Tips for Setting Your Thanksgiving Table

This post comes to us courtesy of home entertaining and lifestyle blogger Jenny Steffens Hobick. 

To give your Thanksgiving celebration a cohesive feel, try to dress the dining tables and the food display in similar or at least coordinating fashions. Try to think about the dinner as a whole — just as an event planner would.

What? You don’t have three matching tablecloths or 16 matching linen napkins or plates? Be resourceful. Some of my favorite tablecloth solutions are to use drapery panels (remember the linen drapes from my Fall Harvest Dinner Party Post?), rolls of kraft paper or burlap on dining tables. Mix and match your china; use the dinner plates from your china with a plain white everyday salad plate, then use the opposite on the other table.  As long as everything coordinates (and that doesn’t mean it has to be matchy-matchy), you can stretch your collection.

Think about texture

It might seem odd at first to use luxurious velvet on a rustic farm table, but I like the combination of casual and refined. The velvet says this is an important occasion, and the raw wood table says you won’t get in trouble if you spill your wine. The good news is that this velvet runner is actually a drapery panel that can be thrown in the wash… very important for its use as a table linen.

Keep it simple

Thanksgiving is a warm and family-friendly holiday, not the time for a stuffy table filled to the brim with candles, formal florals and excessive accessories. Keep the setting clean and understated.

Use natural elements

I love the winding look of bittersweet vines twisting down a table. It takes absolutely no skill, and you can use any sort of branch of vine you find appealing.

Last year, I used a branch filled with fall leaves and berries, and the year before that I used sprigs of magnolia leaves.

Make it personal

By placing something on the center of each plate, you can make that person and each individual place setting feel special. In this case, I added a pear on top of each linen napkin. For an even more personal touch, add a place card pinned to each pear.

For more of my Thanksgiving tips, recipes, centerpieces and tables settings, visit my Thanksgiving Planner!

About the author: Jenny Steffens Hobick, a home entertaining and lifestyle blogger, makes entertaining accessible and enjoyable… for the hosts and guests.  As a former caterer and party planner, Jenny shares her secrets to hosting casual and elegant parties. From table settings to recipes, her creative tips and resourceful methods inspire her readers to make Everyday Occasions special – whether it be a family style feast, elegant cocktail party or intimate dinner for two.  Jenny believes that entertaining at its best is done often, with an effortless and easy style.