Taking Time To Give Thanks

Decorating for the holidays has always been one of my most favorite things to do . . . and I love to decorate for EVERY holiday.  It seems that Halloween has taken over as the favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving is skipped, and we go straight to Christmas.  I LOVE celebrating each and every holiday and season of the year, giving the well-deserved recognition to each of these, in addition to all the others throughout the year.  

A few years ago I started adding more decorations to more of the lesser observed holidays.  As I looked through my Thanksgiving decorations, I knew I wanted to do more to celebrate the season of giving thanks.  We are so blessed to live in this great country, even with all the political issues, we live a charmed life that most people world-wide will never know.  As I began thinking of what I wanted my Thanksgiving decorations to focus on, my thoughts turned to the Pilgrims who gave up all they had as they boarded the Mayflower in search of a new life with freedom to worship as they desired.  So it became the quest to design and construct a Mayflower ship.

I drafted a pattern and made the ship out of heavy brown felt.  The entire ship is sewn together by hand using my favorite blanket stitch and linen thread.  I cut three layers of thick craft foam to fit in the bottom of the ship.  The top two layers had holes cut in them to fit the masts for the sails.  The base of these are wooden thread spools with wooden dowels glued into them for the masts.  To give the ship strength and stability, I brushed it with a watered-down mixture of Elmer’s glue and water.  This was a bit tricky because when felt gets wet, it becomes floppy.  So I had to babysit it for a while as it dried.  I turned it upside down and placed it over two kitchen glasses to allow gravity to keep the ship in shape.  As it dried, I kept checking it and re-shaped as necessary.  Once dry, it became solid and hard.  

The sails were cut from plain canvas and then coffee dyed to make them look old.  I like to use coffee instead of tea for this process because coffee dying has a more antique brown color, where black tea throws a more pinkish color.  After the sails were dry, I glued them onto the masts.  A friend wanted to make one last year, and she stenciled the word “Mayflower” on one of her sails!!!  I LOVE that!!!  She also placed sea glass around the base of it in her kitchen window to create the ocean. 

To finish it I tied a piece of ribbon on the tallest mast, and filled the ship with miniature faux pumpkins.  To make my display I added faux pumpkins, a small turkey from Hobby Lobby, and a resin set of Indians and Pilgrims.    

I use fall leaves and pumpkins to decorate with because I can leave them up from September when the leaves start falling, all the way to Thanksgiving.  The day after Thanksgiving, Christmas goes up, but not until. 

I love all kinds of pumpkins, real ones that are so unusual, faux ones that last forever – I made my pumpkin pole on my front porch with these, and my favorite ones are the silk velvet ones made by stay-at-home moms from a company called “Hot Squash”.  They are beautifully made, super nice quality, and have unique stems from real pumpkins. 

A couple years ago, I made a little centerpiece for my sisters and their husbands for a dinner we hosted prior to my brother-in-law’s cancer treatments.  I used them as a place setting between the three couples, and personalized them with their names on paper leaves. 

I also individualized each tray with colored silk velvet pumpkins to match my sister’s homes.  As usual, I had to add some LIGHT, and added one of my favorite small battery operated Luminara candles.

Another tradition I started a few years ago, is personalized Thanksgiving place settings for each person to take home.  One is done by using soft corn husks with candy wrapped inside.  One end is glued closed, and the other end is left open to fill with candy – like skittles or M & M’s – and then tied closed with twine.  The name is printed and cut using my Silhouette Cameo.  

Another year, I made small Mayflower ships from paper and filled them with candy corn.  I printed the names on the sails.  These were all cut on my Silhouette Cameo.

Last year I found the cutest metal turkeys on Amazon!!!!  Each one holds a tea light.  Half of the turkeys stood up, and the other half sat down.  So the men and boys got the standing ones, and the women and girls got the sitting ones. 

They needed some color and personalization so I added colored paper feathers – also designed and cut on my Silhouette Cameo, black bead eyes, and a small bow glued to the neck. 

These were a big hit, and the LIGHT in them made the table brighter and more festive!  Sadly, one family all had Covid last year, and so Ron and I chose to make the dinner all by ourselves and door-bell ditch the full meal to each family.  I was so sad that we didn’t get to have everyone here and enjoy being together, but being able to give them the little turkey place settings help make it a little more fun.  I noticed Steph has them out as decorations this year as well.  I love it when gifts are used and re-used!!!

I enjoy putting a lot of thought and effort into holiday gift giving and decorating.  Each thing generally has some kind of meaning, or is at least personalized with names or favorite colors.  When we make a concerted effort to make a gift more personal, that tells the people in our lives how much we love and care about them.  It’s not about the cost of the gift, or where we got it from, it’s about the time we spent making or finding it.  Time is one of the most precious gifts we can give, and using our time to brighten someone’s day is something very worth-while.  So as we prepare for the upcoming holiday season, and into the next year, may we focus more on giving our LIGHT to others in the gift of time and personalized gift giving.  

Love Ya, Les