Hey, I know how you feel. You think you have everything you could possibly need for your Thanksgiving feast and then, at the last minute, you realize there are things you have forgotten. Oh, well, get it over with; get in the car and run to the store, one more time. While you’re out, zip on over to your local craft store, and pick up a piece of Styrofoam. With it, you can make a breathtaking, metallic centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table. You’ll be shocked at how quickly you can create a candlelight decorator piece especially for this holiday.
A round piece of Styrofoam is not expensive and can be found at any craft store. The Styrofoam can be thin – an inch thick or so – and can be as big or small as you want. Purchase tempera paint in a gold color or other choice. Tempera paints don’t melt Styrofoam like some other types can. Paint the Styrofoam circle – just the top and the sides – and allow to dry completely.
Stick taper candles down into the Styrofoam to create the arrangement you want. You can just huddle four taper candles in the middle, or set one short pillar candle there, or create another candle arrangement.
Use hot glue to attach pine cones to the Styrofoam. Paint the pine cones gold, like the Styrofoam, or leave them as-is. When you cover the entire circle – top and sides – you can make the whole centerpiece for little money. However, there are other things you can paint – or use in their natural state – to add additional accents to the centerpiece. Glue on real or fake leaves, acorns, brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans, or even tiny gourds. Spray paint all of the pieces, and attach them, or paint just the Styrofoam and not the embellishments. Make sure that, as you’re attaching the various embellishments, you butt the items against the candles, without actually gluing anything to the candles. That will make it easy to replace the candles later.
With assorted nuts, pine cones, and other embellishments, plus your choices of colors and color combinations, there are many different Thanksgiving centerpieces you could create. Whenever needed, just remove the old candle(s), and replace with another. This will likely be your favorite centerpiece of all, so you’ll want to use it many times. Remove the candles and it will be easier to store the centerpiece until next year.
Pine Cone and Candle Centerpiece