8 Ways to Have a Happy DIY Thanksgiving

Making your home perfect for family and friends around Thanksgiving can be such a joy. While you might be super busy in the kitchen, there are other ways to make your home inviting and full of the joys of fall.

Without having to go out and buy a bunch of stuff to decorate your home with, you can make your Thanksgiving dinner table look like a page from a magazine with just a few natural and recycled props.

Check out these OGP articles that give tons of ideas for a thrifty, DIY Thanksgiving.

1. Waste-Free Thanksgiving

Decorating for your Thanksgiving gathering is just part of the fun. Whether you are going all out with adorned porches, mantles, and even a Thanksgiving tree involved, or you want simply a tasteful centerpiece for your dining table, there are tons of fun ways to decorate with little to no cost. By using thrifted items, upcycled odds and ends from your home, or stuff foraged from nature, you will be able to create a festive, cozy, and inviting space to host your Thanksgiving celebration this year. Check out these 4 Waste-Free Ways to Decorate for Thanksgiving.

2. Natural Crafts

Decorating for festivals and holidays is so much fun. When a new season rolls around, it’s also exciting to celebrate it with some festive adornments for your porch, doorway, or Thanksgiving dining table. What is great is that you don’t need to spend too much money to make a really big statement. Lots of materials that would otherwise be sent to recycling can be jazzed up into a classy or kooky decoration. There are also lots of things that you can forage for that make gorgeous, free, and environmentally friendly decorations. Take a look at these 4 Autumn Crafts Made From Natural and Recycled Materials.

3. Fall Garlands

The coming of fall signals many things: spiced lattes, autumn leaves, pumpkin carving, and getting your craft on by decorating your porch and home for the season. Using predominantly natural or recycled materials is a fun way to spruce the place up. It keeps things cheap, cheerful, and practically waste-free. At the end of the season, you can either recycle or even compost your out-of-date ornament. Make one of these Fall-Inspired Garlands Made from Natural or Upcycled Materials to adorn your fall-themed porch, mantle, or staircase.

4. Autumnal Aromas

There is something very snuggly about autumn.  The outside is glorious with its reds, oranges, and yellows, and it’s not too cold, yet, so fall walks are appealing.  However, it’s just chilly enough to pull out blankets and sweaters and wrap your hands around big mugs of hot chocolate. For sure, certain aromas are associated with the fall season and bring about warmth, nostalgia, and cozy smiles.  A home filled with the scents of cinnamon, pine, apples, cloves, and nutmeg can help to make you feel warm, comforted, and even a little festive. Be inspired by these 5 DIY Ways to Make Your Home Smell Like Autumn this Thanksgiving.

5. Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving is a special holiday, but we often gloss over some of the fuss other holidays get. Instead, we consume ourselves with the feast, maybe a minute or two about what we are thankful for, maybe an NFL game or two for taking a nap after lunch. However, spending some time decorating for Thanksgiving can make the meal and day all the more memorable. A nice setting, including place settings on the table, creates an atmosphere for celebration, so it only makes sense that we garnish our home as well as our plates. Take a look at these 8 Fun and Easy Crafts for Celebrating Thanksgiving to Its Fullest.

6. Decorate for Dinner

Thanksgiving often gets a lot of fanfare for the food and a little attention for the sentiment, but rarely do we see folks going all out on the decoration. Sandwiched between Halloween’s spooky spiderwebs and Christmas’s light displays, Thanksgiving seemingly settles for special place settings on fold-out tables and ultimately feels like leftovers when it comes to adornments. Not this year! Check out these great DIY Decorations for Thanksgiving Dinner.

7. Fall Fruits and Veg Décor

Famously fall is the festive time of bountiful harvests, and for those of us who grow gardens with that in mind, it’s one of those occasions when we have more produce than we know what to do with. Luckily, much of what we harvest in late fall keeps very well when stored as-is, with no canning or freezing required. With that in mind, we are allowed to display the fruits of our labor, to celebrate them by festooning our homes with a cornucopia of squashes, pumpkins, cabbages, corn, fruit, nuts, aromatic herbs, and even flowers. Read on to learn How to Use Fruit and Veggies to Make Great Edible Décor for Fall Displays.

8. Decorate with Dried Plants

With dried and preserved plants, we can all — no matter how busy we normally are — have a taste of nature in our décor. These plants, or better put, plant parts don’t need watering. They don’t need freshening. They don’t require weekly trips down to the corner. They just get put in place, and they’ll provide pizzazz for months to come. While most of us don’t think of dead stuff as being beautiful, it’s undeniable that some of it is. Learn How to Use Dried and Preserved Plants as Maintenance-Free Home Décor this Thanksgiving.

Related Content:

• Travis Barker Celebrates His 48th Birthday With a Vegan Thanksgiving Meal
• 6 Tips for a Heart-Healthy Thanksgiving
• 5 Tips for Surviving Thanksgiving without Turkey on Your Plate
• Green Beans Galore! 12 Thanksgiving Dishes Using the Lovable Legume
• 8 Fun and Easy Crafts for Celebrating Thanksgiving to Its Fullest

Easy Ways to Help the Planet:

• Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based Recipe app on the App Store, to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
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