Quick and Easy Thanksgiving Decorating Tips

'Tis the season.  

Stores have become a flurry of green and red, the sound of Christmas tunes filling your ears, kids sitting on Santa’s lap… but wait – it’s still November! Stores may be setting up for Christmas early as per usual but we still have some time left until December and another holiday on the horizon! No, I’m not talking about National Cashew Day, I’m talking about Thanksgiving. On a beautiful day in 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated with the Indians by having a 3-day feast to thank God for a good crop. Then they proceeded to take their land… err, anyway… 

We now celebrate that day by giving thanks for the things we’ve been given and fill up on pie and turkey.  You might be looking for some quick and easy ways to decorate your home for your Thanksgiving feast. In this post you’ll find tips using live plants and wreaths to bring fall color to your home, to more unconventional things such as decoupage pumpkins.

An easy and quick way to bring in some fall color is picking up some live plants from your local garden center or big box stores. Some good suggestions are mums and variegated Crotons available from Costa Farms.

Take a walk and enjoy the fresh autumn air before winter takes over, while picking flowers and colorful foliage found along the way. Just don’t steal them from your neighbor’s yard…

Try dressing up your home with a new festive wreath, it’s a simple way to bring the fall into your home. And as an added bonus with the holiday season fast approaching you can easily change your fall wreath into a holiday wreath. Check out James Farmer’s new book A Wreaths for All Seasons for ideas on how to recycle your wreath all year long! And if time is an issue you can always buy wreaths from James' online store here!

Some DIY ideas include (courtesy of HGTV.com): 

Create a Fall leaf lampshade

Take those old plain lampshades of yours and give them a fall twist by stenciling in some fall leaves. 

Click here for a how-to

Decoupage Pumpkins

“Give faux pumpkins, leftover from Halloween, a fashion-forward makeover by covering them with strips of trendy fabric. Large decoupage pumpkins are a stylish addition to front porch fall displays while small pumpkins will add a graphic pop to your Thanksgiving centerpiece.”

Click here for a how-to

Decorate with fall foliage

Pick up some of those silk fall leaves at the craft store and decorate your home with them for a quick and easy fall look. You can also press real leaves found in your own backyard!

Let us know some of your fall decorating ideas! We’d like to hear them!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!
~ James
Garden Media Group

A Thanksgiving Prayer 



by Joseph Auslander

We thank thee for our daily bread,
For faith by which the soul is fed,
For burdens given us to bear,
For help that lifts the heart's despair.

We thank thee, Lord, for eyes to see,
The truth that makes, and keeps us free:
For faults -- and for the strength to mend them,
For dreams -- and courage to defend them.

We have so much to thank thee for,
Dear Lord, we beg but one boon more:
Peace in the hearts of all men living,
Peace in the whole world on this Thanksgiving.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

• Thanksgiving Fun Facts
  
  

• Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving.

• Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.

• Sarah Josepha Hale, the enormously influential magazine editor and author who waged a tireless campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the mid-19th century, was also the author of the classic nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

• In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Thanksgiving stamp. Designed by the artist Margaret Cusack in a style resembling traditional folk-art needlework, it depicted a cornucopia overflowing with fruits and vegetables, under the phrase "We Give Thanks."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Count your friends and your blessings!
The GMG Gals