Long before the appetizer is served, your table will make a first impression with these ideas for place cards, centerpieces, linens, and more. Vases made from squashes and pumpkins are simple to make and decorate beautifully.

These customizable place mats use our turkey and pumpkin pie clip art to decorate the Thanksgiving table.

To soften the look of a basket, use our tip of adding a translucent wash of paint.

These napkin ties smell as nice as they look thanks to sage leaves. Brussels sprouts add a surprising extra adornment.

This unusual candleholder will certainly grab your guests’ attention. Use a melon baller to hollow out the turnips.

These seasonal pumpkin candleholders are a nice alternative to jack-o’-lanterns. Plus, they’re easily made in three steps.

Creating a pumpkin basket is a fun fall activity. Lopsided gourds create the best baskets, since their stems don’t interfere with the handle.

You’ll need cabbage, small glasses, and twine to craft these crudite cups. We recommend using differing types of cabbage to add multiple colors into the mix.

These clip-art place mats are perfect entertainment for the little ones at your Thanksgiving dinner. Put out the crayons, and the kids will be busy in no time.

These festive napkin charms give your whole dinner table a chance to make a wish. Plus, they could not be easier to make.

Pick up what you need for these quick, inexpensive table decorations at an office-supply store.

Paint plain glass cylinders for a colorful addition to your Thanksgiving table.

Upgrade a fall gourd to create an inexpensive Thanksgiving table centerpiece.

Fabric glue, glitter, and masking tape are all you need to add understated glamour to your Thanksgiving table runner. Gold and copper glitter also add sparkle to the dried corn centerpiece.

Bring rustic elegance to the dining room with a combination of store-bought and hand-crafted decor. Find instructions for bedecking a willow branch wreath with pom-poms and covering trivets with lush velvet.

Dress up inexpensive glass candleholders with real fall leaves. Kids will have fun helping to gather leaves for this craft.

Use a nutcracker to open whole walnuts just enough to slip in paper flags bearing guests' names. Coordinate the colors of the paper and ink to match your tablecloth or centerpiece.

Create a Mayflower centerpiece for the kids’ table by lashing a watercolor paper sail to wooden dowels and anchoring it in a small, pebble-filled pail. Paper pilgrim hats and bonnets are easy to craft with the help of our printable templates.

Have fun at the crafts store choosing ribbon in beautiful fall colors to make these easy, budget-friendly napkin rings and centerpiece. Use matching ribbon for everything or pick a few contrasting colors.

Small pears hold paper name tags punched with holes and tied in place with ribbon or twine. Any small fruit or vegetable, such as crab apples or jack-be-little pumpkins, can be used.

Sweet-gum-tree spurs bring the outdoors to your table.

The only turkey you won't want to gobble up this holiday? One of our comely yarn-and-felt creations. Perched on a mantel or arranged on a straw-covered tray on a sideboard, they are a fun, fanciful touch. You can also use them as place-card holders (glue name tags inside their beaks), and invite children to take their feathered friends home at the day's end.

Flecks of paint on paper foliage mimic the mottled appearance of real leaves

Stump guests with a little turkey trivia.

Large trivets in leafy shapes add seasonal style while protecting your dinner table from piping-hot plates.

Fallen leaves are abundant at this time of year, and their graceful silhouettes and tawny colors make them a natural theme for seasonal linens and decorations you craft yourself.

This modern table setting picks up the palette with chartreuse place mats on a bleached-oak table, contrasted with matte white plates and Venetian glass tumblers.

Blue is not traditionally associated with the season, but highlight it with small touches of gold and the color can become a happy participant in holiday revels. These spray-painted miniature pumpkins and place cards written in gold ink do the trick nicely. A block-printed napkin and tablecloth and the marbleized plate add patterned richness, while a mix of mismatched contemporary glassware and classic flatware keep the feeling clean and modern.

To make "silver" napkin rings, save wishbones from roast chickens, wash and dry them thoroughly, and spray them with chrome paint. On each one, string silver cord from tip to tip; wrap it six times around the bone, and tie it off.

For a splash of style, adorn your table with autumn's brightest accessories: vivid fall leaves. Simply clip sprays of young leaves from a tree in your yard (ours are from a maple). Arrange the clippings at each place setting, and top with transparent glass plates. Come dinnertime, you'll be basking in the oohs and aahs of your guests.

A napkin and a handwoven sparkling favor echo the cornucopia's shape, while more gilded leaves and acorns festoon the napkin and the place card. Sugared almonds and pine nuts fill these favors.

Elegance can be found in familiar places. Here, formal china is set out with homemade hollowware. Hot-glue a large bowl to a smaller one (or a plate to a teacup) to create pedestals from inexpensive tableware; use one for bread and others for roses (cut the stems short and insert into wet floral foam cut to fit the bowls). Handsomely folded cloth napkins fit in with the table's traditional feel. To make photo place cards, copy childhood photographs of family members in black-and-white or sepia; then glue the images to card stock, and trim with deckle-edged scissors.

This distinctive contemporary table begins with an emphasis on light and form. A homemade Ultrasuede table mat adds color and interest; it's cut with a rotary cutter just smaller than the table to create the illusion of a border. Sleek hurricanes filled with fallen leaves show off colors that contrast with the otherwise monochromatic palette. The clear glass of the goblets and hurricanes keeps the look clean. A leaf in the folds of a napkin and a handwritten place card -- a strip of paper inscribed with a white-gel pen -- welcome each guest to dinner.

A miniature Mayflower sets sail on a map tablecloth, while paper-boat place cards guide young guests to their seats.

For pretty napkin ties that evoke the harvest season, attach store-bought acorns to satin ribbon.

Direct guests to their seats with name cards topped by leaves that look like they just blew in.

Inspired by the early American craft tradition of making dolls from cornhusks, our cornhusk flowers -- mimicking apple blossoms -- are both elegant and simple to create.

A quick trip to the market yielded this fall centerpiece, an informal arrangement of kumquats, squashes, and a bell pepper in a ceramic compote. Use whatever orange fruits and vegetables you find, such as baby pumpkins, carrots, persimmons, and, of course, oranges.

Wrapped in dried cornhusks, votives cast a soft glow and serve as a reminder that corn was part of the first Thanksgiving feast.

Give thanks with style. Here's a harvest of ideas for creating a festively dressed affair.

Set a celebratory table with bold splashes of color from the garden or farmers' market; gourds, fruit, and nuts come in golds, yellows, oranges, and a range of browns and greens.

The jewel tones and cascading abundance of these arrangements are an ode to autumn.

Wrap hurricane glasses in layers of colorful tissue paper to glowing effect.

A table arrangement of grains celebrates the bounty of fall.

An extravaganza of autumn apples fills this double-handed basket.

Add a splash of fall color to your Thanksgiving table with an arrangement of cheerful mums.