Confession: I dream about hosting parties and decorating tables on a regular basis. Like, weekly. It’s completely bizarre but it makes my little Martha heart oh so happy and I’m constantly looking for an excuse to bring these dreams to life. Such was the case when our dear friends came over for a casual Saturday night dinner this past weekend. Or so they thought, haha! Truth be told the meal was very casual (a killer crock pot meal I will share soon, the best for company when you have a busy day) but I took the opportunity to create a mini Thanksgiving table setting to get the spirit going even though we will be out of town for the holidays. Turns out easy and inexpensive can be pretty impactful…let me run you through the details of how to bring it to life below in case you are looking for something to pump up the festive feeling for your holiday gathering.

Easy Thanksgiving Table Setting
-Use a tray of any shape and size you have around the house, even bowls and plates could work clustered together in the center or down the middle of your table
-Buy a few bags of your favorite nuts, I used hazelnuts because 1) they are a gorgeous color and shape and 2) I have a few recipes to use them in for the holidays so they won’t go to waste…they should be $5 or less/bag
-Buy persimmons, I eat them all season long so I had these in a bowl in my kitchen and was eating one a day for a snack until they became my centerpiece…will definitely still eat these once I’m done with them as a centerpiece because they last FOR-EV-ER
-Collect leaves from outside or use fake ones like I did to create dimension and add color to your display
-Gather whatever votives or candlestick holders you have on hand and fill them with UNSCENTED (key to candles being used around food) white candles
-Set your trays or plates in clusters or centered on your table and place your candles/votives/candlesticks on them
-Pour nuts on tray to form a single layer plus a few extras layered on top to add height and dimension
-Place leaves and persimmons in small clusters around the trays, work on this in batches, focusing on one section at a time and spacing them out
-Use a cinnamon stick or a twig from your backyard to tie a piece of twine and a name tag to and place at each seat
-Raise your hands in the air like you just don’t care because you just created a gorgeous centerpiece with very little effort and money spent…OH YEAHER! The best part of course is that both the persimmons and the nuts can be used after your gathering to eat, NO WASTE! Gotta love that.

Also, you can check out last year’s holiday setting the table posts HERE and HERE. Hope you have as much fun as I did creating your beautiful table and happy hosting to all!