11 Thanksgiving Place Setting Ideas for Your Holiday Table (2024)

Do you like to plan way ahead for Thanksgiving entertaining? If you love to host turkey day, but want to avoid the stress and frazzle, you’ll love this post. We are all about sharing Thanksgiving place-setting ideas for your holiday table.

I’m guessing that you have traditions and dishes for your Thanksgiving place setting ideas, but it’s always fun to change it up a bit.

Many of us have inherited or collected tabletop “ingredients” that we use year after year. Whether because of sentimental reasons (grandma’s hand-embroidered tablecloth or mom’s sterling silver) or because we found the perfect Thanksgiving dishes at an estate sale, we love using things that evoke memories of previous Thanksgiving meals.

Let’s be honest, we can use grandma’s hand-embroidered tablecloth and Aunt Sally’s silverware and the estate sale dishes, and still find ways to spiff up our Thanksgiving tablescape. So with the focus just on the individual place setting, let me demonstrate some Thanksgiving place setting ideas for your holiday table.

It’s the beginning of the month which means it’s time to Celebrate the Holiday. Some very creative ladies are joining me as we celebrate Thanksgiving. It may be 48 days away, but as our biggest feast and gathering day of the year, it takes a lot of time and planning.

I know that you will enjoy all the wonderful offerings from our group. If you are joining me from sweet Kim of Perfecting Places, then welcome to my ideas for a variety of Thanksgiving place settings. You’ll love Kim’s idea for a beautiful Thanksgiving wreath.

Thanksgiving Place Setting Ideas for Your Table

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A few years ago, my Thanksgiving table and my place settings were inspired by this photo from Lindsey Brunk. She described it as simple and elegant and that is a perfect description.

Although this place setting was posted in 2014 (I didn’t even know what a blog was in 2014!), it has a modern and timeless look.

I was not familiar with Lindsey, but she is a wedding and event planner. I always read new (to me) bloggers’ ABOUT pages and discovered that Lindsey lives in Dallas! So we are practically neighbors!

Elements in my Place Setting Inspiration

Lindsey’s place setting is very simple, I would even call it minimalist. There are just a few ingredients.

• silverware
• napkin
• greenery in muted shades of green
• long stem
• paper with one word in script

You’ll also notice that Lindsey’s color scheme has a dark background and is very neutral in tone.

Fortunately, I had everything I needed to be inspired.

Inspired Place Settings

It looks like Lindsey used a dark tablecloth, but I decided to use a neutral placemat in a woven texture. We use these placemats often because they are so easy to clean up for everyday dining.

I came up with 9 variations of a basic Thanksgiving place setting. The purpose of this post isn’t to have you copy the Thanksgiving place settings unless you want to.

• First, my intent is to give you an idea for your own place-setting.
• Second, I hope you can see how many variations you can make from one idea.

Place Setting #1

So let’s start with a close version. A cream linen napkin, a “gather leaf tag” (from our DIY Challenge earlier in October) and a few pieces of faux wheat. I bet there are a thousand pieces in the sheave that I took apart a few years ago. The gather leaf tag is actually a place card. If you like to use place cards as much as I do, here are more place card ideas.

I used our sterling silver – and accidentally mixed up two patterns: my mom’s Francis I and my mother-in-law’s Buttercup.

Place Setting #2

Then I switched to the wood napkin ring that I also made for last month’s DIY Challenge and rearranged the placement of the wheat, silverware and napkin.

Place Setting #3

Last week as I was shopping for Halloween cards at Target, I walked by the Dollar Spot (always) and picked up this pack of raffia for $3.00. It should last for quite a while, don’t you think? I also bought one in black.

So next, I used the raffia and the “gather” leaf to make a different napkin ring and moved the wheat to the top of the placemat.

Place Setting #4

Some sage and lavender from our backyard provided some greenery of soft tones like Lindsey used. I added a wood slice (freebie from Haven) and one of our mini-pumpkins. No napkin ring this time.

Place Setting #5

Years ago on a whim, I bought a set of green dishes for Thanksgiving. I use them every year. I wanted to try this soft green color in the place setting. A nice place for the wood slice and pumpkin. The “grateful” is a stencil called Grace Gather Grateful from A Makers’ Studio that I made in September for another project, but it was too big so I’ve been saving it. I used Gel Art Ink in Can’t Never Could (black).

I also made a “gather” sign. This is like hand-lettering already done for you.

Place Setting #6

Mix it up: a trio of sage leaves and the napkin and silverware on the salad plate.

Place Setting #7

Next, I tied the lavender and sage with some of the raffia and brought back the “gather” place card that I hand lettered.

Place Setting #8

I got this idea from a restaurant in Boston: we actually had a wine glass on its side. These are Dollar Tree glasses. I made the “GRATEFUL” banner using the Wreath Trio Grateful stencil and cream-colored burlap ribbon to go on a fall wreath last year. I used Metallic Gold ChalkArt which I thought turned out beautifully.

Let’s set that glass upside down.

Plate Setting #9

The last of the 3 signs I made last month is “grace” lying on a green napkin. Changing out the color of napkins can change the whole look of a place setting. As you can see, I bent the watercolor paper a bit.

This plaid fall napkin is also a seasonal favorite.

Place Setting #10

For another variation, I switched out the neutral woven placemat for our other everyday placemats this time of year. This plaid can be used with several different colored napkins – I have cream, green, rust, burnt orange, and cranberry. Back came the wood leaf napkin ring.

Place Setting #11

For my last fall place setting, I added both the dinner and salad plates of our Thanksgiving dishes.

Now I have several ideas all ready to go for tables this fall. You can see how I used these ideas in a complete Thanksgiving tablescape.

Which one is your favorite? Do you ever just play around with different styles? This was like rearranging furniture or accessories to see which works best – on a small scale. Be sure to PIN these ideas.

You’re one click away from visiting Renae of Peaco*ck Ridge Farm and getting inspired by her beautiful Thanksgiving tablescape. I know all my blogger friends would appreciate it if you PIN their Thanksgiving ideas.

Want more Thanksgiving table-setting ideas? Check out my Pinterest Board Thanksgiving Tablescape.