Thanksgiving doesn’t get enough attention as a holiday. Between Halloween’s intriguing spookiness, the chaos of Black Friday, and the merriment and bustle of Christmas, it gets lost in the shuffle. Decorating can be a great way to build anticipation (and appreciation) for Thanksgiving. The team members at WeldenField & Rowe Custom Homes are custom home design experts who can show you how to decorate for Thanksgiving in style.
Decorate Your Home With Scents
WeldenField & Rowe Custom Homes serves several areas in Virginia and Hampton Roads, including Chesapeake, Suffolk, Williamsburg and Virginia Beach. These locations are famous for gorgeous fall colors and scents. Use lighted candles or sachets to evoke these scents in your home. Pumpkin is probably the most well-known fall scent, but it comes in a variety of combinations. Bath & Body Works, Yankee Candle, and White Barn all sell candles in scents ranging from Pumpkin Cheesecake to Spiced Pumpkin, Pumpkin Buttercream, and Pumpkin Pie.
Of course, you can’t depend on pumpkin alone to give your house the proper Thanksgiving feel. Other great scents include cinnamon, ginger, salted caramel, and apple. Like pumpkin, apple often is combined with other scents to create candles that smell like apple crisp, apple pie, or autumn wreaths.
If you don’t like candles, you can still use scents to get yourself and your guests into festive moods. Outfit your bathroom with hand soaps in smells like the ones we mentioned, as well as lemon, tangerine, or strawberry. These and other fruity scents are often on sale or clearance during fall months. The fresh, tart smell of these fruity flavors will make your guests feel especially clean and invigorated.
Decorate With Your House Guests in Mind
The custom home design team at WeldenField & Rowe knows there’s much more to a home than simple home construction. People are attracted to what they see on the inside as much, if not more, than what they see on the outside. Take advantage of what your guests want to see this Thanksgiving. If your guests love nature, bring in some colorful autumn leaves or invest in some well-made faux leaves. Use them to decorate your table, mantel, and other appropriate surfaces. Dry fall flowers and hang them from your ceiling or put them in vases on coffee tables.
The real eye-catcher at the Thanksgiving table is often the centerpiece, and there are dozens of ways to make this year’s centerpiece memorable. Mason jars are a great place to start. Fill the bottoms with real or faux leaves, and then add acorns or miniature pinecones. For a burst of scent, add a cinnamon stick or mint sprig. Use red, yellow, or orange ribbons to festoon the outside of the jar. You can also make candles using Mason jars.
If you’re more of a flower person, autumn is the perfect time to make a flower-heavy centerpiece. Chrysanthemums and sunflowers are popular Thanksgiving flowers, as are asters, lavender, and goldenrod. Create a centerpiece using these flowers along with real or faux berry sprigs, pinecones, cinnamon sticks, or sprigs of ginger.
Get Crafty With Your Thanksgiving Decorations
Guests remember decorations that come from the heart, especially those with a creative twist. Thanks to this wonderful thing called the internet, you have a cornucopia (pun intended) of Thanksgiving craft ideas to choose from. For example, give a twist to the tradition of saying what you’re thankful for at the Thanksgiving table. Cut out pieces of paper shaped like leaves or turkey feathers, and have everyone write what they’re thankful for (young children can draw a picture or get help from an adult or sibling). Frame the leaves and place the frame in a prominent location or put the leaves into a scrapbook.
At Thanksgiving, we always take extra time to be grateful for our food. This year, celebrate nature’s bounty in a new way with a corn and leaf wreath. Use a premade twig wreath, husks and ears of corn, and red silk leaves. If desired, you can buy corn ears in different colors (red, blue, and even purple). If your family loves pumpkin, consider adding pumpkin seeds. Hang the wreath on your front door or on a wall, and discuss where all its delicious elements come from.
Sometimes the most memorable decorations are the simplest. Use a message board to welcome guests to your home. Invite them to write what they are thankful for or the best thing that happened to them recently. You can also use the message board to write notes for each family member, stating what you think the best things are about each one. This will foster kindness and make everyone a bit more eager to converse at the table.
Contact Us
If you’d like to use some of these Thanksgiving ideas but would prefer a home renovation first, contact WeldenField & Rowe today. Our custom home design team will make your house the only place that friends and family want to spend the holidays!