How to Make a Thanksgiving Centerpiece

You don't need to spend a fortune on a Thanksgiving table centerpiece. Almost everything you need to create your own masterpiece is right outside your door. A quick trip to the grocery store will provide colorful chili peppers, nuts or pumpkins to give your masterpiece color and interest.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bamboo Skewers
• Oasis Floral Foam
• Miniature Pumpkins
• Votive Candles
• Wicker Baskets
• Chile Peppers
• Nuts
• Paddle Wire

1. Select a container - anything will do as long as it will hold water. (Usually table centerpiece arrangements are low enough to see over, but you can break the rules if you don't wish to talk to the person across the table from you.) Or, line a wicker basket with plastic sheeting and set a clean cottage cheese container or other recycled wide-mouth receptacle in the center. Stuff newspaper around the outside of the container so it won't move inside the basket.

2. Soak 1/4 block of Oasis floral foam in water until it sinks. Place the saturated foam into the container so that at least 1 inch is above the rim.

3. Cut a shopping bag's worth of assorted foliage from your garden. Some suggestions are: nandina, dusty miller, pittosporum, Liquidambar, podocarpus (fern pine), variegated anything, and wide leaves such as aspidistra or flax.

4. Rinse the greenery in a bucket so that you don't have any unwanted dinner guests such as spiders or slugs. Lay the foliage on newspaper for an hour or two to dry.

5. Begin your arrangement by making what is called the "collar." The collar will hide the mechanical part of your arrangement - in this case the Oasis-filled cottage cheese container and the newspaper filler.

6. Place the foliage - stem end first - into the Oasis foam around the rim of the container. This foliage should cover the edge of the basket.

7. Select a 12-inch piece of foliage and place it in the center of the foam. Continue adding a variety of foliage until the foam is almost full.

8. Impale red chili peppers on bamboo skewers and use them in place of flowers. The bright red color will draw comments.

9. Use the same technique with small squash or pumpkins. If the produce is heavy, use two skewers to give it better support in the foam.

Tips & Warnings

• Use your imagination! Select small produce such as green beans, artichokes and miniature pomegranates to add to your centerpiece. Anything with a tough, waxy surface will last a few days without refrigeration. Dried wheat stalks add texture and highlight dark areas.
• Wrap large nuts tightly in pieces of pantyhose, then secure with #24 floral wire (also called paddle wire). Wrap the wire onto short bamboo skewers or toothpicks and insert into the foam. The nylon pantyhose will be almost invisible when pulled tight across the nut.
• Select mature greenery; new growth tends to wilt.
• Mist the arrangement to keep it fresh.
• Homegrown arrangements make wonderful hostess gifts!
• Place a votive candle in a holder in the center of the arrangement to provide romantic illumination.
• Never leave a candle burning untended.
• Always wash hands before rubbing your eyes or going to the toilet after handling chili peppers.