Ideas and Inspiration for Your Thanksgiving Celebration

Happy Friday! Are you looking forward to the weekend? Any fun plans for a little leaf ogling or cider sipping?

Have you finalized all your plans for Thanksgiving? If not, you’re going to like today’s post!  I’m excited to be joining in a fun Thanksgiving party put together by Laura who blogs at Top This Top That.

Party Button

The other lovely ladies participating in today’s “Better Late Than Never” Thanksgiving party are Pamela with From My Front Porch to Yours, Christy from Our Southern Home, Yvonne from Stone Gable and Becca from Adventures in Decorating. I’ll be linking to all these talented Bloggers at the end of this post so be sure to check out the fabulous ideas and inspiration they have lined up for your Thanksgiving celebrations.

A Thanksgiving Porch

I turned my focus to the porch this week because if there’s one thing I’ve learned when hosting a dinner party or any kind of gathering, no matter the weather, the porch seems to have this invisible pull. It draws folks out to come sit and hang out a while.

I first learned this during a Christmas cookie party one year when it was 45 degrees out and the door from the kitchen to the porch stood open the entire party as folks headed out, back in, then back out again all throughout the afternoon and evening. I was so amazed folks wanted to be out there despite the cold temps. Maybe it had something to do with the Champagne punch I was serving. 🙂

I had a lot of fun pulling things together from around the house. I didn’t buy anything new for the porch, just decorated with things I already had. Oh, wait, I take that back. Almost forgot, I did buy a new throw for the swing, just $19 from HomeGoods.

Porch Decorated for Fall and Thanksgiving

 

My fall pillows are starting to fade a little from all that wonderful light that comes onto the porch this time of year as the leaves began to fall.

Porch Decorated for Autumn

 

Remember the wreath above the mantel in the family room?

Fall Autumn Mantel Decorated with Wreath and Blackbirds_1

 

I snagged it for the porch makeover.

The sheers on the porch were billowing out in the cool autumn breezes.

Breezes on a Fall Porch

 

Instead of a big, red geranium, the little white chair is now filled with a fall Chrysanthemum.

Decorating for Fall

 

Don’t you love this happy color?

Chrysanthemums for Fall

 

Remember when I decorated this silly guy in my office for Christmas?

Deer Head with Rosemary Wreath Decorated for Christmas a_wm

 

I took down the platter that normally lives above the hutch…

Decorate a Hutch for Fall in White_wm

 

And replaced it with Mr. Deer, only this time he’s sporting a fall wreath.

Decorating for Fall

 

Hot chocolate with peppermint sticks will keep guests warm and cozy.

Hot Chocolate with Peppermint Pretzels

 

Mr. Turkey has a place of honor on the porch table. I think he rather likes it out here. 🙂

Turkey Centerpiece for Thanksgiving

 

Find lots of inspiration for your Thanksgiving celebration at these fine blogs:

From My Front Porch to Yours

Adventures in Decorating

Our Southern Home

Stone Gable

Top This Top That

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Comments

  1. Hi SUSAN
    I saw that you replaced the speakers on your porch. You’re comment was let the music play. I just added one of your favorite songs (Summer Breeze”) to our play list on Crossroads Radio. Now turn it up and LET THE MUSIC PLAY.

  2. Your porch has always been one of my faves, Susan! I love all of your Fall embellishments … Mr. Deer looks quite at home out there! And, please save a cup of that hot chocolate for me … happy to be a part of this Fall tour with you!

  3. Susan, I love your fall porch, and I’ve been enjoying this Thanksgiving party all week. I always enjoy seeing what you do with your porch. I guess you could say that I have porch envy!

  4. Everything just looks so cozy and inviting. Love it!

  5. The porch looks great, Susan. Is Mr. Turkey cold this morning? It is cold here. Brrr!

  6. Susan I love all you fall/Thanksgiving touches. Your home is always so warm and inviting! Honored to be partying with you!

  7. Everything looks so awesome! LOVE the porch, yes I do have porch envy that is for sure. LOL The hutch with all the pumpkins looks great also. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.

  8. I love your porch, Susan! You always have it decorated superbly! I agree, people just seem to migrate to the porch throughout the year. We have enjoyed ours so much. Thanks for sharing Fall on the porch!

  9. I’m not one bit surprised your guests gravitate to the porch when they visit! You couldn’t keep me away, even if I had to wear uggs and earmuffs to do so.

    I love everything, as always.

    • Love that, Doreen. I can see you out there now! 🙂 I gotta get a pair of these Uggs everyone is talking about. I heard the other night on a Podcast that when they were first “invented” it was strictly for surfers. That was their customer for many, many years and they didn’t expand until they totally had every surfer buying their products.

  10. Gloria in Pgh says

    Love your fall porch Susan! I decorated my porch for fall back in September and we have been enjoying it very much. However, here in Pittsburgh it is very often too cold to sit out on the porch from November through the winter months so I have been bringing in the fall décor I had out there and I have been placing it around the house. Wish I could enjoy my porch all year round like you can. I will just have to visit your porch through the holidays and winter. Thanks for the ideas and for the links to the other bloggers. I am definitely going to check them out!

    • Thanks, Gloria! Trust me, we definitely get some cold weather, we just have these occasionally freaky warm days during the winter months when we get a day or two reprieve, then the cold comes right back. My sister used to say Georgia was the only place you could have all 4 seasons in one week. 🙂

  11. I, also, always love seeing what’s happening on your lovely porch. I had to chuckle at the “cold” temperature for Christmas, I think it’s below that (already) here on this beauteous November morning, brrr. I did get to meet Susan Branch when she kicked off her current book tour on the Cape, having long been a fan it was quite an experience to hear her talk about her writing process, and then get to talk with her, and gush some! Going to check out the other bloggers that are joining you, it’s always fun to find new friends.

  12. Oh Susan…do you hear that knock on your door…it is me with a cup of coffee in my hand wanting to join you on that gorgeous porch having a great conversation and taking in the beauty around me that you have so wonderfully done…I always love everything that you do…and must day that I love Mr. Deer…amazing job Susan, as always!! Have a wonderful weekend!!

  13. Peggy Thal says

    Your porch looks very Thanksgiving festive. I just brought out all my turkey items . Starting to get a lot of things ready for Christmas decorating. I need to go out to all the stores and get in the Christmas mood . Some store are already so beautifully decorated. It is just the best time of the year!

  14. Oh what a blessing it must be to have a porch like yours, Susan! I adore how you have decorated it… no wonder it has such a pull on your lucky guest!
    I love the idea of spreading out celebrations all through the house! So good for conversation and flow! If I ever came to your home, you would certainly find me on the porch!!!
    Happy Thanksgiving! xo

  15. Nancy B of Lake Stevens says

    Just got back from a trip to Florida to visit daughter and family. My daughter showed me the house they are buying and it has a PORCH. I immediately told her about your blog and I wanted to get in there so badly to decorate. Alas it is her porch. But I know she will get wonderful ideas from you. I especially like the way you detail the steps you take to update your porch. On another note, I realized from the trip that mums are readily available in the south this time of year but are past their prime in the Pacific NW so it is hard to incorporate them into a decorating scheme for Thanksgiving. Guess fake will have to do.

  16. I just love your porch and how you decorate it, you always do such a great job with all your decorating inside and out!

  17. Heidi Colton says

    I love your fall porch! So inviting!

  18. Your porch is always so beautifully decorated, no matter the season. Who wouldn’t want to hang out there? Your decorated dear head is great and inspired me to run right over to an arrangement I had and tear it apart to put some Fall decor on my own newly mounted horns! Awesome! Thank you for the last minute Thanksgiving decor and HUGE blessings to you dear Susan.
    Patti 🙂

  19. Katherines Corner says

    you have such a lovely home and your talents for decorating are like jewels in the crown. Beautiful. xo P.S. I love the way you add a little whimsy to the deer.

  20. Thank you so much for today’s Thanksgiving Party featuring six beautiful holiday homes. Whew! Whirlwind tour this AM but loved things about each & every one. Mr Majestic (your deer head) is royally proud to be an honored guest on your porch.

  21. Patti O'Donnell says

    I do love your porch. Have you ever thought about putting a fire stove out there. We have a nice deck which I would love to convert to a porch but I still want to be able to have nice fire in fall so I can sit out and enjoy the crisp air. PattiO

  22. Wow! I want to be you when I grow up! your blog updates are the highlight of my lunch at work! Thanks for all the great ideas! Sometimes you post about movie houses, and I wondered if you are familiar with the show Nashville starring Connie Britton? Her fictional home has some neat decor! I am particularly interested in mugs she and her sister used in the past couple of episodes, and also a great, huge, rabbit wall hanging/quilt/ print I see in the distance. I understand the house is on the market as well! Thanks Susan!

  23. DING DONG…it’s ME! I brought some cookies to go with the hot chocolate, let’s PLEASE go sit out on your “fabulous, fall porch”!!! I love Mr. Deer out there and that pumpkin is stunning. I am freezing right now, have a blanket on my lap as I type. Have a beautiful weekend, Susan.

  24. Sharon McMurray says

    Your porch is always beautiful! I especially love the turkey centerpiece!

  25. That porch is a celebrity! 🙂 is it hard to keep warm when the weather gets chilly?

    • Ha, too funny! I don’t even try to heat it during the winter since it’s screened, would be impossible. But Georgia has the strangest weather of any state. During the winter we always have several days of high 60’s or 70 degree weather, even in January and February. The year they were building the porch, we had 5 days in a row in February that were nice and warm. Crazy Georgia weather!

  26. The porch looks beautiful, and I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a turkey like that!

    • PB should have brought him back again this year. They had him for sale two years in a row. I didn’t buy him the first year, even when he went on sale. The next year he sold out before they could ever put him on sale. About the only place to find him now is on eBay and I’m sure the price won’t be nice. Hopefully PB will bring him back again…they do that sometimes.

  27. Me, again! Thanks so much for your kind (and funny) note about my Fall breakfast area and dining room table disaster! You’re right, you just have to laugh off things like that … although, admittedly, I’m thankful the dishes weren’t sentimental! 🙂 Have a great weekend.

  28. I always love to see what changes you make to the Porch! You’re Halloween porch is my screen saver! Love your Blog and now I see you enjoyed A Fine Romance, by Susan Branch. Love her! She has a great blog too. Keep up the inspirations Susan!

  29. Hi Susan. I really enjoy your blog and lovely pictures. I have a question, maybe you can help me with. I read your blog on my iPad and when I link to another blog at the bottom of yours and then come back to yours it returns me to the top of your blog and I have to scroll down to the bottom again to get to all the links. Any idea how to get it to return to the bottom instead of the top? Thanks. Susan (too)

    • Susan, do you mean when you click on one of the blog posts linked in the footer at BNOTP? If that’s what you mean, I’ll check with my developer and see if he can fix it where when you click on a link in the footer, it will open in a new screen or tab. That way, once you’re done viewing that post, you can just exit out of the screen and you’ll still be where you were on the home page. Not sure if we can make it where it does that, but I’ll check. 🙂

      • Thanks – that’s not exactly what I mean. For example, when you have Meta. Monday and at the end of your post, you have lots of pictures that are links to other blogs. When I click on one of those, it opens it up in a new window. When I close that window and go back to the (original) window where I have BNOTP open, it takes me to the top of your post, and to get back to the bottom where the links are, I have to scroll through your post again. So, if I want to look at multiple of those Meta. Monday postings, then I’m having to rescroll back through BNOTP every time to pick a different blog to look at. I want it to return me back to the bottom, so I can just choose another blog to look at, but it doesn’t. It’s like when I leave BNOTP and return to it, it returns me to the top every time. That’s my question. How can I get it to just take me right back to the place where all the Meta. Monday blog choices are? Thanks, sorry to be a pain, I’m kinda new in the blog world.

        • Ummm, I’m using an iPad Air right now and it doesn’t do that to me. If I’m looking at the links for one of the parties I host (like Tablescape Thursday or Met Monday) when I click on a link to check out that post, it opens the post in a a hole new tab on my iPad. InLinkz (the party system that folks link up via) is set up to do that. Then when I’m done looking at that post on the other site and I’m ready to see more posts, I just click the x at the top of my iPad and it exits out of that tab and the window that was open at BNOTP showing all the links is still right there.
          Since InLinkz is designed to open up in a new window or tab when a post is clicked, it should not effect the other windows that are open on your iPad. I was using an iPad 3 until recently and I think it functioned the same way for me, but I’ve sent it to my son now so I can’t check. I just bought iPad Air a few days ago, but I’m guessing all the iPads work the same way. When you click on a party link, it does open the link in a whole new tab on your iPad, right?

          • Yes, when I click a link to check out a post, it opens a new window/tab, but when I close that window to return to BNOTP, it is taking me back to the top of your blog (not the whole blog, but the posting within your blog for Monday…since usually it is the MM postings that I’m looking at). I have the first iPad, but I would think they all work the same way. But that iPad Air sure looks enticing, all lightweight and “latest and greatest” … Christmas list maybe?

            Well, thanks for your time. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong. Oh well, I’ll just keep scrolling like I’ve been doing. Have a good weekend.

            • Susan, I can’t imagine why it does that…that would be super annoying for sure. My page doesn’t budge. It just opens a new tab and once I’m done and click the X, the other page is right where I left it. I wonder why it’s doing that. Wish I had an answer for you. About the iPad Air, you would love it! It feels sooooo much lighter than my old iPad 3 and is super fast. Ipad 3 fit great in my Brahmin Theo iPad bag/purse but this one is even smaller since they reduced the bezel (not the screen) so it fits in the purse with a full size iPad leather case around it that I bought at Apple when I purchased the iPad. I love the case because it fully protects it and has the smart cover built in to put it to sleep. I was a little shocked at how much the cases are but since they are leather and have the built in smart cover, I guess that’s why they cost what they do. You would love the Air. Maybe the problem you’re having is something with the iPad. Sometime stop in a store that sells iPad and bring up the BNOTP blog, click on the most recent TT or MM party and see if it does the same thing. That would be one way to tell if it’s just a little quirk with that generation iPad.

  30. Susan,
    Your beautiful porch was how I discovered your blog! I love the fall touches that you have added! I should take your advice and decorate our back screened porch. Our southern winters can be so unpredictable! We had a party on a mi-December night and folks gravitated outside. I was mortified that it was not dressed in holiday finery!! So happy to be on this tour with you! Happy Thanksgiving!! ~Christy

  31. Hi Susan, I just recently came back to reading the blogs. I so enjoyed touring your porch.

  32. SharonFromMichigan says

    Susan – You’re porch is always so inviting and beautiful – that’s why people are drawn to it. I absolutely love the fading fall pillows – they definitely give the soft vintage feel that is so appealing. We had SNOW last night in southeast Michigan! The UGGS came out of the closet and are on my feet for the season now! LOL – you’ve got to find a store that sells UGGS and give them a try – they come in soooo many colors.

    • Thanks, Sharon! I like those soft colors in the pillow, too. Nothing gets “saved for later” around here…it all gets used. I will…that is definitely going on my list. I don’t like cold feet! 🙂

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