Pinterest-ready Thanksgiving decorations to bring joy and thanks to your home
For many of us, Thanksgiving is all about taste—the turkey, the stuffing, the family pecan pie recipe. But there’s no reason why your home can’t look as good as your Thanksgiving dinner tastes! Use our Pinterest-ready decoration ideas to fill your home with light, leaves, and gratitude.
As with our Pinterest-ready Halloween decorations, you can make all of these decorations in a weekend. You might even be able to make them in a single afternoon!
Thanksgiving Leaf Jars (See top photo)
Light up your windowsills—or your Thanksgiving table—with a set of warm, glowing leaf jars. Spark and Chemistry has a detailed tutorial, but here are the basic steps:
Start with glass canning jars, such as the Bormioli Rocco Quattro Stagioni Canning Preserving Jars ($33.10). Gather dry leaves from your own backyard, or buy a pack of Colorations Fall Fabric Leaves ($8). Dip Royal & Langnickel Sponge Brushes ($6.40 for three) in Mod Podge ($3.50) and glue the leaves to the inside of the jar, letting them overlap to create a translucent, layered effect.
After the glue has dried, tie Santoro Willow Jute Twine ($3.40) around the top of each jar for a little extra flair. Then add an Enjoy Lighting Yellow Flickering Battery Operated Tea Light ($8.19 for four) and enjoy watching the calming light flicker through the autumn leaves.
When you collect—or purchase—leaves for your Thanksgiving Leaf Jars, make sure to get a few extra. As Sweetest Bug Bows proves, fall foliage makes ideal window decor.
These window decorations are very easy to put together, although it might take you a sample strand to figure out how long your thread needs to be and how loose to keep your stitches. Measure a length of Network Wrights Clear Invisible Thread ($5) that’s slightly longer than your window. Take that thread and make a few loose stitches down the center of a leaf, then move the leaf carefully down the thread to make room for more. Repeat until the thread is full of leaves, then tie one end to your curtain rod.
Try not to choose leaves that are too dry, because they’ll crumble and break before you get done crafting! If your backyard leaves are giving you too much trouble, consider using Colorations Fall Fabric Leaves instead.
Encourage Thanksgiving guests to share their gratitude by inviting them to contribute to a Thankful Tree. There are many different ways to put a Thankful Tree together—some Thankful Trees use construction-paper leaves, for example—but this version from Simply Vintage Girl is too chic not to mention.
First, you’ll need a jar and some tree branches. If your tree branches are small enough, you can use one of the Thanksgiving Leaf Jars you crafted earlier; if not, try a Bormioli Rocco Fido Glass Storage Jar ($11.99).
Put the tree branches in the jar and add decorative filler such as walnuts, unpopped popcorn, or brown butcher paper to keep the branches in place.
Then prepare your tags. You’ll need DIY Shop Chalkboard Round Metal Rimmed Tags ($5.08 for 10) as well as a Marvy Uchida Bistro Chalk Marker ($5.27) so your guests can write down what they’re thankful for. Cut small pieces of Santoro Willow Jute Twine and tie the twine onto the tags to make hangers, so your guests can hang the tags on the tree after writing down their gratitude.
If you’d like to decorate the outside of the jar, try using Pacific Cycle Burlap ($10) with LUV RIBBONS Fabric Ribbon ($10.54) as an accent; the polka-dots on the brown ribbon echo the round chalkboard tags and help tie the look together.
Here’s another great way to invite guests to give thanks—or to remind your family to express gratitude throughout the Thanksgiving season.
We saw this Gratitude Jar on Frugal Elegance, and it’s super-simple and great for kids. Take a jar (yes, the ones you got for the leaf project will work just fine) and use a DIY Shop Stickers Chalkboard Label ($5.70 for a set) and the Marvy Uchida Bistro Chalk Marker to quickly stick on a label inviting people to give thanks.
Then, set out a pack of Natural Jumbo Craft Sticks ($12 for 3.25 lbs of sticks) and a Sharpie—or, if you’re feeling extra thankful, a set of Sharpie Metallic Markers ($6). Put your Gratitude Jar in a front hallway, a kitchen, or any other well-traveled place, and encourage your family to write down all the thanks they have to give—from “my sister helped me with homework” to “Dad did the dishes.”
On Thanksgiving day, invite your guests to finish filling up the jar; then take some time to read all of the expressions of gratitude aloud. It’ll remind you of everything we have to be thankful for.
You still have a few of those leaves left over, right? It’s time to grab some Montana GOLD Acrylic Spray Paint ($16 for two cans) and turn them into elegant gold name cards.
This idea came from Keep it Simple, and it is in fact as simple as it sounds: spray the leaves (front and back), let them dry, use your Sharpie to write the names, and put one leaf at each place setting. As Thanksgiving reminds us, joy can be found in something as simple as a spray-painted leaf, inviting us to share a meal with friends and family.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving DIY decorations? Are you going to make the Gratitude Jar your new family tradition?
