop a few on an old wooden stool or a pedestal cake plate to vary the height.

Serve up a stylish centerpiece by simply centering a serving tray on an autumn-orange table runner and filling it with a sampling of mini pumpkins and fall plants.

Displaying one object en masse is an eye-catching and easy decorating strategy. Fill clear glass apothecary jars with a fall fruit, such as pears or apples, to grace your Thanksgiving table. Once the holiday is over, the fruit can be removed and the jar repurposed for your next decorating idea.

Sometimes the best decorations come from unexpected places. This Thanksgiving centerpiece is built on a foundation of books, whose bindings add color to the table. The stacks are surrounded by an assortment of mismatched vessels filled with fall-color blooms. Other seasonal accents -- such as the feathers and pear -- add visual interest to the vignette.

Choose white pumpkins for a soft yet stunning arrangement that will stand out amid the Thanksgiving table fare.

Fall-color candles pay homage to the harvest when surrounded by dried corn in a plain glass jar. What could be simpler?

Gather the bounty of the season for this country centerpiece. Carve a hole in a pumpkin to fit a pillar candle, then hot-glue pinecones and berries around the hole as a decorative ring. Nestle the pumpkin candleholder, along with gourds, pinecones, berries, and moss, within a couple of birch branches that frame the centerpiece.

Capture autumn's changing colors by featuring a short tree branch as a natural centerpiece. Weight a pot with stones and fill with dry florist's foam to secure the branch, then wrap the pot in a drawstring jute bag. Flank the centerpiece with floral arrangements in leaf-inspired colors -- try roses, millet, kale, leaves, and berries.

Display a blaze of fall fruits and colors with this towering centerpiece. Start with a bamboo vase filled with gravel or other weight for balance. Insert mums with short stems into a ring of dampened florist's foam and rest the ring over sugar maple leaves in the top of the vase. Fit a pumpkin in the center of the foam ring, top with another ring of mums, and crown with a smaller pumpkin. Use a long pick to secure the pumpkins together.

Globe-shape vases are easy to use. Cut about a dozen roses to a uniform length and arrange in your hand before snipping the ends and plopping into the water. If needed, add a few more blooms in the center -- cut stems a bit longer to create a mounded shape.

Transform a supermarket bouquet into a holiday-worthy centerpiece. Place a piece of florist's foam soaked in water inside a compote bowl. Trim flowers and stick into foam to arrange. For an extra touch of fall, poke skewers into small apples and nestle them in among the flowers.

Vegetables are good for more than just eating at your Thanksgiving meal; use an apple corer or knife to carve holes in sturdy vegetables. Place candles of different heights in each vegetable, light, and "serve."

This arrangement of white alstroemeria might not look like the color of fall, but placed in a wooden ice bucket and surrounded with warm paisley table linens, it looks just right.

A variety of pillar candles, set on a vintage breadboard base, are surrounded by creamy gourds and miniature pumpkins. A few stalks of wheat add texture to the scene.

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