Get creative with whatever's at hand to fashion a holiday hit for your table

Soon, the vision of your Thanksgiving feast that's been dancing in your head will become a reality. Your table and sideboard will feature a familiar assortment of your family's favorite foods.

Yet, this year's holiday spread doesn't have to look just like last year's.

You can spice things up a bit this Thanksgiving by choosing a different centerpiece.

There's more to holiday centerpieces than cornucopia, that familiar horn of plenty overflowing with fruits and vegetables. A carefully chosen centerpiece can add new dimension to your celebratory environment, just enough to keep things interesting.

Many breathtaking Thanksgiving centerpieces are made with gifts from nature, such as cattails, flowers and berries in fall tones, pine cones and seed pods. If you have time, but not much money for a centerpiece, you can still have a fantastic one by getting creative with those gifts.

Use organic elements from around the house or in the yard, says Lisa Thomas, owner of

OOH, the event planning division of Out of Hand, a Mount Pleasant florist. Those might include cool mosses and rocks. Or take the bark from trees and wrap it around vases.

Whether the centerpiece is for a sideboard or table, make it personal, says Thomas. That can be done by using elements that reflect the family's interests. It can involve anything from wrapping family photographs on the outside of vases to incorporating items that reflect a family pastime such as hunting.

A word of caution:

Thomas says when making a table centerpiece, choose a horizontal instead of vertical one. They should be low enough for guests to see over or through them. Otherwise, it will block their view of guests seated across from them and stifle conversation.

Those who use two or three stems from a tree down the center of the table, can tuck in small decorative elements, she says. Adding votives, unusual flowers, pomegranates or items the host or hostess collects, such as old medicine bottles, can result in a very attractive centerpiece.

If you find you're at a loss for ideas, you can consult with a florist, gardener or crafts person and have them make a centerpiece that reflects you. You also can find an inspiring design in a magazine, shop window or on a crafts Web site and interpret it using materials from a crafts store.

With the tight economy, some may want a centerpiece that lasts through Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Those who do can use a candle centerpiece, says Courtney Parades of Fini Events on James Island. Start with tall glass votives in fall colors or use an elaborate silver candleholder and add fall vegetables around the base for Thanksgiving. Change to a color such as red or green for Christmas and use ivy to accent it.

Another idea is to use a generic glass vase with a candle that matches the holiday and add pecans or acorns instead of rocks to hold the candle in place, Parades says. Others may want to start with a wicker basket filled with seasonal items already on hand to make their centerpieces.

Reach Wevonneda Minis at 937-5705 or wminis@postandcourier.com.