Thanksgiving Centerpieces

Pumpkin-filled Thanksgiving Centerpieces are gorgeous on your table using bright fall-colored squash, pumpkins, flowers, and greenery.

The thing I love about this project is you can use pumpkins from Halloween in two ways.

One is to use your pumpkins as vases for flowers. And second, the seeds are perfectly edible and easy to make Roasted Pumpkin Seeds for snacks or to sprinkle on a salad. Now that is a lot of bang for the buck for your decorations.

When packing up leftovers for your guests to take home, give each family a centerpiece to enjoy...

How to Make Thanksgiving Centerpieces

For many years, our family Thanksgiving Table has been set with these fun Pumpkin Flower Centerpieces.  My Dad always loved this tradition, and each year would ask if I was going to do the flowers like last year, to which I always said yes.

My Top Project Tips

• Use pumpkins left from Halloween to use as your Thanksgiving table decorations.
• Decide which way to use the pumpkin or squash as the "vase" so it sits flat on the table and doesn't roll or rock around.
• Make the flower arrangements the day before your party and keep them either chilled in the fridge or a cool part of your home.
• Refill the water in the oasis to keep the flowers hydrated.
• Use flowers you can find locally, and look in your garden. You will have tons of things to clip and snip to use.
• Buy just a few roses and use more inexpensive flowers and greenery.
• Over the years, I have used some dried materials like wheat, fall leaves, and other dry floral pieces.
• Buy different color and shaped pumpkins and squash, they all look so interesting together on the table.
• What I love about these arrangements is they are fun, playful, and not too tall.
• You can easily move these arrangements as the table fills, or place some over at the buffet or by the drinks.
• You can add bows by tying pretty ribbon on skewer pieces, and stick into the arrangement.
• My favorite tip is to give them to family, friends, and guests before they head home! They will not last more than a few days, so have them keep them on a plate and not on a delicate surface as they are natural and break down fast.

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Materials You Will Need

Fall color flowers - 2 bunches or flowers/greenery from your garden.

1 block floral oasis - for real flowers (to soak in water) from the craft store

serrated knife

garden clippers or scissors

2-3 wooden skewers

bucket with water to hold flowers while arranging and to soak the wet oasis

5-6 pumpkins and squash: I used Sugar Pie Pumpkins, Kabocha Squash, Acorn Squash, and Mark's Stripe.

More Flower Ideas: Have fun using different materials, you can even use your own garden clippings, flowers, and greenery.

I like to use bright Fall colors, yellow-orange roses, daisies, sunflowers, eucalyptus, and greenery like lemon leaves.

EB Farm's chart for more ideas

Step 1: With Pumpkins you can cut the top off just like a jack-o-lantern, with the squash try laying them on their side and cutting a  hole in the top so the squash will sit firmly on the table and not tip over. Save the tops for later.

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Step 2: Scoop out all the pumpkin and squash seeds, and save them in a bowl. These make fantastic Roasted Pumpkin Seeds which are perfect as a snack or on a salad. You can freeze them for roasting later.

Step 3: Cut the wet flower oasis (soaked in water) and place the pieces into the pumpkins and squash. Floral oasis cuts easily with any knife.

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Step 4: Cut flowers with shorter stems and push them down into the oasis. Try to use leaves to cover fill in the area so the green oasis is hidden. Have fun using different materials, you can even use your own garden clippings, flowers, and greenery. I like to use bright Fall colors, yellow-orange roses, daisies, sunflowers, eucalyptus, and greenery like lemon leaves.

Step 5: With the tops of the pumpkins, push a small piece of the skewer into the underside of the top, and push down into the centerpiece to secure into the arrangement.

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