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Step 1
Select the food you will serve and develop a theme for your Thanksgiving dinner that matches your menu. Your theme can be as simple as fall bounty.
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Step 2
Take into account how many people will be attending. What size centerpiece you can have will depend on how much room is available on the table. Don't make the centerpiece so tall that it obstructs your guests' view of one another.
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Step 3
Search the Internet for ideas. On Better Homes and Garden Magazine's website there are slides shows with dozens of different centerpiece ideas. You can also find different seasonal floral arrangements online as the holiday approaches. When you find an arrangement or idea for a centerpiece you like, print it out and tuck it away.
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Step 4
Visit your local library and search through magazines for Thanksgiving centerpiece ideas. As November approaches most magazines that specialize in food, lifestyles or arts and crafts will have a special Thanksgiving theme issue chalk full of ideas for centerpieces.
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Step 5
Join an online group or forum that specializes in centerpieces or arts and crafts. Talk with other members about centerpiece ideas and search their topic archive.
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Step 6
Consider your budget. Purchasing a centerpiece from a florist or store can be pricey. Making a centerpiece can be less expensive, but putting together a fancy showpiece is time consuming. You have to decide which is more valuable to you, time or money.
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Step 7
Talk with your local florist. Take any clippings of ideas you found in magazines or from the Internet with you. Ask them if they can make you a similar centerpiece and what it would cost.
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Step 8
Look around your house and backyard for items you can use to make a centerpiece. Colorful fall leaves, branches, a rustic basket, gourds, small pumpkins, acorns. and candles can be used to tactfully construct a charming centerpiece. Autumn branches full of leaves make easy centerpieces. You can cut them just before your guests arrive and arrange them in a large glass vase, or press them in the pages of a book between sleeves of waxed paper for a week. Fresh produce arranged in a cornucopia is also a classic centerpiece.
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Step 9
Use glassware, place settings and napkins to accent your centerpiece or to pull out fall colors from a floral arrangement. Tinted glassware is an easy way to dress up your table and coordinate colors with your centerpiece. When you start with a well thought-out theme you'll be impressed by how easy it is to tie your tableware and centerpiece all together.
