It seems that festive holiday decor creeps into our homes earlier every year. And, in the process, the beautiful fall season gets rushed and overlooked. This year, I’m making an effort to slow down and fully appreciate the fall season. So, in that spirit, I’m sharing a Thanksgiving centerpiece that I put together using only a sugar pumpkin and foliage that I foraged from my fall garden.

Preparing The Pumpkin

At a local grocery store, sugar pumpkins were marked down to a post-Halloween price of only 25 cents each. I got two and used one for this centerpiece.

I cut off the top and scooped out the seeds and goop. With a small water-filled glass beaker set inside to contain the foliage, the pumpkin would serve as the vessel for the centerpiece.

The small glass beaker gets filled with water and set inside the pumpkin

Foraging For Decor

I roamed my garden looking for anything that still looked fresh or had great color. The first things to catch my eye were hydrangea blossoms. They were the same variety that I used in this wreath a couple of years ago.

The blossoms dried nicely on that wreath and looked beautiful for weeks.

I kept looking – for fall color, berries, pinecones, grasses, seed heads, anything with fall interest. It was a small pumpkin so I wouldn’t need a huge amount of foliage.

Here is what I came up with.

The Centerpiece

A Douglas fir sprig with a pinecone, hydrangeas, and a berry-laden shrub helped to bring color and texture to this centerpiece

For some reason, my pineapple sage plants are blooming very late this year. They don’t seem a bit deterred by the morning frost we’ve been having.

So I used those red blossoms along with straw-colored grasses and sprigs of the dried seed heads that I had gathered from a gorgeous hike we’d been on several weeks ago.

Abundant dried seed heads and grasses in this meadow

Centerpieces are seen from all sides. Here is the reverse of this centerpiece.

Maybe I’m too practical, but sprawling Thanksgiving tablescapes don’t make much sense to me. There are so many serving dishes that compete with them for space on the table. I prefer something more compact.

This pumpkin could leak, so I have a saucer under it. And, of course, a hollowed pumpkin vessel won’t last long. This centerpiece is for me to enjoy now – almost a week prior to Thanksgiving. I got the second sugar pumpkin because I will be making a fresh centerpiece for the actual Thanksgiving holiday.

Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Thanksgiving!

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