How to Make a Thanksgiving Basket

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By Dusty Mills
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A LITTLE BIT OF THE HARVEST

Now that Halloween is over, it's time to think about making the porch or entryway look more like Thanksgiving. A simple, yet charming way to add a little fall decor to our home is to make a Thanksgiving basket. These are so easy to do that you may end up making more than one.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Medium to large basket
Exselcior
Gourds or pumpkins
Wheat stems or any dried fall grass
Fresh greens
Raffia

Step 1

NATURAL OR PAINTED?

Start with a fairly large basket, mine is like a large Easter basket that came natural. I wanted more color so I painted mine a barn red. Painting a wicket basket by hand is somewhat time consuming, but I like to sometimes mix my own colors and you can't do that with spray paint. Paint your basket or stain it or just leave it natural, that's all up to you.
Step 2

Once your basket is the way you want it, assemble all your materials. I lined the bottom of my basket with excelsior, a dried grass-like material. It is used for a filler here as my basket to almost too deep for the amount of gourds I have. I started by arranging the gourds in the basket and then went outside and cut 3 branches of evergreen juniper. Those went in next. I used a hand full of wheat stems and some dried mini cattails. The excelsior helps hold these stems upright.
Step 3

After all my materials were in the basket, I added a bow of raffia. I like my basket on the front porch, it's fine outside as long as it's a dry place. In place of gourds, why not try potted flowers or a grouping of pumpkins. One year I was given several boxes of dried wheat. I filled a whole basket with just the wheat, I only needed to line the bottom of the basket with an old towel to keep the stems from dropping thru. Look around your house for things to use to fill the basket, you can almost always find something. Have an apple orchard? Fill a basket with them and set by the front door, how charming is that.....