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  3. 42 Beautiful Centerpiece Ideas That Are Perfect for Thanksgiving

42 Beautiful Centerpiece Ideas That Are Perfect for Thanksgiving

By BH&G Holiday Editors
Updated August 20, 2020
Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
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Credit: Marty Baldwin
Add a touch of fall to your Thanksgiving table with elegant yet easy-to-make Thanksgiving centerpiece ideas. Including natural elements, candle displays, and more, these Thanksgiving table decorations will be a highlight on your holiday table.
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Unexpected Arrangement

Credit: Greg Scheidemann

Instead of a classic flower arrangement, create a dramatic Thanksgiving centerpiece filled with pumpkins, fresh produce, and gourds. Anchor the arrangement with 3-4 large pumpkins in a wooden tray. Fill in the display with bosc pears, artichokes, decorative cabbage, and small gourds. Finish the centerpiece with cut seasonal flowers like mums.

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Edible Centerpiece

Credit: Amy Allen

A festive cheese board, fruit, and a few foliage-filled Mason jars provide this Thanksgiving centerpiece with laid-back charm and a pre-feast noshing station. Plus, it's a cinch to swap the cheese board for turkey when you're ready to serve the main attraction. To create a mini banner for your cheese platter, fold a piece of paper in half and cut triangles along the fold. Write the word CHEESE, one letter per triangle, and staple the folded triangles in place over a length of twine. Suspend the banner from wooden skewers.

Editor's Tip: Be sure to follow food safety guidelines when setting out your centerpiece.

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Fresh Fruit Centerpiece

Credit: Marty Baldwin

This stunning Thanksgiving fruit centerpiece showcases the beauty of in-season pears, clementines, and grapes. When thinking about your decorations, use things you already have! Dress up your easy centerpiece with a few heads of curly cabbage.

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Make a Magnolia Garland

Credit: Marty Baldwin

This showstopping Thanksgiving table decoration is made with magnolia leaves, seeded eucalyptus, and other seasonal greenery. Add color with bright orange clementines, golden yellow billy balls, and red hypericum berries. This gorgeous magnolia garland idea is easier to make than you think!

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Tall Glass Centerpiece

Credit: Victor Schrager

Get this Thanksgiving table decor look with fall foliage and clear vessels. Fill and cluster in the center of the table. Hang berry sprigs from the arms of the chandelier for a whimsical tone. We love this simple approach to Thanksgiving decorating.

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Dried Flower Arragement

Credit: Kritsada Panichgul

This beautiful dried floral centerpiece brings in the flowers and colors of fall. Start with a clear glass vase and fill it with brown nuts. Cut the stems of sunflowers shorter than the other foliage so they sit at the bottom of the arrangement. Fill in the center of the vase with fall grasses and leaves.

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Fill a Centerpiece Box

Credit: Marty Baldwin

Display a variety of pumpkins and decorative foliage in this handmade centerpiece box. Once you've created the box, you can use it as a Thanksgiving centerpiece and continue to refill it as the holiday season goes on. When you're done with your holiday decor, use it as a pretty planter.

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Squash Centerpiece

Credit: Kritsada Panichgul

Give butternut squash and sugar pumpkins a stylish new look with an oversized metal cake stand ($20, Hobby Lobby) and fresh flowers. To create the centerpiece, cut and hollow out butternut squash and pumpkins. Fill with water and seasonal flowers like chrysanthemums, coreopsis, and goldenrod.

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Make a Succulent-Filled Pumpkins

This gorgeous succulent pumpkin decoration will last all holiday season. Use a faux pumpkin ($10, Michaels) to create a planter that's filled with easy-to-care-for succulents. Use it as a Thanksgiving centerpiece and then keep it on display through the New Year. Mist the succulents occasionally to keep them fresh.

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Use Unusual Containers

Credit: Adam Albright

On any other day, a soup tureen is a purposeful addition to dinnertime. But its expansive interior and accents make it a good place to display your centerpiece efforts. Here, this footed version is filled with water-soaked florists foam; dried gourds, viburnum berries, and a variety of flowers (dahlias, mums, scabiosa centers) add both texture and color.

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Tiered Centerpiece

Credit: Marty Baldwin

The height of this centerpiece is the real wow factor. Use a cake stand or tiered dessert display to showcase fall's prettiest natural ingredients. Inspired by farmhouse-style decor, we filled a galvanized stand with oranges, pomegranates, eucalyptus leaves, and yellow straw flowers.

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Fall Catch-All

Credit: Marty Baldwin

Go simple with this Thanksgiving decoration. Use a woven tray as a vessel for a collection of pumpkins and gourds at the center of the table. Place a vase filled with fall florals on the tray, either cornered or in the center, to complete the look and add height.

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Make Mason Jar Snowglobes

Credit: Marty Baldwin

Sprigs of faux greenery sparkle in this Thanksgiving Mason jar centerpiece. Use decorative foliage from the crafts supply store, glitter, and recycled jars. Scatter them along the center of the table for a shimmery look that you can use all holiday season long.

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Use Seasonal Flowers

Credit: Marty Baldwin

Transform that grocery store flower arrangement into a stunning pumpkin decoration with just a few simple steps. Hollow out a pumpkin, and fill it with soaked floral foam. Press your stems into it and add sprigs of decorative foliage. Choose a fall color scheme like cream and orange.

Editor's Tip: Use a faux pumpkin to make the vase reusable.

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Make a Greenery Garland

Credit: Adam Albright
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This easy greenery garland is sure to bring the ooh's and aah's at your big dinner. Create the Thanksgiving decoration with just a few inexpensive greenery branches and floral wire. Add a few tea candles and you're ready to set the table!

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Revamp Your Plain Vases

Credit: Adam Albright

You don't have to invest in a new set of vases to keep current with decorating or color trends. Instead use lengths of wrapping paper, trimmed and taped around vases you already have. Here, the faux bois, or fake wood, base anchors the organic collection of roses, acorns, and fern fronds for a crisp Thanksgiving floral centerpiece.

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Bowl Centerpiece

Credit: Kim Cornelison

Keep your Thanksgiving centerpiece simple so you're free to focus on the food! Fill a low concrete bowl ($37, Pottery Barn) with mini white pumpkins, pinecones, stones, and white berry sprigs. Add in cranberries or small clementines for an additional layer of color.

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Pumpkin Pots

Credit: Karla Conrad

Create this easy Thanksgiving centerpiece at any scale to fit the size of your table. Start with a terra cotta pot and cut floral foam to size. Place faux moss on top of the foam. Poke a thick wire into the bottom of small faux pumpkins, then place wires into the foam. Make an easy sign with a wood dowel and brown cardstock. This pumpkin decoration is perfect for making with kids!

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Put Food on Display

Credit: Karla Conrad

This Thanksgiving buffet proves that the presentation really does make all the difference. Drape harvest-themed table runners across a wooden buffet table. Serve favorite Thanksgiving dishes—sweet potatoes, stuffing, salad, and turkey—in simple, low serving dishes. Use wooden serving spoons to really drive the theme home.

Editor's Tip: Top your homemade pumpkin pie with cut crust letters for a festive touch.

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Artichoke Arrangement

Credit: Carson Downing

Trade a vase of fresh flowers for a fall arrangement starring artichokes, magnolia leaves, and clementines. Fill a white vessel with mangolia stems and use florists wire to attach artichokes and clementines. Finish the centerpiece with yellow craspedia billy ball stems and small white flowers.

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Display Dinner Ingredients

Credit: Marty Baldwin

Head to the grocery store for this simple Thanksgiving decoration. Create an easy centerpiece by filling a low bowl with artichokes, pomegranates, and red Gerber daisies. Mix up this Thanksgiving centerpiece with other fruits, like apples, pears, and oranges.

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Put Pinecones on Display

Credit: Marty Baldwin

Gather pinecones to create this DIY Thanksgiving centerpiece. Simply place four low tea light candles on an oval white dish. Fill in the spaces with pinecones, and finish with decorative berries or cranberries. This inexpensive centerpiece idea costs less than $10!

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Select a Single Color

Credit: Peter Krumhardt

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.

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White Pumpkin Centerpiece

Credit: Scott Little

Choose white pumpkins for a soft yet stunning arrangement that will stand out amid the Thanksgiving table fare. Place them on display with different shapes and heights of white serving dishes.

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Fresh Fall Centerpiece

Credit: Wendell T. Webber

Golds, reds, olives, and purples shine in these classic Thanksgiving floral centerpiece. Scrounge from your garden, nature, or a floral store for vividly colored blooms; we used bittersweet, green foxtail, amaranth, sorghum, and rust-color chrysanthemums. Arrange them in clear vases in complementary hues.

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Metallic Candle Centerpiece

Credit: Steven McDonald

Add an intimate atmosphere to your Thanksgiving table by pairing natural elements (think strategically placed succulents and a bark-on log slice) with glimmering gold mercury glass tea lights. No mercury glass on hand? Not to worry! Making your own Thanksgiving decorations is easy. Get our step-by-step tutorial; just use gold glitter spray paint instead of silver!

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Create Drama with Branches

Credit: Wendell T. Webber

Sweeping plum branches, coleus, and dahlias form these dramatic vertical arrangements, flanked by taper candles and an elegant gold fruit bowl and tableware. A long velvet runner keeps this homemade Thanksgiving centerpiece well-defined. To preserve guest visibility, vary the arrangement heights and keep the tallest element to one side of the table.

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Use Candles

Credit: Marty Baldwin

Bring your patio hurricane candle holders inside for this quick pumpkin decoration. Simply wrap the bottom of your glass candle holders with burlap ribbon. Tuck in a few sprigs of decorative foliage and place on a simple table runner. Fill in the gaps with mini pumpkins and fresh fall leaves.

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Neutral Centerpiece

Credit: Keller and Keller Photography Inc

Let your Thanksgiving menu be the real attraction with this simple yet beautiful centerpiece idea. Fill a natural wooden bowl with one tal